At
UN, Friends Give Friends High Posts by Doctoring C.V.s, In $300 Million
Delayed Umoja ERP
By
Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS, March 8 -- Corruption and nepotism have infected the UN's
$300 million plus Enterprise Resource Planning computer project,
sources and documents indicated.
After
Paul van
Essche came in as head of the ERP at the D-2 level, he immediately
moved to bring in colleagues and friends from Geneva, doctoring their
Personal History Profiles to do so.
Jon
Solem had
applied for a P-5 post in ERP, listing van Essche as his supervisor,
but hadn't been selected. Aftr van Essche became the D-2 in charge,
Solem applied for a D-1 post, one step down from Van Essche's D-2,
but a step up from the P-5 he hadn't gotten.
Suddenly
Solem's
PHP was doctored to delete references to Van Essche as supervisor. Van
Essche served on and chaired the selection panel, and selected
his friend Solem, without leaving any paper trail.
The
UN's ERP
program is behind schedule and over budget. What has been the UN's
response? To rename it Umoja, Swahili for "unity." More
than a year ago on January
19, 2009, the UN announced
The
UN has decided to award a contract for Enterprise Resource Planning
software to a European software company called SAP. The awarding of
the contract is subject to successful negotiations, which will start
immediately and are projected to wrap up within three months. As of
now, no contract has been awarded, and the value of any such contract
is as yet undetermined.
More
than a year
later, the contract has still not been finalized.
Related,
Inner City Press has asked what is the status of the implementation
of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards? Four years
ago, in November 2005, the High Level Committee on Management
recommended system-wide adoption of IPSAS by 2010, and in 2006 the GA
passed a resolution (60/283) which set the 2010 deadline. But it now
appears
that the Secretariat is running four years late, and does not
expect to implement IPSAS until December 2014.
Consultants
from
PriceWaterhouseCoopers are swarming, their meters running, while as
one member of the UN's budget committee told Inner City Press,
"nothing is being accomplished except high officials hiring
their friends."
Sources
paint this
picture, on which both Mr. Van Essche and Mr. Solem were asked to
comment prior to publication of this story, without response:
* In
early 2008,
several ERP-related Vacancy Announcements (VAs) were announced by the
UN including: D2 Project Director, D1 Business Process Reengineering
Coordinator and P5 Senior Change Management posts.
* Mr.
Jon Solem
applied to the P-5 Senior Change Management post and Mr. Paul van
Essche applied to D2 Project Director post.
* Mr.
van Essche
was selected for D2 post and started in September 2008. In October
2008, he canceled the VA for the D1 Business Process Reengineering
Coordinator, changed the title to Organizational Change Manager and
re-advertised it.
* Mr.
van Essche
chaired the interview panel for the P-5 Senior Change Management
Officer post. Mr. Solem was not selected. These are extracts from
the PHP, in which he names Mr. van Essche as his previous supervisor.
At the time, he was not sure if Mr. van Essche would be selected
Project Director.
| Application for P5 (Mar-May 2008, VA 417551) |
| Employer |
Type of Business |
Year |
Supervisor |
Location |
| UNHCR |
Snr CM Officer |
05/2006-06/2008 |
Colin Mitchell |
Swiss |
| UNHCR |
Snr Business Analyst |
02/2005-03/2006 |
Colin Mitchell |
Swiss |
| ILO |
Snr.CM Officer |
05/2004-12/2004 |
Paul
van Essche |
Swiss |
| UNHCR |
Snr.CM Officer |
07/2003-05/2004 |
Michael Malecha |
Swiss |
| Public
relations firm |
Indp. Cnslt. |
08/2002-07/2003 |
Illa Thompson |
South Africa |
| LeftBrain |
Consulting |
01/2002-08/2002 |
Paul
van Essche |
Swiss |
| Health
Online |
Clinical Laboratory |
04/2000-12/2001 |
Paul
van Essche |
Swiss |
| SGS |
Testing & Quality |
08/1993-04/2000 |
Robert Collier |
Swiss |
Mr. van
Essche
also chaired the interview panel for the D1 Organizational Change
Manager. The panel selected Mr. Solem, this time. Mr. Solem however
doctored his PHP to conceal his relationship with Mr. van Essche.
| Application for D1 (Oct-Dec. 2008, VA 419603) |
| Employer |
Type of Business |
Year |
Supervisor |
Location |
| Michael
O'Neill |
Change Consulting |
06/2008-11/2008 |
Michael O'Neill |
Swiss |
| UNHCR |
Snr CM Officer |
05/2006-06/2008 |
Colin Mitchell |
Swiss |
| UNHCR |
Snr Business Analyst |
02/2005-03/2006 |
Colin Mitchell |
Swiss |
| ILO |
Snr.CM Officer |
05/2004-12/2004 |
Steven Townley |
Swiss |
| UNHCR |
Snr.CM Officer |
07/2003-05/2004 |
Michael Malecha |
Swiss |
| Public
relations firm |
Indp. Cnslt. |
08/2002-07/2003 |
Illa Thompson |
South Africa |
| LeftBrain |
Consulting |
01/2002-08/2002 |
Richard King |
Swiss |
| Health
Online |
Clinical Laboratory |
04/2000-12/2001 |
Miguel Payrot |
Swiss |
| SGS |
Testing & Quality |
08/1993-04/2000 |
Robert Collier |
Swiss |
*
The questions are why did Mr. Solem doctor his PHP? Did OHRM
conduct a background check? Why did Mr. van Essche cancel the
previous VA and allowed to rename the post. The GA approved the post
as D1 BPR Coordinator.
* Mr. Solem was a
P-4 at UNHCR and became a D1 with Umoja.
* A
review of Mr.
van Essche’s PHP show that he and Jon worked for SGS (Switzerland)
at around the same time.
We will have more on
this.
An Umoja ERP team on a "World Tour" -- van
Essche video here -- friends hiring friends not shown
On
March 8, when the UN took no non-Iraq or non-Police questions at its
noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
about hiring irregularities at the UN, in this case the foreign
minister of Sri Lanka asking a high UN official to give his son a job.
Mr. Ban said that the UN is transparent. From the UN's
transcript of the Q & A:
Inner
City Press: the Foreign Minister
of Sri Lanka, also over the weekend, confirmed that he sought a job
for his son with the UN. I wonder if you think that is appropriate,
and is such a job going to be given?... Do you think that it’s
appropriate for the Foreign Minister of a
country with which you are dealing with on possible war crimes to be
seeking a job for his son with the UN?
SG:
First of all, I am not aware of that particular case of job
application of the Foreign Minister’s son. As a matter of fact,
any recruitment
process will have to be dealt with in a most transparent and
objective manner by the selection committee members. That is what the
United Nations has been [using] as a principle.
Has the UN been using transparency
in recruitment and assessment as a policy? Again, we will have more on
this.
* * *
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