UNDP Accedes to Gambian President's "Spiritual" AIDS
Cure, Refuses to Answer Any Questions
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 12 -- The UN
Development Program, faced with the
expulsion from Gambia
of their representative for questioning Gambian president Yahya Jammeh's claim
to cure AIDS without medicine, had a decision to make.
Should UNDP stand behind its staff member Fadzai Gwaradzimba, who on AIDS had
offended Gambia's strongman president? When Sudan's Omar al-Bashir expelled Kofi
Annan's representative Jan Pronk in 2006, Annan kept Pronk in the post and did
not replace him until his contract expired. Or should UNDP accede to Jammeh's
mystification of HIV, and meekly appoint a new and more compliant representative
to Gambia?
On April 11, UNDP issued a press release,
not even mentioning Fadzai Gwaradzimba or the grounds for his expulsion, only
announcing the appointment of a new UNDP Officer in Charge in The Gambia,
Adama Guindo. The pro-Jammeh newspaper The Point published UNDP's press release
word for word, click
here to
view. Adama Guindo's c.v. is impressive, but it is not the issue. Where and when
would UNDP explain why, unlike the Secretariat with respect to Jan Pronk, it
simply gave in to Jammeh's expulsion of Fadzai
Gwaradzimba for having dared voice the position of the UN's own World Health
Organization and UN AIDS?
Jammeh,
AIDS cure not shown
UNDP has
in the past declined to comment on or even confirm receipt of inquiries
concerning such matters as the demotion of its chief of human resources, its
Associate Administrator's hiring of a political ally from the Dutch Labor Party,
Greenpeace's asserting that UNDP is
supporting a controversial gold mine in Romania
and numerous
financial questions.
And so on April 12, Inner City Press asked UN deputy spokesperson Marie Okabe,
at the UN's regular noon press briefing, to explain. From the
transcript:
Inner City Press: It was announced that
the UN’s representative in Gambia, who is a UNDP representative, was thrown out
for having challenged the President's claim that he could cure AIDS with no
medicine, but in some other way... He was expelled from the country, and now
UNDP has replaced him with another person, who presumably won’t criticize. Can
you explain why -- who made the decision in the UN system to -- unlike Jan Pronk,
whom Kofi Annan stood behind to the end of his term -- to actually replace
someone who was expelled for having criticized...?
Deputy Spokesperson: You really need to
address this to UNDP. It was a UNDP representative, and it was the UNDP who I
think...
Inner City Press: But he was also a UN
representative.
Deputy Spokesperson: I understand, but I
think this person came back to the UNDP for consultations. We would really have
to ask the UNDP.
Inner City Press: The Secretary-General
had no role in...?
The UN's
transcript has this sentence ending in ellipsis, but
the question
was clear (video
here),
and remains. Following the noon briefing, and the Deputy Spokesperson's
instructions to "ask UNDP," Inner City Press sent written questions to UNDP's
spokesman as well as higher officials:
The request is
for a comment on the replacement of Fadzai Gwaradzimba as representative to The
Gambia, after criticism of Yahya Jammeh's claim to cure AIDS without medicine,
and specifically for a comment on the comparison of this replacement by UNDP in
The Gambia to Kofi Annan keeping Jan Pronk as his envoy to The Sudan even after
Pronk's expulsion by President al-Bashir. Why did UNDP replace the resident
representative, and what have Gambian officials and UNDP asked about Adama
Guindo's views on Jammeh's claims to cure AIDS? Did UNDP make any comment in
connection with last year's elections in The Gambia, in which it was alleged
that press was intimidated and non-eligible votes were brought in from outside
the country? What is the status of UNDP's work with the press in The Gambia,
Zimbabwe, and North Korea?
Separately, I am attaching information
sent to Inner City Press regarding UNDP's Philippines operation, on which your
comment is requested. (As you know, no comment was ever provided on
Greenpeace's assertion that UNDP supports
a controversial gold mine in Romania,
nor on Mr. Melkert's hiring of a second personal assistant from the Dutch Labor
Party, etc -- the questions have built up, but today Marie Okabe said to ask
UNDP, so I am.
