UN's
Syria Prober
Kane Was Under
Investigation
for UMOJA,
Until Quashed
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNdisclosed
Location,
March
23 -- A top UN
official now
central to the
Syria chemical
weapons
investigation,
Angela Kane,
was the
subject of a
corruption
probe that got
quashed for
political
reasons,
according to a
leaked
formal
complaint
exclusively
obtained and
published
by Inner City
Press.
It
involved the
UN's delayed
and
over-budget
technology
upgrade called
UMOJA, which
Kane oversaw
for a time
while she was
Under
Secretary
General for
Management.
Now,
in a charade
of Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
“mobility”
policy, Kane
has stayed in
New York but
moved
laterally to
become Under
Secretary
General in
charge of
Disarmament.
Ban's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
this week said
that it will
not be envoy
Lakhdar
Brahimi who
will negotiate
the chemical
weapons
investigation,
but UN
Disarmament,
headed by
Kane.
So
while some
chose not to
cover internal
complaints and
corruption in
the UN in
favor of
canned quotes
about the hot
topic of the
day -- once
Sudan, now
forgotten,
then Libya and
now Syria --
the two beats
come together.
The
UN's Syria
investigator
was herself
under
investigation
-- until it
was quashed.
The memo, which we've
putting online
here,
recounts that
the head of
the Office of
Internal
Oversight
Services
Carman
Lapointe at a
meeting of
Senior
Management let
it be known
that she
viewed the
UMOJA case,
0303/11, as a
“witch hunt”
which should
be closed.
On
September 17,
2012,
according to
the memo,
Angela Kane
was told she
was an
“implicated
staff member”
and would be
afforded due
process --
ironic, since
as Inner City
Press has
found and reported,
journalists
are afforded
no due process
by the UN
when stealth complaints
like those of
Voice of
America
and Reuters
are filed
against them,
and are
processed by
the UN.
But
two days after
notice to
Angela Kane,
the memo to
Ban states,
OIOS' director
Michael
Stefanovic
closed the
investigation.
Then OIOS
Assistant
Secretary
General David
Kanja upheld
this after a
mere two day
review of a
detailed
complaint.
The
head of the
UN's “Ethics
Office” Joan
Dubinsky was
informed,
according to
the memo,
which was also
cc-ed to
Deputy
Secretary
General Jan
Eliasson and
Ban's chief of
staff (and
personal envoy
on the Eastern
Congo) Susana
Malcorra.
But what has
been done? How
much money is
wasted and
lost, as Ban
proceeds with
$100 million
in budget
cuts?
Monday
at the UN Ban
will unveil an
“UMOJA
Countdown
Clock.”
Countdown to
corruption?
Watch this
site.
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