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In UN's Capital
Master Plan, Skanska Bid
Event Is Closed to Press
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
January 9 -- As the multi-billion
dollar renovation of the UN's headquarters moves forward despite the
global
financial crisis, on Friday in the building's basement a sign announced
an
event, "Department of Management / Capital Master Plan: Skanska bid
[closed]."
At Friday's
UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson Michele Montas why such an event would be closed to the
press and
public. "Yes it is not available to journalists," she said, arguing
that "it's not uncommon to close bids."
But most
governmental agencies in the UN's host county require that such
bid-related
events be open. Even the UN, when Inner
City Press previously complained that the opening of bids to privatize
the
North American equities portion of the UN pension fund was closed,
opened the event
to allow it to be viewed and reported on.
Inner City
Press explained to Ms. Montas the basis of the inquiry, for example to
make
sure that the lowest qualified bid is in fact selected. "You can be
sure
it is going to be the case," Ms. Montas said. But with the UN, can you
be
sure? She said she would find out why
the event, slated to begin an hour and forty minutes later at 2 p.m.,
"should or should not be open." Video here,
from Minute 14:37.
Having
gotten not response, Inner City Press at 2 p.m. went down to the door
outside
Conference Room 7 in the basement. A group of men walked into the room,
and an
official came out, looked at Inner City Press and emphatically closed
the door.
UN logo, closed meeting on January 9
Some time later, three men in dark suits
emerged. They spoke loudly as they walked through the basement toward
the
Capital Master Plan's already renovated offices under the UN library.
"The
other guys involved are Aon," one of the men said, also mentioning
"McWay and Premium," mentioned that the problem with the latter was
"they want several contracts."
The
UN's own Office of Internal Oversight Services and its controversial
Procurement Task Force have, by their own account, discovered UN
contracts
worth hundreds of millions of dollars which are tainted by fraud,
favoritism
and corruption. Why then on its largest project would the UN insist on
keeping
events like Friday's closed to the press and global public, which
ultimately
funds the UN and its work?
Click
here for Inner City
Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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