An update on
the status of the urgent audit of UNDP's North Korean operations is needed, and
is requested. As the Secretary-General was asked earlier today, is the 90-day
time line being extended? Is UNDP aware if the auditors will be able to enter
North Korea? Did Timo Pakkala and Mr. Povenzano speak with the U.S. Attorney's
office / SDNY? Did anyone else at UNDP? Please confirm receipt of this email,
and answer the outstanding questions. Thank you.
The above was sent to UNDP's spokesman
and two higher officials at 1 p.m. on Thursday. By six p.m., there had been no
response, not even a confirmation of receipt of the questions. Then the UN
deputy spokesperson wrote:
Subj: UNDP
Statement on the Gambia
From: [Spokesperson at] UN.org
To: Matthew Russell Lee
Date: 4/12/2007
6:41:29 PM Eastern Standard Time
UNDP Statement
on the Gambia
On 11 April,
Mr. Adama Guindo began serving a short-term assignment as Officer-in-Charge of
UNDP in The Gambia, where he will manage the organization’s operations. The
Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization currently coordinates UN
system activities in The Gambia.
Mr. Guindo, a
citizen of Mali, has extensive international experience, including as UNDP
Resident Representative/Resident Coordinator in Liberia and Madagascar and as
Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and UNDP Resident
Representative in Haiti. Prior to his arrival in Banjul, he served as
Officer-in-Charge of UNDP Senegal.
Inner City Press went and asked Ms. Okabe
if this was all that would be provided, by UNDP. She nodded. Apparently this
means that the other questions outstanding with UNDP will not be answered
either. On this, where and when will UNDP at least explain why, unlike
the Secretariat with respect to Jan Pronk, it simply gave in to Jammeh's
expulsion of Fadzai Gwaradzimba for having dared
voice the position of the UN's own World Health Organization and UN AIDS?
Because UNDP refuses to respond, including on the
question of
Adama Guindo's view and plans on AIDS, one
must look elsewhere. Online one finds
this:
the new
representative had reaffirmed his commitment to work with the Gambian government
in the area of health and other developmental needs. The new representative must
avoid countering the President's policies and aids program. The President said
he careless how the UN and other agencies perceived him. He said he had found
cure for aids and no one can make him change his mind on his new aids discovery.
The UNDP office have two choices. One, to join the President to help cure the
aids sufferers or to avoid interfering with his 'spiritual gift' to tackle aids.
As we speak, he has called on his patients to stop using anti-retroviral drugs.
He said such drugs shorten the lives of aids patients. He said the West just
want to make money by inventing such drugs. This what he told us at a meeting,'
said an official of Gambia's health Ministry.
Perhaps UNDP will have a comment on this?
In the statement provided through Ms. Okabe, there is one next fact, beyond the
UNDP April 11 press release: "The
Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization currently coordinates UN
system activities in The Gambia." This seems to indicate -- as noted, UNDP will
not clarify -- that UNDP is no longer the UN's lead agency in The Gambia.
This
raises questions about a topic Ban Ki-moon brought up on Thursday, his proposal
for "System-wide Coherence." Under this plan, also called "One-UN," which UNDP's
Kemal Dervis helped devise but which the G77 and NAM are now criticizing, UNDP
would become the lead UN agency. Will not only UNDP's still unresolved (and
unexplained) use of hard currency and government-seconded staff in North Korea,
but also not UNDP's capitulation on the issue of AIDS, and loss of lead agency
status in Gambia, impact the System-wide Coherence debate and outcome? We'll be
asking. But if the past is any guide, UNDP will not be answering. And so we'll
ask others.
Again, 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.
