At UN, Buck Passing on Privacy Breach, Dodging on Budget
Cuts, Ahlenius
in Hiding on Lockheed
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
October 21 -- What is
accountability, in today's UN? Following the publication
of hundreds of UN
staff members' signatures and identification card numbers on the UN's
intranet
last week, the Staff Union accused the Department Management,
headed by Angela
Kane, with the breach of privacy and security. On October 20, Ms. Kane
wrote to
the Union that her Department "does not control the contact of iSeek...
I
would appreciate it if a correction could be made for the record."
Click
here from Ms.
Kane's letter.
The Staff
Union responded the next day, expanding the scope of their demand for
investigation and accountability to the head of the Department of
Public
Information, Kiyotaka Akasaka. Click here for Staff
Union's letter.
The UN Spokesperson has
declined to comment on any of these matters. Meanwhile Fifth (Budget)
Committee
sources tell Inner City Press that Ban Ki-moon's "Accountability"
proposal faces serious opposition and will be "cut into pieces."
It is also said that the contested "Views of Staff Representatives"
publication is now being translated for distribution. We'll see.
Even when
the UN investigates itself, these days it leaves out its biggest flaws,
and then refuses
to answer questions.
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UN says Stand Up, accountability not shown
At Tuesday's
noon briefing, Inner City Press asked about
the Procurement Task Force report
saying, alleging corruption in DRC ( Democratic Republic of the Congo),
Kenya,
New York and elsewhere. First of all,
what’s the response of the Secretary-General to the picture this paints
of
procurement, and also, can we, at what point will we get either Mr.
[Robert]
Appleton or Ms. Inga-Britt Ahlenius to come in and talk about these
findings
and what’s being done about them?
Deputy Spokesperson: Let me
start from the beginning. This is a
report; it’s the same report that I
saw, this is the OIOS (Office of Internal Oversight Services) report on
the
activities of the Procurement Task Force for the period of 1 July 2007
to 31
July 2008. It came out in August of 2008
as a document, it’s been on the racks for many, many weeks, and it will
be
introduced to the Fifth Committee on Thursday morning, along with the
Secretary-General’s comments on the report, which has also been on the
racks
for several weeks. So I would draw your
attention to both of these reports on the findings of the task force
and the
Secretary-General’s report on this.
In addition, the Committee will
have the Board of Auditors report on the activities of the Procurement
Task
Force and the ACABQ’s (Advisory Committee on Administrative and
Budgetary
Questions) report therein. I don’t want
to get too into the article which you report on because… first, read
the
report, and then, I think you should come up with the questions, as not
all the
information contained in the press report is from the report. Okay?
Inner City Press: Will Mr.
Appleton or Ms. Ahlenius…
Deputy Spokesperson: Well, that
is, again, you need to contact
them to see if that’s something they’re willing to do.
As you know, we have passed on your request,
and it’s really up to them if they want to come and brief you or not.
How can major
UN officials like Inga-Britt Ahlenius refuse to brief the press or
answer
questions? Months ago, Inner City Press asked Ms. Ahlenius in writing
for an
update into the investigation the General Assembly demanded that she
conduct
into a $250 million no-bid contract the UN awarded to U.S. military
contractor
Lockheed Martin, for Darfur "super camps." Nothing
has been announced, and Ms. Ahlenius
has not answered. Spotted recently in a supermarket near the UN, Ms.
Ahlenius
sped off. So too within the UN building. She went on a multi-month
vacation. Where
is the accountability?
Another
embattled official apparently intends to address some swirling issues
in the
Dag Hammarskjold Library auditorium in a town hall meeting Wednesday.
Unless
the meeting is closed, we'll be there. And even if not...
Budget note: That
the UN has quietly ordered its departments to
cut their budgets by two percent across the board, as first reported
last week
by Inner City Press, was inquired
into Tuesday by Inner City Press, with the
Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly
Inner City Press: This morning in
the Fifth Committee, the spokesman for the Group of 77 and China said:
"The
General Assembly never approved a 2 per cent reduction across the
board," speaking
of the UN budget. I wanted to know,
first, whether this is now –- I’ve heard this, but is it confirmed --
that the
Secretary-General sought to cut all portions of the UN budget by 2 per
cent? Is it true that the General
Assembly never approved it, and if so, what does the President of the
General
Assembly think of the Secretariat moving unilaterally on the budget?
Spokesperson: Okay, I don’t have
any details on the budget,
but I will check for you
After the
noon briefing, Inner City Press asked for and appeared to receive
confirmation from
the Deputy Spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon, who subsequently wrote to
Inner City
Press that
The Secretariat is at the initial
phase of its preparations for proposed programme budget for the
biennium
2010-2011 to be submitted to the General Assembly next year.
The Secretary-General is fully
aware of the views of Member States calling for budget discipline,
value for
the significant resources provided to the Organization and overall
concern at
the growth of the regular budget of the Organization against also a
backdrop of
a significant expansion of peacekeeping activities.
Notably it might be recalled that just last
Summer, the General Assembly approved budgets amounting to $7 billion
for one
year of operations relating to peacekeeping.
At the present session of the General Assembly, as
already earlier
indicated during the briefing of the Under-Secretary-General for
Management and
the Controller on 9 October, the Assembly will have before it various
initiatives to be funded; the bulk emanating from the Security Council
and
technical adjustments for exchange rate fluctuations and inflation.
It is within this framework and
the current overall global financial context that the Secretary-General
has
requested his senior managers to conduct a thorough analysis of their
activities to identify areas where a possible reduction in their budget
could
be made through a variety of actions such as but not limited to value
engineering, streamlining operations etc.
This is not new in so far as Member States have over
the years
continually sought such reviews as part of overall programme planning,
monitoring and evaluation.
At this point the intent is to
seek the views and input of his managers.
From such information the Secretary-General would
then be in a position
to make well formed decisions as to the realignment of the resources of
the
Organization to priority areas.
So why not
just admit that Ban Ki-moon has asked for two percent cuts? But this is
the
UN...
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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