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UN in Myanmar Still Losing 20% on
Currency Exchange, Asks for More, Problem Widens
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
August 5 -- While the UN in Myanmar
has yet to resolve or even minimize the 20%, $10 million currency
exchange
losses it admitted eight days ago, it is going public with requests
for more
funds. At the UN's noon briefing on Tuesday, spokesperson Michele
Montas quoted
UN humanitarian coordinator for Myanmar Dan Baker that $51 million is
needed
for rice paddies, and that of the UN's July 10 revised appeal, there is
a $285
million, or 59%, shortfall. Video here,
from Minute 4.
Inner
City Press, which back on June 26 first
reported on the UN's losses to
government-required currency exchange, asked Ms. Montas if the UN is
still
losing 20% of each dollar spent in Myanmar. "The information you have
stands," Ms. Montas said. "I have heard of no changes." Video
here,
from Minute 12:03.
That each dollar of aid
must be converted with Myanmar's military government for a Foreign
Exchange Certificate with, now, 80% of the value means that 20% of aid
is directly benefiting the regmine led by General Than Shwe. This puts
in a different light -- bribery,
some call it -- Chevron Corporation's self-described "$1 million cash
contribution." $200,000 of that goes to the government, which controls
licenses, including of those few money changers which in turn convert
the devalued FECs. Other corporate contributors include French oil
company Total, Siemens AG and JP Morgan Chase.
On July
28, the UN's John Holmes publicly
admitted $10 million of losses and promised both to
get to the bottom of it, and at Inner City Press' request to produce a
list of
other countries in which the UN is losing more than 5% to currency
exchange. So
far neither has been done.
UN's Holmes and Baker, follow-up to
currency exchange loss admission not yet shown
A
representative of the UN Development Program
telephoned Inner City Press the day after Holmes' public admission, by
contrast providing UNDP's answers only on a not for direct attribution
basis. He said that the Myanmar government, in order to "control"
foreign exchange, licensed a few approved money changers. He jotted
down Inner
City Press' request for UNDP's pre-cyclone currency exchange losses and
a list of other countries in which UNDP is losing 5% or
more to currency exchange, but said that UNDP will be relying on and
deferring
to John Holmes' inquiries in this regard.
Now,
however, well-placed UN sources tell Inner City Press that the reason
for the
delay on making any disclosures, even about Myanmar, is that UNDP
demanding a
re-do of the numbers, trying to whittle down Holmes' admission of $10
million
in losses. The attempt to re-fudge the numbers is being down through
the UN
Country Team, headed by UNDP's Bishow Parajuli, previously the
head of
the UN World Food Program in Egypt.
Meanwhile,
UNDP has
been unable to provide any figures about how much money it has
converted in
Myanmar, including for a program it calls "Micro-Finance." The
spokesman-without-name repeatedly like a mantra, our work is good. But
how much
was converted and spent? How much money has been and is in UNDP's
account with the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank? There has still been no
answer.
Belatedly joining its Western Permanent Five
compadres the U.S. and UK,
the French Mission to the UN provided Inner City Press with the
following
response to the scandal:
"Obviously,
we are sharing the concerns expressed by John Holmes toward these
difficulties. Since the beginning,
France has been very engaged in the international effort to hurry
assistance to
the victims of Cyclone Nargis. Consistent with the principle of the
responsibility to protect, we have also urged the Myanmar government to
fully
allow access of international aid to victims. We pay tribute to the UN
involvement to improve the situation. It is obviously crucial that no
financial
resources dedicated to humanitarian assistance should be wasted, and we
therefore support the UN efforts to find a solution to that problem."
But for now the efforts focus on cover-up, and
nothing is being done to
ensure that the problem doesn't continue, and in countries beyond
Myanmar.
On August
5, to try to get answers since UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis has
refused to
answer questions or to hold a press conference, Inner City Press
attended a
meeting of UNDP's Executive Board. After a presentation by UNDP
controller
Darshak Shah, comments were sought by UNDP from the member states on
the Board.
Nothing was said about Myanmar or the currency exchange losses. Rather
the talk
was of boosting UNDP's "direct budget support" to governments, and
ensuring "government ownership" of funds. This has been UNDP's
priority in Myanmar.
[Since
Kemal
Dervis does not, as he puts it, "answer questions in the hallway,"
nor hold press conferences, Inner City Press has formally posed the
questions
here.]
Similarly,
despite a commitment by World Health Organization official Eric Laroche
--
previously of UNDP -- to provide a description of WHO's currency
exchange
practices and losses in Myanmar, no information has yet been provided
by WHO,
despite reminders to Mr. Laroche's spokesman. Apparently the cover-up
mentality
of UNDP spreads with its former employees.
Inner City
Press asked Ms. Montas when the Holmes-promised list of other countries
with
currency losses would be provided, and how that would cover UNDP and UN
Peacekeeping. Ms. Montas said that Inner City Press will have to ask
each
agency, even each department, separately. One agency spokesman told
Inner City
Press that the agency's controller / accounting department might not be
tracking currency exchange losses, even now, and that if is such
information
were being collected, it is not the UN's job to "do research" for
Inner City Press. How about making basic disclosure, of losses up to
25% of
each aid dollar, to donors? Apparently
the UN does not that that is required, either.
The time
for semi-proactively disclosing other countries with currency losses is
now.
Watch this site.
And
this --
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