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, Agit-Prop Gushes Online from Interns, Staff
Survey Buried, Ad Melkert Spins
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 7 -- The UN
Development Program promotes itself on it website, by issuing press releases,
and by funding ostensibly independent media to sings its praises. Four months
ago, Inner City Press showed UNDP to have spent over half a million dollars
publishing a book to sing its praises. Now UNDP goes one step further, having
staff and interns spend their work time making anonymous pro-UNDP postings on
non-UN blogs and web sites. A cursory search finds sites such as
http://mdg-reality.blogspot.com/
full of pro-UNDP postings,
some going so far as to praise by name Hafiz Pasha, UNDP's head for Asia and
Pacific, currently embroiled in the North Korea hard currency and counterfeit
scandals.
A
posting
from "satem" gushes about "what Hafiz Pasha calls the tyranny of averages: as
the average income rises for the region there is a tendency to forget those left
behind." While possibly -- though only debatably -- such sycophantry might have
a place on web sites clearly labeled as authored by UNDP, the implanting of this
propaganda by UNDP personnel on non-UNDP web sites is questionable. Since it was
not unlike involuntary dentistry to get answers from UNDP on its spending on the
book "UNDP: A Better Way?" it is not clear when UNDP's propaganda budget will be
disclosed. But we'll try.
The flipside of affirmative propaganda is
the burying of negative information. Sources inside UNDP question what has
happened with the results of UNDP's supposedly independent Global Staff Survey.
In previous years, results have been released by now. This year's survey appears
to have been "buried," in the words of one UNDP insider. We'll see.
Also spinning wildly is Ad Melkert, who
was on the World Bank's board when Paul Wolfowitz' girlfriend was given raises
such that she earns more than Condi Rice. Melkert, fresh from spinning about the
UNDP North Korea scandals, tries to distance himself from his actions in his
previous job. "'In this case, it advised management that keeping the
partner within the institution would be untenable but that a possible external
solution should take into account the legitimate concerns about career
advancement of the partner,' the spokesman for Melkert, who is now associate
administrator of the U.N. Development Program"
said.
We thought Christina LoNigro was the spokeswoman for both Dervis and Melkert. Is
Morrison on the case? Either way, there's the
beginnings of an M.O. here...
Melkert
- thinking of Wolfowitz?
Ban Ki-moon's February 12,
2007
press release / "biographical note" on
his re-appointment of Ad Melkert as Associate Administrator of UNDP said that "Since
November 2002, Mr. Melkert represented the Dutch
constituency as an Executive Director of the World Bank, where he was a strong
advocate for increased donor coordination." Yeah -- coordination of
promotions and raises for Wolfowitz's girlfriend...
On the absurd tip,
reflective of UNDP's blithe engagement with regimes like Karimov's in
Uzbekistan, UzReport.com of Feb. 21, 2007 "reported" on the "creation of
educational blogs, composing plans on integration and
usage of modern technologies in teaching process... The seminar organized within
UNDP project "Capacity building for Internet
development." Great.....
A point
here is that the same "satem" on Friday, April 6
posted as "intern" that UNDP is supporting democracy - click
here to view. And who is it, exactly, that pays for and posts to
http://unworks.blogspot.com? Whatever
the ethics, it should be disclosed.
On the flip side, on this
anniversary of the beginning of the slaughter in Rwanda in 1994, on a blog not
infiltrated by UNDP's plants, the following was
written
--
"met the UNDP
crowd and spent yesterday hanging out in air conditioned cars with people who
can't say hello in Kinyarwabda who are effectively running the country. Weird."
Weird indeed....
UNDP Officials are "Collaborating with Federal
Investigators," Romanian Gold Mine Charges Unanswered
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 3 -- On Tuesday, Inner City
Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson if Mr. Ban would withdraw immunity from
any UN Development Program official who declined "voluntary" invitation to be
deposed at the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
on the North Korea scandal(s).
