At UN, Resistance to Financial Disclosure Seen As
Pervasive, from Two Top Peacekeepers through UNDP
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, January 29 -- Resisting a
call for financial disclosure by
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the UN officials who
have not made public even their decision
to maintain financial confidentiality include
the head of the UN Population Fund, Thoraya Obaid, Assistant Secretaries General
for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet and Dmitry Titov, whose title includes "the rule
of law," two ASGs in the UN Development Program and three in UNICEF, the UN's
honorary USG on poverty issues, Jeffrey Sachs and the UN's own Controller,
Warren Sach.
The top 190 UN officials were
asked by Ban to voluntarily disclose some of their finances, in order to give
conflict of interest assurances to the general public as well as member states.
In response to
Inner City Press' questions on Tuesday,
the UN spokesperson stated that of these 190 officials, 92 have agreed to
participate, by including their names on the Secretary-General's financial
disclosure web site. Ninety-two of 190 is less than half, and as Inner City
Press pointed out, more than half of the 92 names on the site do not have live
links to any disclosure forms. Of those with live links, at least sixteen have
written on their forms that they "choose to maintain confidentiality." Inner
City Press asked, are you counting these as participating in disclosure? The
answer was yes, click
here for
the transcript.
This means that nearly 100 senior UN
officials, or half of those to whom Ban directed his request, have not even
consented to make public their decision to maintain confidentiality. While it
should be easy to determine who these reticent UN officials are, the UN does not
make it easy to determine to whom it has given Under Secretary General and
Assistant Secretary General status. The spokesperson on Tuesday said that the
"audience of this was 105 Assistant Secretaries-General and 85
Under-Secretaries-General, and 92 have elected to" participate. But the UN
Protocol and Liaison Service's online "USG / ASG List" identifies only 76 USGs
(29 in New York and 47 "away from headquarters") and only 94 ASGs (36 in New
York and 58 away from HQ). That is, there are nine unlisted USGs, and 11
unlisted ASGs.
Even limiting the analysis to those
senior officials listed by the UN's protocol service, following the UN
spokesperson's public explanation on Tuesday, over 90 of these senior officials
did not consent to disclose their decision to maintain confidentiality. Limiting
ourselves for now to the non-reporters based in New York -- on the theory that
it has taken longer to get the message out to the field -- those USGs based in
New York who have by Spokesperson Okabe's logic not even consented to disclose
their decision to maintain confidentiality include:
Thoraya Obaid, the USG head of the UN Population
Fund;
Jeffrey Sachs,
USG advisor on Millennium Development Goals;
Cheick Sidi Diarra, who holds
two
separate USG
titles;
Susan McLurg, the new head of
ACABQ
(she took over only this month);
Joseph Verner Reed, special adviser USG;
Kingston Rhodes, USG chairman of the International
Civil Service Commission;
Wolfgang Stoeckl, USG vice-chairman of the
International Civil Service Commission;
Ibrahim Gambari, USG envoy for Iraq and
Myanmar,
currently in India.
![](un2fin2.jpg)
Ban Ki-moon and two who have not
made public any financial disclosure
UN Assistant Secretaries General based in
New York who have by Spokesperson Okabe's logic not even consented to disclose
their decision to maintain confidentiality include:
Omar Abdi, ASG deputy at UNICEF
Catherine Bragg, ASG for humanitarian affairs
Choi Soon-hong, ASG for technology
Katherine Cravero-Kristoffersson, ASG at UNDP
Francis Deng, ASG on genocide
Sylvia Fuhrman, ASG at UN International School
Dieter Goethel, ASG on Staff Management Committee
Rebeca Grynspan, ASG at UNDP for Latin America
Saad Houry, ASG at UNICEF (recently arrived, on
podium Tuesday)
Hilde Johnson, ASG at UNICEF
Kwame S. Jomo, ASG at DESA
Angela Kane, ASG for Political Affairs
Purnima Mane, ASG deputy at UNFPA
Haile Kenkerios, ASG for political affairs
Edmond Mulet, ASG deputy for peacekeeping
Warren Sach, ASG Controller
Dmitry Titov, ASG for Peacekeeping and rule of law
Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy
spokesperson Marie Okabe on Tuesday for Ban's reaction to this pervasive
non-filing. Ms. Okabe read out a note that "available on that website that we
mentioned [earlier] is the current list of those UN officials who have elected
to provide a public summary of their disclosure." Watch this site.
* * *
Andrew Toh Submits Resignation, With Critique of
Ban & PTF
Related item, updated Jan. 30: Since less than
half of the officials to whom Ban directed his request made any public
summary, even one disclosing a decision to maintain confidentiality, it is
difficult to understand the UN's treatment of former ASG Andrew Toh for, among
other things, refusing to file financial disclosure. There are two or more sides
to most stories, and we like to tell them. Numerous sources have told Inner City
Press that the UN's Joint Appeals Board in late 2007 issued a still-confidential
decision awarding Toh three years back pay, and that the Secretary-General has
refused to act on the JAB decision. On Tuesday, Inner City Press obtained a copy
of Andrew Toh's letter of resignation, recounting that the Panel on
Discrimination and Other Grievances recommended that Toh be reinstated as an ASG,
given an apology and awarded financial compensation. Toh writes to Ban Ki-moon,
"your Administration has neither provided the courtesy of a response nor
demonstrated the courage to accept responsibility for the lapses identified by
the Panel... I have decided to take early retirement."
Inner City Press on Tuesday asked Ban's
spokesperson Marie Okabe to confirm receipt of the letter, and provide comment
on it. Ms. Okabe responded at 6 p.m. that "as of this writing, no resignation
letter has been received, and that "cases before the JAB are not commented on
publicly to protect the confidentiality of the process and to respect due
process afforded to staff," in Toh's case, particularly ironic. In response to
an inquiry from Inner City Press, Toh stated that he submitted the letter by
e-mail on January 28, and regular mail on Tuesday. Given what Toh's letter calls
the Secretariat's lack of courtesy, he wondered when the letter would be
acknowledged....
Update: Receipt of Toh's letter was issued at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. As for
response to Toh's letter, watch this site.
* * *
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.
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
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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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UN Office: S-453A,
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Reporter's mobile
(and weekends): 718-716-3540