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UN and Microsoft, Conflicts of
Interest and Increased Non-Reporting, Tech Help
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, October 2 --
During the UN's General Debate last week, Inner City Press stopped the
UN's
Special Advisor on Africa Cheick Sidi Diarra on his way past the
entrance sign
to the event that seemed incongruous: the Microsoft African Heads of
State
Reception. That same day, Microsoft's Bill Gates was allowed to speak
from the
podium in the General Assembly Hall. How could a particular private
company,
even one the size of Microsoft, be treated as if it were a country, and
be
given a venue like this at the UN?
On October 2, Cheick Sidi Diarra gave a press
conference on his other
role, regarding land-locked less developed countries, and Inner City
Press
asked him about the Microsoft event, if he was there in his official
capacity or
as a sibling. Video here,
from Minute 30:39.
Cheick Sidi Diarra said that the event was
co-sponsored by his Office
and Microsoft, "to bring Bill Gates to the UN" and as part of
Microsoft's
strategy for the Continent. Inner City Press asked if Cheick
Modibo Diarra,
listed as Microsoft's Ambassador for Africa, was Cheick Sidi
Diarra's brother.
"It's become very personal," Cheick Sidi Diarra complained.
"But he has the same name," Inner City Press
said. Not said, but relevant, is that Inner City Press on
September 29 asked a senior UN representative about the Microsoft event
and was told an answer was forthcoming. None was received.
Cheick Sidi Diarra said that his brother is a UNESCO
Ambassador, and Ban
Ki-moon's spokesperson moved the questioning on. Video here,
from Minute 33:48.
While Cheick Sidi Diarra seems to be a nice person
and has often stopped
in the hall to answer Africa questions from Inner City Press, it seems
like a
possible conflict of interest to allow him to co-sponsor in the UN an
event for
a corporation that his brother works for. What safeguards are in place
at the
UN? Apparently none.
In a mark of backsliding ethics at the UN, the
number of UN staff who
have refused to file required financial disclosures grew by 500% before
2006
and 2007, from 34 staff members in 2006 to 172 in 2007, according to a
just-released internal report which Inner City Press has obtained and
puts
online here.
The report, by
PriceWaterhouse Coopers the "despite considerable follow-up by the
Ethics
Office and by the heads of departments, there was a high rate of
non-compliance
by staff members than for the previous year." This
may explain Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon state to his senior staff in a recent speech in Turin, that he
tried to
lead by example "but no one followed."
Ban administers oath to Cheick
Sidi Diarra, brother and Microsoft not shown
This same report states that PwC "identified 21
cases... as having
a potential conflict of interest. In relation to these 21 cases,
nineteen staff
members accepted PwC's advice regarding the appropriate compliance
arrangement."
Did these include the Cheick Diarra brothers? Did it
include Jane
Holl
Lute, serving in UN Peacekeeping and now
Peacebuilding while her husband is President Bush's war czar for
Afghanistan
and Iraq? In both cases, when Inner City Press asked the question,
the response
was that the question was inappropriate or too personal. But these are
structural conflicts of interest. The UN must be reformed.
Footnotes: Also on info technology, and on
Microsoft, if you are a
Lebanese minister in New York and you need to send confidential
documents to
your President in Beirut, where do you go? Next to the bar, of course,
in the
UN Delegates Lounge. There you'll find a help window leading to a room
which
until recently had been vacant for more than a decade. There are three
desktop
computers inside, one a wide-screen Macintosh, and two Chinese Lenovos
running
Microsoft operating systems. There are ten laptop which are lent out to
Ambassadors. One of the desk top computers is secure, not run on UN
wireless.
The diplomats are promised secrecy, right inside the UN. Meanwhile, the
conflux
between the UN's computer operations and intelligence has never been
closed.
To come full circle to the land-locked less
developed states, Inner City Press asked Cheick Sidi Diarra if his
office would
help the undeniably land-locked South Ossetia, or South Sudan.
Apparently the
Office helps only UN member states. What is its position on pipelines,
like BTC
or Chad-Cameroon? This question wasn't answered. The
Office coordinates with other UN
agencies. How about Peacekeeping on shipping to the quite landlocked
Darfur?
How about coordinating with Jane Holl Lute's Peacebuilding Commission,
on
Burundi and Central African Republic? We hope to have more on this.
Watch this site, and this Sept. 18 (UN) debate.
* * *
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
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile (and
weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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