The spokesperson replied,
"From what I know, they are collaborating with the Federal investigation." Video
here,
from Minute 10:05. Because it has been reported, first
by Inner City Press,
that 13 UNDP officials have been summoned "voluntarily" to the SDNY, the
spokesperson's answer was interpreted to mean that all 13 will agree to be
deposed. We'll see. From the
transcript:
Inner City
Press: If UNDP officials decline to speak on a voluntary basis with prosecutors
about the counterfeit matter at UNDP, would Ban Ki-moon consider lifting
immunity?
Spokesperson:
I'm sorry. Your "if" is a big "if." From what I know, they're collaborating
with federal investigators. So there are no "ifs" here. If you have further
questions about UNDP and the situation of the fake money, then you can talk to
David Morrison. And further to your recent questions about the work being done
in auditing UN activities in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, we have
been informed by the Audit Operations Committee of the UN Board of Auditors that
last week, the Committee completed the preparatory portion of the DPRK
assignment, which was being done here at Headquarters as you know. A scoping
report, which would determine the parameters of what is being audited, is
currently being drafted for further consideration by the Advisory Committee on
Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ). That was in answer to your
question yesterday.
Question: Will
that be made public?
Spokesperson:
You have to wait for it to be over first.
That further questions can be directed to
UNDP's David Morrison -- he was not in the briefing, and has not responded to
Inner City Press's emailed questions from weeks ago. Beyond North Korea, these
questions included a request for UNDP's comment on Greenpeace's and others'
assertion that UNDP is supporting a gold mine in Rosia Montana in Romania. Three
weeks ago Inner City Press supplied Mr. Morrison and then another UNDP spokesman
with a copy of Greenpeace's letter to UNDP's Bratislava director, Ben Slay, and
asked for a response. None has been forthcoming.
Here is Greenpeace's letter:
UNDP RBEC
Bratislava Regional Center, Director
Grosslingova
35, 811 09 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
In June 2006
UNDP Romania and members of BRC came to Rosia Montana/ Romania. Here Canadian
Gabriel Resources wishes to develop Europe's largest open cast cyanide leach
gold mine. At Rosia Montana the UN mission met with members of Alburnus Maior, a
local NGO which was told that the purpose of this visit was to evaluate for
Romania's minister of the Environment development possibilities in the event
that the proposed open cast gold was not given the go-ahead. The UNDP website
indicates several reports about this UNDP mission that are inaccessible to the
public and even written prior the mission's actual visit to Rosia Montana.
It has come to
our attention from Hungarian mass-media that Gabriel Resources is interested to
form a partnership with UNDP Romania and BRC. Whilst we strongly oppose such
partnership which would only tarnish UNDP's reputation, we would for the sake of
transparency like to receive concrete answers to the following questions:
1. Is UNDP-UNEP
working on a sustainable development project at Rosia Montana? If yes, what is
the nature of this project?
2. According to
the Hungarian press (Saturday, 24 February, Nepszabadsag), an UNDP-UNEP team is
considering a 20 million USD partnership with Gabriel Resources. Is this
accurate?
3. What is
negotiated/desired partnership/collaboration between UNDP-UNEP and Gabriel
Resources? Is there co-financing involved/ considered? If yes, from whom?
But these are the type of questions that,
in Inner City Press' experience, the current UNDP is most resistant to
answering. In the three weeks since Inner City Press posed the above and other
questions to UNDP, without response, it has been reported that
House Speaker
Barbara Prammer presented an award to CEO-President of Gabriel Resources, Alan
Hill, on March 27.... the mine plans to use an environmentally hazardous cyanide
leaching technology to extract at least 330 tonnes of gold and 1,600 tonnes of
silver. The project has triggered strong protest among Hungarians who keenly
remember that another Romanian gold mine using a similar technology near Baia
Mare in NW Romania caused an environmental disaster, wiping out wildlife along
Hungary's eastern waterways in 2000. Speaking over the phone at a meeting of EU
foreign ministers in Germany, [Hungary's Foreign Affairs Spokesman Viktor]
Polgar said that the honor had been proposed by the Romanian Meridian trade
union along with the UN's development agency UNDP and forwarded by Austria's
GPA-DJP trade union to the country's parliament. The Hungarian Foreign Ministry
will request details about the issue from the Austrian ambassador to Hungary
early next week, Polgar said, adding that the ministry hoped the award would be
retracted.
