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Inner City Press Podcast --

At UNDP, Auditors Flee While Documents Are Denied Even to Executive Board, Now Not Only to Press

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

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 9, lightly edited Jan. 22 -- That the UN Development Program is an agency out of control was on display Tuesday in what was expected to be another drab consultation with its Executive Board.

To a conference room packed with delegates of nations, UNDP staff bragged that "eighty-nine percent of documents needed by January 19 are now posted on the Executive Board website." But as representatives of Sweden, Germany and others pointed out, this violates UNDP's own rules. UNDP had committed to making such documents available six weeks before the meetings of its Executive Board. The representative of Sweden said, "We have a rule, and it's been broken here. On what matters will we decide?"

The representative of Germany chimed in that his capital had asked him to emphasize again to UNDP the importance of timely posting of documents. He also questioned the elusiveness of the UNDP Administrator's statements.

The UNDP response was to thank the delegates, by rote, for "bringing our attention to the six week rule" which UNDP said it will "continue to make every effort to" comply with. But then it's not a rule, it's just window-dressing.

UNDP expects that there will be no discussion of its 2007-09 country plans for such regimes as Zimbabwe and North Korea. These "country programs will be approved on a no-objection basis without presentation or discussion, unless at least five members have informed the secretariat in writing before the meeting of their wish to bring a particular country program before the Board." At Tuesday's meetings, it was said that no such requests have been made.

[UNPD wrote: "In the January 9 posting and previous postings, the characterization of UNDP as an 'agency out of control' is inaccurate, as is clear from its well-documented internal and external audit controls, its reporting to its Executive Board, and the extensive systems it has in place for whistleblowing and airing grievances. While Inner City Press has every right to express its opinion, that opinion should be clearly marked as such. In the same posting, the statement that 'UNDP expects that there will be no discussion of its 2006-2009 country plans for such regimes as Zimbabwe and North Korea,' is inaccurate. Plans for UNDP work in North Korea and elsewhere are on the agenda for discussion by UNDP’s Executive Board at its meetings later this month." In light of the UNDP-North Korea press conference of Jan. 19, it appears that UNDP must now expect discussion of North Korea, since the five-requesting nations standard we reported on Jan. 9 has been met. UNDP's statements about its audit controls, etc., are disputed by its largest donor and by, among others, the Wall Street Journal. Inner City Press will await a showing if and when UNDP requests, and more pertinently, receives, correction(s) from the Wall Street Journal.]

Meanwhile, as simply one example, UNDP's Zimbabwe plan blithely proposes to "strengthen" the Mugabe-controlled "National Commission Human Rights" which nearly every independent NGO in Zimbabwe has protested. One would think that such widespread protest of a UNDP-funded project would at least give rise to a discussion item during UNDP's Executive Board meeting covering the underlying country plan. But that's not how UNDP sets it up.

Things at UNDP are arbitrary, too. Amid the letters requesting offers of resignation at UNDP, an official who reportedly did not receive one is the head of the Bureau of Management. Meanwhile the Regional Head for Asia and the Pacific, Hafiz Pasha of Pakistan, has been on the job for more than six years.

Hafiz Pasha muses in echo chamber

It's rumored that his replacement will come from India. The jobs are being dished out, along national lines that we will cover in future installments.

Another indicator of chaos is the departure of UNDP's head auditor, Jessie Rose Mabutas. Sources say that, feeling the heat of investigations into flubbed audits and job-sales, Ms. Mabutas bailed out, taking a job as auditor for the International Fund for Agricultural Development. UNDP's audit unit does not have a real deputy, either. So in the run-up to its Executive Board meeting, UNDP is in secretive chaos. And they've said:

In a message dated 12/8/2006 7:14:39 PM Eastern Standard Time, cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org writes:

"we thought it might be helpful if we were to state, for the record:

"That we do not release the reports of our internal audits and investigations. The results of these reports are communicated on an annual basis to the UNDP Executive Board...

"That we will no longer be responding to unsubstantiated allegations about UNDP's recruitment and personnel practices."

The irony of UNDP's statement that they wouldn't answer questions -- and they haven't since, other than at the request of UNDP's own Frank Pinto about the Goa junket -- is that UNDP's usually-invisible director of communications, David Morrison, that same day complained in writing that Inner City Press makes no effort to confirm developments at UNDP, or to afford those covered a chance to respond.

