UN
Financial
Disclosure
Declined by
Ladsous,
Meece,
Candidate for
OHCHR
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 14 –
Two years ago,
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
claimed that
99% of his
officials had
made public
disclosure
of their
finances.
As Inner City
Press showed,
it wasn't true
then.
And it is not
true now.
As
of February
14, 2013, the
most recent
data set of
disclosuress
on the
UN website was
of 2010
finances,
disclosed in
2011. In this
data set,
for example,
Ban's main
political
adviser
Jeffrey
Feltman is not
even
listed.
Ban's
chief of
Peacekeeping Herve
Ladsous has
refused to
make even
minimal
disclosure,
stating, "in
accordance
with General
Assembly
Resolution
A/RES/60/238,
I have chosen
to maintain
the
confidentiality
of the
information
disclosed in
my financial
disclosure
statement.”
Ban's
big claim is
that he would
lead by
example, and
his top
officials
would make
public
disclosure.
One would
think Ban
could
condition
giving a top
post on making
disclosure.
But in the case of
Ladsous at
DPKO, for
example,
France made
the decision
of who got the
post. And
France put in
a
non-discloser.
Likewise,
Ban's
envoy to the
Congo, Roger
Meece, has
refused to
disclose.
How can the UN
preach for
example mining
disclosure to
the Kabila
government if
Meece won't
diclose?
Neither does ASG
Franz Baumann.
Why wouldn't
OCHA chief Valerie
Amos
disclose?
Or Achim
Steiner of
UNEP?
By
contrast,
Ladsous'
deputy Edmond
Mulet did make
at least basic
disclosure,
of equity
funds with
Templeton and
Franklin, and
outside
service as
“Advisory
Board Member,
Conflict
Prevention and
Peace
Forum, Social
Science
Research
Council, New
York.”
That's
how easy it
is. So why
wouldn't
Ladsous do it?
After months
of refusing
all Press
questions,
on February
6 he finally
partially
answered one.
It was
appreciated:
but then stonewalling
continued on
the follow-ups.
Also
still listed
in the most
recent UN
financial
disclosure
data set but not
reporting is
Amat Al
Alim Alsoswa,
a former
minister of
strongman Ali
Saleh in Yemen
who,
we can now
report, is
trying to take
over the
Deputy
position to
Navi
Pillay at the
Office of the
High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights in
Geneva.
Pillay
discloses; why
should a
deputy be
selected who
not
only served a
dictator, but
refuses to
disclose?
Kevin
Kennedy,
listed in his
former
position as
deputy in
Haiti,
declined
to disclose.
Thursday he
was given a
tour near the
Security
Council,
in his
new post as
acting chief
of UN Security.
Why not
disclose?
Now
gone Haiti
mission chief
Mariano
Fernandez did
disclose. Ban
nominated a
candidate
Honore from
Trinidad and
Tobago, who
got
blocked. (Click
here for
that Inner
City Press exclusive.)
Will Ban's new
nominee commit
to disclose?
Some
forms,
like that of
UNDP's Helen
Clark, don't
appear to
work. Click
here.
This is
Ban's
transparency?
Footnotes:
On
February
7, Ban doled
lunch and
quotes to
13 members of
the
Executive
Committee of
the UN
Correspondents
Association,
an
organization
which spent
most of its
meeting in
2012 trying to
get the
investigative
Press thrown
out of
the UN
(initially for
reporting
involving Sri
Lanka and,
who
else,
Herve Ladsous).
Documents
obtained under
the US Freedom
of Information
Act show Voice
of America,
saying it had
the support of
Reuters'
bureau
chief Louis Charbonneau
and Agence
France Presse's
Tim
Witcher,
asking the UN's
Stephane
Dujarric
to "review"
the
accreditation
of Inner City
Press.
This
gave rise to a
request
from the NY
Civil
Liberties
Union for
disclosure of
the UN's due
process rules,
which has still
not happened.
In 2013, they
or most of
them have been
engaged
in tearing
down free
speech flyers,
mocking
an alleged
victim of
sexual
harassment,
using two
counterfeit social
media accounts.
Why
does Ban meet
with them, as
main or only
interlocutor
on press
issues? Why
has neither
side released
a transcript
or recording
to
other
journalists at
the UN,
including
those who have
launched the
new
alternative Free UN Coalition for Access? Ah,
transparency.
, 