If the award is
retracted, it will not have been with UNDP's help. There are other UNDP mining
forays, from
Zimbabwe
to Haiti. To be continued.
Senior UNDP Officials Summoned to Southern District
of NY in N. Korea Case
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN
UNITED NATIONS, March 28 -- Alongside the
delayed
"urgent
audit" by the UN Board of
Auditors of the UN Development Program's payment of hard currency in North
Korea, there is a criminal investigation of senior UNDP officials.
Inner City Press has learned that 13 UNDP officials
have been invited to appear at the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern
District of New York for questions about, among other things, their awareness of
UNDP's acceptance and concealing of counterfeit bills in North Korea.
Among the invited are said to be UNDP finance
director Darshak Shah, the head of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific,
Hafiz Pasha, UNDP trust fund controller Bruce Jenks, Julie Anne Mejia, and UNDP
finance chief Darshak Shah. Among the topics is who knew what, when. Most of the
invited individuals -- and several individuals yet to be invited -- are known to
have received warnings of irregularities in UNDP's programs in North Korea and
elsewhere, long before the problems were inquired into by letters from the U.S.
Mission. These began with a November 17, 2006, letter to UNDP Administrator
Kemal Dervis from the U.S. Ambassador for UN Management and Reform, Mark D.
Wallace. While the current process is described as voluntary, if declined the
next step would be a request to the UN to have the officials' immunity lifted.
The prosecutors have yet to invite the
top two in UNDP, Kemal Dervis and Ad Melkert. While decried by knowledgeable
sources as spin, some inside UNDP opine that, channeling Machiavelli, Dervis is
hoping that the investigation provides him with a pretext to fire or clear out
senior staff whom he inherited from previous Administrator Mark Malloch Brown.
The danger in Dervis' strategy, these sources say, is that while Dervis directed
Ad Melkert and even chief of staff Tengegnwork Gettu to sign most of the letters
responding to U.S. Ambassador Wallace's questions, Dervis himself made
representations about purported lack of knowledge or responsibility, including
at a meeting held on December 22. UNDP sources recount to Inner City Press a
more recent, and more heated, meeting between Amb. Wallace and Dervis. We aim to
have more on this.
Kemal
Dervis: show me the money (but is it counterfeit?)
In earlier meetings with the U.S.
Mission, finance chief Darshak Shah was asked about topics including the
counterfeit (how much and when did he know), and Mr. Shah responded with denials
which are now being more fully weighed.
The issues inquired into implicate not
only current but also past UNDP officials, and provide a roadmap of the various
clans or "families" in UNDP. For example, the current head of UNDP's Regional
Bureau for Africa, Gilbert Houngbo, served as financial overseer during much of
the time at issue. Mr. Houngbo is described as a right hand man of Mark Malloch
Brown, and close associate of Bruce Jenks. Houngo had been Malloch Brown's chief
of staff but could not keep that position as Kemal Dervis came in. So Malloch
Brown arranged for Houngbo to be named head of the Regional Bureau for Africa.
But Houngbo's counterfeit knowledge travels with him, from one floor to another
in UNDP's First Avenue headquarters building.
Another UNDP power at that
time has since left the agency, to head the UN Office of Project Services: Jan
Mattsson. As Inner City Press
reported earlier today,
Mattsson has this month threatened the "severest disciplinary action" against
any individuals who share whistle-blowing information with the press. Click
here
for that story. On Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Ambassador Mark D. Wallace provided
this on-the-record comment to Inner City Press: "The U.S. strongly supports real
whistleblower protection. Too often we have seen the UN bureaucracy hunker down
to protect itself from criticism rather than taking the real steps to reform
itself. The US stands by any legitimate and truthful whistleblower and calls on
all UN entities to take steps to ensure their protection."
