On UN
Jobs-Selling
Scandal, UN Tells
ICP of
Suspensions,
Not of DPR
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
Series
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 10 --
In UN
Peacekeeping
under Herve
Ladsous,
positions in
missions in
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo to
Haiti are
corruptly put
up for sale, a
49-page
“Strictly
Confidential”
UN
investigative
report
obtained and exclusively
published
by Inner City
Press on
February 7
show.
Now
on February 10
there is an
answer,
see here
and below.
Two
days after
that
exclusive, on
February 9
Inner City
Press asked UN
Deputy
Spokesperson
Farhan Haq for
the response
of UN
Peacekeeping,
whose chief
Herve Ladsous
since Inner
City Press
raised
corruption has
refused all
Press
questions,
specifically
what Ladsous
has done in
the ten months
he has been on
notice of this
corruption, as
shown by the
leaked
documents. February 9 video here.
On
February 10,
UN deputy spokesperson
Haq came to
the noon
briefing with
a prepared
answer, which
he read out. February 10 video here. He said
that further
recruitment of
UN Police for
Cote d'Ivoire
has been
suspended
pending that
country taking
action.
Inner
City Press
asked if all
ten police
described as
paying bribes
have been
repatriated,
for the status
of the Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Ouattara shown
taking bribes,
and if
inquiries have
been made with
other
countries
which send
soldiers or
police to the
UN.
Haq
said that the
ten have left
or are in the
process of
leaving. Six
months after
the final
report? "In
the process of
leaving"?
Worse,
Haq said it is
up to Cote
d'Ivoire if
the Deputy
Permanent
Representative
remains in his
post at and in
the UN. Isn't
collective
bribes for UN
posts a crime?
And not only
in Cote
d'Ivoire?
Inner
City Press
asked Haq if
this obvious
loophole
allowing
corruption
will be
reviewed by
Ban Ki-moon's
panel of Peace
Operations, to
which Inner
City Press has
already
forwarded the
OIOS report. Video here.
Another
question that
has been
raised to
Inner City
Press by
diplomats
after reading
the exclusive
is whether
Ladsous had a
duty, at least
before the UN
Security
Council's trip
to Haiti last
month led by
Chile and the
US to tell
Council
members that
bribes had
been collected
for positions
in the
MINUSTAH
mission there.
Inner
City Press has
raised the
question to
MINUSTAH's
chief and
spokesperson,
as to DR Congo
mission
MONUSCO's
chief Martin
Kobler, separate
story here (as
Kobler runs to
be Ladsous'
peer atop UN
aid agency
OCHA.)
Haq
told Inner
City Press
that "this was
corruption
found by our
own internal
oversight."
But the report
says the UN's
OIOS
"received"
information
about these
possibly
corrupt
practices on
July 24, 2013.
We'll have
more on this.
, 
