UN's
Dollar-a-Year Sportsman Lemke May Be Moonlighting, As With Blair, UN
Won't Say
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, March 21 -- With
much fanfare this week, the UN
announced
that Ban Ki-moon was appointing Wilfried Lemke of Germany as his
"Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, serving on a $1 per
year salary with the rank of Under-Secretary-General." Lemke quickly
said he wanted to travel to China, and that if he wanted to go to Tibet,
he could not imagine China objecting. Ban's spokesperson Michele Montas
was asked, "do you know if he'll be visiting Tibet?" She answered, "Not
that I know of."
Perhaps Lemke was
distracted. At the
UN's noon briefing on March 20,
Inner City Press asked
Ban's spokesperson a simple question, if Lemke is "still
going to be serving as an elected official in Bremen
during his service. Is he full time or is he still an official of
Bremen State in Germany?"
Ms. Montas replied, "As you know,
he's a $1-a-year person... We'll find out for you. Or we'll put you in
contact with his press people."
Thirty-four hours
later, no answer had been provided, no even a contact to Lemke's (or the
Bremen legislature's) press people. Frankly, it's a UN question: if and
when UN envoys, particularly at the Under-Secretary General level, hold
outside jobs, what safeguards are put in place to avoid conflicts of
interest? The UN is getting more and more cavalier in refusing to answer
this question. When
Inner City Press asked about
Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair's many outside jobs,
including with JPMorgan Chase, Ms. Montas said to "ask Tony Blair."
There has still been no answer on any safeguards. But it does not seem
to much to ask that the UN be able to state if its Special Advisers hold
other jobs, and where.
Lemke gives a lecture in
Bremen: post the posture
It has been
reported that "Lemke,
who is also a Bremen state politician,
currently senator for internal affairs and sport in the northern city,
succeeds
Adolf Ogi of Switzerland."
But the
UN's press release says
that "from 1999-2008, he served as Senator of Interior and Sport of the
German State of Bremen, as well as Senator for Education and Science."
Note the use of the past tense, "served." Which is it? We'll see.
Footnote: between
Ogi
and Nicolas Michel leaving as head of the UN Office of Legal Affairs,
after admitting to
receiving housing subsidies from
the Swiss Government which are not disclosed on his public financial
disclosure form for 2006,
Switzerland is down two posts. With Germany getting sports, one wonders
about those saying that Germany Joaquim Rucker, currently embroiled in
Kosovo, might take over the Department of Management. When it rains, it
pours...* * *
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$200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.
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