We aim shortly to have more on UNDP's
reactions in the face of the audit and the criminal investigation.
UNDP's Administrator Kemal Dervis,
spokesman David Morrison, and North Korea Resident Coordinator Timo Pakkala were
each asked, days ago and without answer, questions including about the
particularly batch of counterfeit currency, from "an Egyptian" whom has thus far
been left unnamed by UNDP, which purportedly "remained in a safe at the UNDP
office until last month when the head of the North Korea office recalled that
the bills were there during a visit to UNDP headquarters in New York." Inner
City Press asked the three:
How long did
Mr. Pakkala, the head of the North Korea office, have access to the safe? Why
was it only in February that it was "recalled" that the bills were in the safe?
What is the
name of the referenced "Egyptian"?
Confirm or deny
(and if confirm, explain) any recent suspension by UNDP -- which Mr. Morrison
was directly asked about last week outside room 226, when he answered that he
was unaware of any such suspension and has yet to seek to amend or supplement
his answer.
We will have more on UNDP's
reactions and actions, including against staff, in the face of the delayed
"urgent audit" and the widening criminal investigation. One of the way it may
widen is based on the recognition that the half-dozen UN operations managers in
North Korean during the time at issue came not only from UNDP, but also from
UNFPA,
UNICEF,
OCHA and the World Health Organization, which has acknowledged to Inner City
Press being the
pass-through for separate funds from South
Korean to North Korea.
Developing.
On UNDP Audit's 7th Day, Questions of Two Sets of
Books and Prejudged Outcome
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, March 26 -- One week now into the
delayed "urgent audit" ordered by Ban Ki-moon on January 19, sources point out
recent changes in the financial books of the UN Development Program concerning
spending in North Korea in 2006. In one set of books, the figure is $4,569,000.
In another, more recent or "beta" set of books, the figure is $3,279,000. This
second set of book is called "Executive Snap 4.0 Beta."
The modifications are
attributed by sources to the Director of UNDP's Office of Finance, Darshak Shah,
and UNDP's trust fund meister Bruce Jenks. While what explains the $1,291,000
difference is not yet clear, this switch may explain the extraordinary
gun-jumping comments to Sunday's Chicago Tribune by UNDP's spokesman David
Morrison.
Morrison
wrote, "The audit began last week at UNDP headquarters in New York. UNDP
welcomed this audit, it is doing everything it can to facilitate it, and it
looks forward to the findings -- which we are confident will flatly contradict
the assertions in" the Chicago Tribune and by implication elsewhere. Monday's
AP picked up on the UNDP counterfeit story, quoting Morrison that the
counterfeit bills "remained in a safe at the UNDP office until last month when
the head of the North Korea office recalled that the bills were there during a
visit to UNDP headquarters in New York." But what of the 22 months that
this head of office, Timo Pakkala, had the keys to the safe? Did he never open
it? UNDP's spokesman was seen earlier Monday trying to spin invited
media, while ignoring questions about improper hiring, click
here
for that story.
The audit began on March 19, a full two months
after Ban Ki-moon called for it. Why did the UN Board of Auditors wait so long
to begin the audit, and now a week in still not even have specific terms of
reference?
How
can the audit proceed without access to those with first-hand knowledge?
These
questions will be explored in coming days.
In addition to the $4.6 million in reported 2006 spending in North Korea, in
UNDP's first set of books there are additional expenditures characterized as
"Thematic Trust Funds Expenditure" and plain "Trust Fund Expenditure," raising
the 2006 total to $7 million, quite different from the number UNDP presented to
its Executive Board in January 2007.