For the record, Inner City Press as simply one example telephoned Ms. Nora Lustig, who did not respond. Administrator Dervis has taken the position that, unlike Secretaries-General and Ambassadors, he will not deign to answer press questions in the lobby outside the General Assembly, and will go up to 14 months without taking questions at a press conference in UN Headquarters. UNDP's own Office of "Communications" has refused to respond to so many questions that the goal, clearly, is to have no questions be asked, since none are answered. It's an agency out of control.

Compare UNDP's weeks-long stonewalling to, for example, today's lengthy response to Inner City Press from the World Food Program, about what it does in the Congo and why. At least WFP provided an answer. Once UNDP lied about having funded disarmament in Uganda, which turned into the torching of villages and killing of civilians -- this same Office of Communications acknowledged in writing UNDP's spending including for voluntary disarmament, and then Administrator Dervis outright denied it, after not holding a press conference for 14 months -- ever since, UNDP has tried to stonewall and provide no information. Now even member states on UNDP's executive board have openly complained about the lack and delay of information. Why has UN reform not reached UNDP? And by what mad logic would UNDP as currently led and "communicated for" be put in charge of any other UN agency?

Compare:

Subject: RE: NE Uganda and UNDP

From: William.Orme [at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 14:40:03 -0400

...In 2006 UNDP began work on an independent community development and human security project in the Karamoja region, one component of which was the encouragement of voluntary disarmament. The project was budgeted initially for $1 million, to be financed from UNDP's Uganda country office [Due to a misunderstanding on my part I erroneously identified to you in our conversation Tuesday the government of Denmark as a funder of this project.] Only $293,000 has been spent to date and all UNDP activities in the region are now halted, given that they are unworkable at this time, for the reasons noted.

So: UNDP spent $293,000, "one component of which was the encouragement of voluntary disarmament." Later, Administrator Kemal Dervis said UNDP funded only "community development," no disarmament whatsoever. Then he and his team strongly encouraged staff to stop speaking with the press.

Again, because a number of Inner City Press' UNDP 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 UNDP and many of its staff. As they used to say on TV game shows, 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

UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439

Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540

At UNDP, Gender and Harassment, While Dervis Heads South, Honduras and other Information Appealed For

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

UNITED NATIONS, January 8 -- The distance between talk and action within the UN Development Program was on display again Monday morning, as dozens of silent delegates sat through a presentation on UNDP and gender, right across First Avenue from where for example the chief of Europe and the CIS States traded UNDP jobs and promotions for sexual favors.

The teaser in the UN Journal for Monday's session promised a "consultation on the annual progress report of the Administrator on the implementation on [sic] the gender action plan." While slated for 11 a.m., the meeting did not start until twenty minutes after. The head of UNDP's "Gender Team," Winnie Byanyima, read out acronyms in a monotone from slides projected on a screen. A sample exhortation: for "Supporting RCs/SURFs and COs to integrate gender." Afterwards the representative of Germany asked if RC stood for regional centers or resident coordinators. The only other questioners were from Belgium, Canada ("bon courage") and Denmark, twice. In response to Denmark, Ms. Byanyima said UNDP had wanted to "roll out" its scorecard during the upcoming Executive Board meeting, but the agenda is just too full. With meeting like this, surely.

Beyond what we've previously reported on the sample UNDP regional director Kalman Mizsei, we can add this a month before he left in September 2006, he promoted a woman he favored from G7 secretarial rank to P3, professional, with no examination nor explanation. Those who work there know, however. And why not the representatives at the Executive Board consultation? As the chairwoman said, perhaps they are tired, from the weekend or (ongoing) vacations. Let the PowerPoints™ continue!

