At UN, Ban Pleads for Financial Disclosure, While Compacts Question Peacekeeping Split

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, February 5 -- With less than half of his senior official having heeded his urging to make public some portion of, or at least their decisions about, financial disclosure, Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday told Inner City Press, "I hope that remaining people will also follow suit... I am expecting that more will follow soon." Video here, from Minute 16:02. But since Inner City Press' first story on the topic a week ago, while some officials have rushed to get their names on the list of those who will disclose, others have not. For example the number two official in Peacekeeping, Edmond Mulet, who told Inner City Press he did not understand an e-mailed question about his absence from the list but would have his staff follow-up, is still absent from the list. This is a problem given the controversy's about procurement irregularities connected with UN peacekeeping, including but not limited to the UN's $250 million no-bid contract to Lockheed Martin, regarding which even George Clooney on his first day as a UN Messenger of Peace admitted that "mistakes were made." Not filing any public financial disclosure is not a mistake -- it is a decision.

            Mr. Ban first sought to answer the question about the low level of financial disclosure by talking about the Compacts he signed Monday with some 26 senior UN officials. While time did not permit the query, one wonder why these Compact have still not been made available to member states and to the public, but only on the UN's intra-net. Generally, the Compacts are bland and non-controversial. But, for example, the Compacts for the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and its recently spin-off the Department of Field Support are nearly identical. If one takes the Compacts seriously, these similarities give rise to a question about just how essential the splitting of DPKO into two really was.

Ban Ki-moon speaks - but are UN officials listening? List full of questions

            In terms of impunity, even on the UN's required internal financial disclosure, it emerged Monday that despite trying to whittle the number down as much as possible, the UN has had to acknowledge that eight covered staff members have simply refused to file any financial disclosure. Despite Under Secretary General for Management Alicia Barcena's unequivocal statement in March 2007 that such staffers would be terminate, on Monday she did not say that has happened. Similar to today's report about this UN's inability to get even minimal compliance and respect from, for example, Gucci for its use of the UN in advertisements, it appears this UN cannot bring about financial disclosure, even the required kind, much less the voluntary. We'll see.

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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.

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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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