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At
UN, Lockheed Took Millions for
Services Not Rendered, Budget Wars Ignored
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee
of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, May 15
-- While there has been little press coverage of the
UN's budget committee this May session, down in the UN's basement on
Conference
Rooms 3 and 5, things are coming to a head. On May 14, the
Secretariat's use of
a
$250 million no-bid contracts to Lockheed Martin's PAE subsidiary
in Darfur was roundly criticized. Upstairs in the briefing
room, Deputy Spokesperson
Marie Okabe said she had heard nothing it.
More generally, sources tell Inner City Press that
"the
Westerners" are trying to jam budget items through under unrelated
agenda
items, and that Brazil and others in the Group of 77 and China are
preparing
their own alternative program of work for the rest of the month.
Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon said he would focus on running the UN right. But of
the
budget committee, which funds it all, Ban's Spokesperson's Office has
apparently heard nothing.
UN's Ban as he swore in Lute, missing $4.3 million not shown
From the May
14 transcript:
Inner City
Press:
I wanted to ask, in the Fifth, in the Budget Committee today,
Inga-Britt
Ahlenius of OIOS (Office of Internal Oversight Services) read out a
report about
the Lockheed Martin or PA&E contract for Darfur.
She was harshly critical of it.
She said that $4.3 million was for
construction services where no construction took place, and she
specifically
criticized the Secretariat’s response to her audit and said that it was
published without it being checked with her.
So I wanted to know, I am sure the Secretariat is
aware of this OIOS...
Is this money going to be recouped? Can
we get a press conference by Ahlenius and an explanation by the
Secretariat of
why they’re rejecting her findings?
Deputy
Spokesperson Okabe: We can ask her to
try and come and speak to you, but, as you know, you have to take that
request
directly.
Inner City
Press:
Is the money going to be recouped? She
said that she found $4.3 million paid by the UN for services never
rendered.
Deputy
Spokesperson Okabe: This is the first I
have heard of this. So I don’t have
anything beyond what you’ve heard about the... OIOS report.
Question: Maybe Angela Kane as the head of the
Department of Management will be the one to respond to this.
Deputy
Spokesperson: She will be coming; there
is a date already set, as will Michael Adlerstein.
The UN official who pushed through the
ill-fated Lockheed / PA&E no
bid contract, Jane Holl Lute, is now the number two official in the
U.S.
Department of Homeland Security. As usual at the UN, there has been no
accountability at all, a theme to which we will soon be returning.
Watch this
site.
On Sri Lanka
On Friday
May 8, Inner City Press asked Deputy
Spokesperson Okabe:
Inner
City Press: On the invitation by the Government of Sri Lanka to the
Secretary-General to visit, is there any progress in thinking? In
the alternative, is the Secretary-General, is he considering invoking
Article 99 or responsibility to protect or making some other move of
some type on the situation in Sri Lanka?
Deputy
Spokesperson: I have nothing beyond what we’ve been saying from
this podium this week on Sri Lanka, including what the
Secretary-General himself has said earlier this week.
What Ban said
did not involve calling for a cease-fire, did not respond to the
invitation to visit Sri Lanka, or the accelerating rate of civilians
death over the weekend, during which no statement issued about Sri
Lanka. Watch this site.
Channel
4 in the UK with allegations of rape and
disappearance
Click here
for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters
footage, about civilian
deaths
in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
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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