Central American refugees (Kemal Dervis not shown)

Meanwhile UNDP distributed a press advisory, that Kemal Dervis is off and running, ten days in Central America, returning on the first day of the Executive Board meetings. He'll visit Cuba, Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatemala. Why not Nicaragua and El Salvador? Well, the "gender" website of UNDP's El Salvador country office remains "under construction," as does its environmental and local development sub-pages. So does the volunteers for organizations page on UNDP Guatemala's web site -- this one has a picture of a shovel next to the words, in Spanish, Pagina en Construccion -- "under construction." Inner City Press weeks ago asked UNDP's Communications Office for information concerning UNDP's operations in Honduras. No information has been provided. And so on Monday Inner City Press filed a request for review / appeal under UNDP's Information Disclosure Policy, a portion of which is below:

Subject: Appeal/request for expedited review of constructive denials of access to information by Office of Communications

From: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

To: IDPOversightPanel@undp.org, etc

Sent: Mon, 8 Jan 2007 4:17 PM

Dear William Pace, Mavic Cabrera Balleza, Saraswathi Menon, B. Murali and James Provenzano, Members of the Public Information and Documentation Oversight Panel, Ragnhild Imerslund, Observer --

This is a request to review a number of ongoing and wrongful denials of access to information by UNDP's Office of Communications... We began requesting the below-listed information well more than a month ago. Because of the Office of Communication's non-response, the requests are deemed constructively denied and this is a request for expedited review.

Over the past four weeks, with a single exception, UNDP's Office of Communications has refused to provide long-ago requested information, including:

On December 5, more than 30 days ago, Inner City Press requested records which would

contain the provisions of the SBAAs for Russia, Liberia and Honduras - the standard basic agreement, a/k/a legal framework, in essence a treaty.

--provide all documents in your possession concerning UNDP's funding of disarmament programs in Uganda for the past four years, in light of Mr. Orme's previous June 27, 2006, email to Inner City Press that

"In 2006 UNDP began work on an independent community development and human security project in the Karamoja region, one component of which was the encouragement of voluntary disarmament. The project was budgeted initially for $1 million, to be financed from UNDP's Uganda country office [Due to a misunderstanding on my part I erroneously identified to you in our conversation Tuesday the government of Denmark as a funder of this project.] Only $293,000 has been spent to date and all UNDP activities in the region are now halted, given that they are unworkable at this time, for the reasons noted."

--describe UNDP's policy and practice for dealing with complaints of sexual harassment and with those complained against

--disclose and describe all sexual harassment complaints received by UNDP concerning Kalman Mizsei, including in light of your previous statement that his service was entirely "distinguished."

---Please provide information concerning all complaints of sexual harassment or of employment favoritism received or known to UNDP in the last 2 years

--Regarding Nora Lustig, then Ms. Bahadur and Mr. Schmidt-Traub, please describe in detail all steps taken in recruitment and appointment and how these comport with applicable Human Resources policies.

--all consulting contracts awarded during the tenure of Nora Lustig, the nationalities and backgrounds of the recipients and whether any were previously known to Ms. Lustig.

On December 6, more than 30 days ago, Inner City Press requested

--2006 Trust Fund Agreements for contributions from Spain, China, Norway, France, the UK, Russia and the United States.

--a table that shows total 2005-2006 budget for Africa and for a table which shows ALL funds spent by UNDP in Africa during the time frame, not just "core" funds, but also any other sources of money, whether earmarked from specific donors or from multilateral sources... UNDP already has records and data which summarizes this information.

Also asked and not responded to:

--please provide information about UNDP in Somalia...

[the separately listed] specific projects of UNDP-Russia which, in light of the fraud finding in the most recent public audit (and refusal to provide the referenced "report... released" referred-to therein), about which information including project documents, budgets and UNDP's rationale are requested.

--please describe any and all steps taken by UNDP or its affiliates to distribute your December 8 "statement" regarding Inner City Press;

[please provide any and all records reflecting efforts by Ben Craft and/or other UNDP staff to discourage entities such as the Heritage Foundation from citing Inner City Press' reporting on UNDP, and explain this use of UNDP funds and staff time]

Given that UN Secretariat agencies provide full text internal audits to any of the 192 member states which request them, please explain and justify UNDP's practice of making only SUMMARIES of internal audits available, and only to the members of UNDP's Executive Board. Please provide all possible information about the specific audits which Inner City Press has previously requested, for example Honduras, Russia, UNOPS in Afghanistan, and the Private Sector Unit of the Bureau of Resources and Strategic Partnerships.

