French
Defense of
Payments Is
"Pressure on
UN
Procurement,"
Says Churkin,
History
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 12 --
The UN spends
public money
but refused to
make it public
or even take
questions
about it.
About
UN
Peacekeeping
payments to
France for
airfield
services in
Mali,
Inner City
Press was told
by French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
to ask
the
spokesperson
of the UN,
including to
compare UN
payments to
Russia to
those to
France.
But
the UN
Spokesperson
refused on
December 12 to
take this
basic
question, only
the second one
Inner City
Press tried to
ask. Instead,
Spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
gave the last
question to a
correspondent
he'd already
given three
questions to.
For
now, Inner
City Press
asked Russian
Ambassador
Vitaly Churkin
for a
comment (see
below), and is
on record that
UN
Peacekeeping
chief
Herve Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to control
that
Department,
should answer
on the
payments and
separately on
any role
he plays in
them before or
at tomorrow's
noon briefing,
when he is to
be the guest.
On
December
10, as
transcribed by
the French
Mission to the
UN, Inner
City Press
asked Araud:
Inner
City Press:
France has a
Letter of
Assist from
the UN to pay
for
airfield
services in
Northern Mali,
to be paid
from UN budget
funds.
They wouldn’t
say the
amount. On
behalf of
France, could
you say if
you have ever
considered
donating these
services? Why
are you
charging and
how much is
being charged?
Amb
Araud: I think
you know
better than I
do the UN
Procurement
procedures.
The
procurement
system is
managed by
DFS. So I
think it
is to Mrs.
Haaq to
answer. Every
year DFS is
issuing
hundreds of
tenders. You
will not be
surprised that
French
corporations
are
answering to
some tenders.
If
you look at
the figures
you will see
that,
considering
all the
tenders on
peacekeeping
operations,
France is
getting
between 2.5
and
2.6% of the
amount of the
tenders for
peacekeeping
operations. I
draw
your attention
to other
figures:
Russia is
getting 14%,
our part in
the world GDP
is between 4
and 4.5%, our
part in the
budget of
peacekeeping
operations is
7.5%, which
means that
France is the
third
contributor to
the
peacekeeping
operation
budget after
US and Japan.
On
the basis of
these figures
I
am sure you
are going to
rush to the
spokesperson
of the UN to
ask
why French
corporations
actually don’t
get their fair
share of the
tenders of the
UN and why
Russia is
getting much
more of the
tenders
of the UN.
But
as
noted,
Spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
refused to
take this
second
Mali question.
For now, we
publish
Russian
Ambassador
Vitaly
Churkin's
response,
Google-translated
from the
Russian:
"We
believe the
statements of
the Permanent
Representative
of France to
the UN Gerard
Araud are
inappropriate,
and
unacceptable
pressure on
the
procurement
services of
the
Secretariat.
It distributes
contracts
on a
competitive
basis. Talk
about any
"shares" or
"quotas,"
contracts for
specific
countries on
the basis of
such tenders,
causes us
puzzlement.
This will only
increase the
cost
of services."
In
fact, Inner
City Press has
previously
covered French
domination and
manipulation
of UN
procurement,
doctoring a
tender so
France could
get selected
and paid for
services in
another
"austere field
environment"
-- Darfur:
Three
weeks
after the UN
had
promulgated a
formal Request
for Proposals
for
a large
contract in
Sudan's Darfur
region, a
counselor at
France's
mission to the
UN e-mailed to
the head of
the UN's
Procurement
Service to
suggest
amendments to
the RFP, to
change the
criteria of
which
companies
would be
eligible.
France
proposed
lowering the
required size
of previously
completed
projects, and
including not
only
peacekeeping
projects, but
any in
"austere field
environments."
A
mere three
days later,
the UN
accepted the
French
amendments,
substituting
the phrase
"hardship
area" for
France's
"austere field
environments,"
the chief of
the
Procurement
Service
acknowledged
Monday to
Inner City
Press, asking
that the
e-mails not be
published and
demanding to
know who had
leaked them.
The chain of
events raises
questions
about whether
other
countries
have similar
access, and
about the UN's
acceptance of
investigative
reporting on
its business
dealings,
particularly
with countries
like
France.
The
February 7
message of
Eric Duedal to
then
UN
procurement
chief Paul
Buades,
obtained by
Inner City
Press and
placed online here,
suggests
switching the
qualification
of having done
"construction
of military
camps in
peacekeeping
mission in
Africa" with a
more general
(and
undefined)
"austere field
environment."
France's Mr.
Duedal also
suggests a
change
downward from
the RFP's
requirement
that qualified
bidders list a
minimum of
three
completed
projects, each
with a minimum
value of $50
million.
Click here for
more.
Now
in 2013,
France was
given a secret
letter of
assist with
the amount
of payment not
disclosed, by
UN
Peacekeeping
which has been
run four
times in a row
-- sixteen
years and
counting --
but a French
official, now
former French
deputy
ambassador to
the UN Herve
Ladsous.
Again, Ladsous
should answer
on the
payments and
separately
on any role he
plays in them
before or at
tomorrow's
noon briefing,
when he is to
be the guest.
Watch this
site.
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