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Who Investigates UN Investigator Ahlenius is Raised
by Unsigned Letter Which Ban Dismisses
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 2 -- As the UN's
investigative chief has been accused of corruption, the UN has nothing
so say
except that e-mails have been forwarded. Last week Inner City Press
printed in
full a whistleblower's letter to the head of the UN Office of Internal
Oversight Services, Inga-Britta Ahlenius,
copied to Ban Ki-moon. Click here
for that. On December
2, Inner City
Press asked Ban's spokesperson Michele Montas:
Inner City Press: I got a copy of
a letter that was sent, I believe “cc’d” to the Secretary-General, but
also to
Ms. Angela Kane and [Catherine Pollard[ about what they claim are
irregularities in the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), in
terms of
hiring and promotions. It’s a pretty,
it’s a long letter. Are you aware of
it? Has the Secretary-General received
it and what’s going to be done to look into the claims made in it?
Spokesperson Montas: We’re
certainly aware of it. The
Secretary-General, as you know, came back this morning, at 1 o’clock in
the
morning, so I cannot answer on his behalf on whether he has been
briefed on
that. But of course, Ms. Angela Kane
received the letter and Ms. Inga-Britt Ahlenius has already received it
also.
Inner City Press: But who is it,
I guess this is sort of a structural question, if the OIOS is the
investigative
unit of the UN, who investigates OIOS in the face of this type of
allegations?
UN's Ban and Sun, sunshine and who watches
the watcher not shown
Spokesperson: We’ll get some
answers for you on that. I know we have
already asked for some
answers.
[The Spokesperson later added
that the letter in question was an anonymous one that had been sent to
staff
members in OIOS and one media outlet. As
soon as Under-Secretary-General Inga-Britt Ahlenius received the
letter, she
forwarded it to all staff in the Audit Division and to all Directors,
and she
encouraged them to discuss and comment on it.
Ms. Ahlenius said that “the only way to deal with
such issues is to
bring transparency to it”. The
Spokesperson also noted that her Office does not comment on unsigned
complaints.]
The "one media outlet" is Inner City Press; the UN's
dismissal
of "unsigned" complaints is of a piece with the lack of protection
for whistleblowers in this UN. But still the question has not been
answered,
who investigates OIOS? Inner City Press
is told that the Board of Auditors was asked to do it, at one point.
But this
case is too timely. The UN's Tuesday dodge will not suffice.
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
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