Pardon the length of this appeal, but the Office of Communications has constructively denied these many requests, and we are now forced to appeal, despite make requests more than a month ago. While we can provide additional legal analysis, no more should be necessary to prevail over the constructive denial of these requests.

Thank you for your attention. --Inner City Press

UNDP's response under its procedures, and the requested information upon receipt, will be reported on this site.

At UNDP, Evaluation Means Paid Praise While Transparency is Ignored and Information Withheld

Byline; Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, January 5 -- The UN Development Program is, on paper, overseen by and accountable to an Executive Board made up of 36 member states. But a meeting of this Board on January 4, entitled "Evaluation of UNDP Assistance to Conflict-affected Countries," was run more like a UNDP propaganda session. The meeting, scheduled for two hours, started fifteen minutes late. Then, using Power-Point™ slides as a crutch, UNDP's evaluator launched into a lengthy presentation consisting of praise of UNDP, and suggestions to give UNDP more powers. For example it was proposed that "UNDP should be involved in the negotiation of peace agreements." UNDP's Management response, provided as a hand-out, is not surprisingly that "UNDP supports the recommendation."

Hearkening to the powers UNDP enjoys, to avoid taxes and other "red tape" in countries like Russia (click here for a story of UNDP's use of such powers), the evaluation brags that "One of UNDP's perceived strengths is that some of its procedures are currently more flexible than those of other actors in the UN system." This is followed by a critique that the facts and this series bear out, that there is "difficulty in obtaining information about what UNDP does" and that UNDP should provide more "on projects, budgets, procurement and recruitment." Evaluation at 1, 6, Recommendation 4. To this list, "audits" should be added. While UNDP's response purports to agree with this recommendation, none of the listed "management actions" addresses transparency or information in any way. Rather, there's a proposal to "establish sub-offices in conflict-affected area... In principle management agrees that UNDP need to expand its presence outside of the capitals in conflict-affected countries and has already undertaken this policy in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Nepal."

UNDP's extra-capital operations in Uganda involved funding in Karamoja related to the disarmament programs that have resulted in the deaths of civilians. In Nepal, UNDP has most recently been suspending program, click here for more, reporting that "with the withdrawal of UNDP funding, nine staffers including an officer has lost their jobs while the on-going development activities are likely to remain incomplete." Wouldn't be the first time...

Speaking of incomplete, on UNDP's website the most recent evaluations run through March 2005 -- that is, nearly two years out of date. Click here for UNDP's Evaluation page.

Kemal Dervis and Jeffrey Sachs both appeared on the schedule of new Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday. Inner City Press asked the Spokesperson's Office for a readout on the Dervis meeting and was told that "During the meeting, Mr. Dervis discussed with the Secretary-General a number of important matters, particularly the upcoming UNDP Executive Board session which will take place on 19-26 January." If the UNDP Executive Board's January 4 meeting on "evaluating" UNDP is any guide, it is hard to categorize such meetings as "important matters." Faux oversight seems a more appropriate characterization. Inner City Press has also been told that this was the third Dervis / Ban Ki-moon meeting. Why then did Dervis twice mis-spell Ban Ki-moon's name in the holiday message he sent all UNDP employees? Click here for that story, and for the UNDP holiday message.

UNDP's Melkert, arms crossed, Byzantine

On Friday Ban Ki-moon asked 58 senior officials in the U.N. system to submit their resignations, including UNDP's Number Two, Ad Melkert. The less visible and less active Number One, Kemal Dervis, escapes the request because his position involves "other inter-governmental bodies." The UN Spokesperson's Office has declined to release the list of the individuals receiving the requests to submit resignations, but estimates that some six to eight are at UNDP, those with the rank of Assistant Secretary General or Under Secretary General. Does this include head of the Poverty Group, Nora Lustig? It would appear to include UNDP's heads of regions. A Google Image search for the terms UNDP and "Assistant Secretary General" finds 20 photos, fully six of them Kalman Mizsei. Europe and CIS region head Kalman Mizsei used to loudly call himself an Under Secretary General, which wasn't true - but he was an ASG. So presumably is his soon to be (or not) successor Kori Udovicki. UNDP told Inner City Press she cannot answer questions until she "begins" in February. But she was seen in UNDP's DC-1 building back in December. We'll have more on all this.