Senate Report on UN Development Program Ignored and Scorned by UNDP's Board

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, January 24 -- "The U.S. Freedom of Information Act does not govern this organization," Switzerland's Ambassador to the UN, Peter Maurer, told Inner City Press on Thursday.  He spoke outside the UN Development Program's Executive Board meeting, which had on its agenda a UNDP proposal to prohibit Board members from making photocopies of audits of the spending of the money they contribute.  "There are different levels of sensitivity," Amb. Maurer said, "about what kind of information should be available to what kind of public. To believe that this organization is going to adopt U.S. procedures is probably illusionary."

            Meanwhile before the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations a hearing was being held on the PSI's report on UNDP's since-suspended programs in North Korea. (Click here for Inner City Press' Wednesday night story on the report.) At the UN's Thursday noon briefing, Inner City Press asked spokeswoman Marie Okabe for the UN's response. She answered that UNDP is investigating itself, and so the UN will for now have no comment: "there is a probe under way and I think, until we hear from Mr. Miklos Nemeth, that's set to finish its work in March, I think we have nothing to say beyond that."

            A Security Council diplomat who insisted on being identified this way told Inner City Press, when asked about the UNDP report, that "we are not accountable to the U.S. Senate."

            Inner City Press asked one of the UNDP Board's vice presidents, the only one at the Ambassadorial level, Slovakia's Peter Burian, if he thought the Senate's report or hearing would be discussed during the meeting. "I don't think so," Amb. Burian said. "It's the report of one country, of course a huge country. I had a briefing today with people from UNDP, they are quite seriously monitoring the hearing in Washington."

            But at the hearing, UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis was not present. Nor was he at the Board meeting in New York; he left his Associate Administrator Ad Melkert to preside. Melkert did not mention the Senate report or hearing, rather delivering a speech that was little more than the stringing together of buzzwords. In a sample sentence, Melkert said UNDP is "creating an on-line platform that integrates development, management, and coordination results planning, monitoring and evaluation, integrated to enterprise risk management and closely linked to individual work planning and performance management." Say what?

Peter Maurer of Switzerland, which raised contribution to UNFPA but not UNDP

            Swiss Ambassador Maurer said the Senate report could not be discussed because there were so many other things on the UNDP meeting agenda. Another topic not included, on the agenda or in UNDP's strategic plan, was human rights. Because of the omission, Sweden recently cut $10 million from it funding of UNDP. Inner City Press asked Amb. Maurer for his view, and he answered that Switzerland has "increased its funding to UNFPA, which answers in another way." But this indirect communication may not be getting through. More than a week after Inner City Press requested in writing from UNDP a response to Sweden's funding cut for the omission of human rights, UNDP's spokeswoman Christina Lonigro on Thursday responded that, "On Sweden's contributions to UNDP, as one of UNDP's largest donors, we are grateful the Swedish government remains committed to development issues. On Algeria and Corimec, Mr. Dervis spoke at length on both during his press conference and we have nothing to add."  But we will have more to add. Despite UNDP's attempts at retaliation, and the UN Secretariat's inaction, whistle-blowing continues, and grows stronger -- watch this site.

Footnotes / media watch: That UNDP, which exhibits irregularities in countries ranging from Uganda to Somalia to Georgia and Myanmar gets over by this focus on North Korea is made clear by dueling accounts of Thursday's Senate hearing, one attacking the U.S. Mission's Mark D. Wallace, the other emphasizing that Nick Burns may have called off the attack dogs. UNDP's problems go well beyond the shifting interests of U.S. foreign policy. To be continued.

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These reports are 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

  Because a number of Inner City Press' UN sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to conclude this installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals of the UN agencies and many of their staff. Keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we apologize for any phone tag, but please continue trying, and keep the information flowing.

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Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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