UNDP's
Atlas: danger ahead
At Monday's UN noon briefing, Inner
City Press asked to question UNDP Associate Administrator (and self-described
managing director) Ad Melkert in person before or after he met with Deputy
Secretary General Migiro at 3:15 p.m.. From the
transcript:
Inner City
Press: And the other thing is: I noticed on the Deputy Secretary-General's
meeting with Ad Melkert of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) this
afternoon... I guess I want to know the purpose of that, and whether we could
speak to either or both of them before or after, given the North Korea-UNDP
situation, and we also have a question for the UNDP about some
hiring by Mr.
Melkert. So, it would be very timely if you could at least put in a request for
a brief stakeout.
Deputy
Spokesperson: Sure.
As usual with UNDP, the silence was and
is deafening. It was never explained why UNDP's Bureau of Management's Akiko
Yuge was sent out of town for the two weeks that auditors would be working in
New York; now sources say Ms. Yuge and others have been summoned back. We will
have yet more on UNDP immanently.
On 4th Day of N. Korea Audit, UNDP Spins From Leaked
Minutes
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, March 22 -- As the delayed "urgent
audit" of the UN Development Program's operations in North Korea went into its
fourth day, UNDP spokesman David Morrison dismissed the leaked minutes of a
meeting of UN Operation Management Team in North Korea, which specifically asked
that cash payments in hard currency stop.
"We are clear on the record that we don't deal in cash," Mr. Morrison said.
Minutes of a December 8, 2005
meeting in Pyongyang involving local officials of UNDP and five other UN
agencies clearly stated that "CASH payments should be eliminated." Click
here to
view. While in the online version of the minutes, the names of meeting
participants were whited-out, Inner City Press today in this article, below,
publishes the names of operations managers. All of these individuals, each of
whom, unlike spokesman David Morrison, has direct knowledge of UN practices in
North Korea, has yet to be interviewed by the UN Board of Auditors.
Meanwhile, for two weeks after UNDP ostensibly ordered the suspension of its
operations in North Korea, staff members seconded by the Kim Jong Il government
were still allowed access to the computer files and ATLAS financial records
needed for the audit. As acknowledged Thursday by UNDP's Morrison, four such
seconded staff still have access to UNDP's computer system. These include
ostensible drivers, who according to published reporters cash checks into hard
currency, so such access may be hard to defend. Concerns about destruction of
and tampering with evidence have been raised to the agencies and to the
auditors. The response has been retaliation.
Dervis:
1st of 2 press conferences in 19 months
Since UNDP sent its spokesman
David Morrison to the UN's televised noon briefing on Thursday, Inner City Press
asked that he take questions on camera. From the
transcript:
Inner City
Press: I noticed the Spokesman for UNDP is here and I'm assuming this is about
these memos that have surfaced showing that requests were made earlier than
previously recorded about cash payments and seconded staff. Is he going to come
to the podium?
Spokesperson:
I understand that we do have Dave Morrison here and he is willing to take
questions. I actually don't know whether he is coming to the podium but we do
have a guest first. So, maybe you can talk to him immediately after the
briefing....
...Inner City
Press: I guess I just want to say on the UNDP thing, it will work much better
that Morrison come to the podium, whatever we're calling it, just because on
procurement, I know that you did... by Friday, they came, but they did it in the
hall and today they’re coming back. So it just seems it’s just more efficient
to just do it on the record or whatever.
Spokesperson:
Okay, well let's ask him after we finish.
Despite a second request, David Morrison
declined to speak on camera, but rather waited in the hall. At 1 p.m., Inner
City Press asked him if UNDP fires or suspends staff for providing documents to
the press. Mr. Morrison responded, "I don't know, I don't know enough about the
intricacies of UNDP's human resources policy.... I can look into it." Ten hours
later, no information had been provided.
During
those ten hours, UNDP management continued on what staff describe as a "witch
hunt," demanding to know who has spoken to the media, to Inner City Press, by
name. Ban Ki-moon has spoken of transparency and of rooting out corruption.
Suspending and threatening to retaliate against those who blow the whistle on
irregularities is inconsistent with this -- it is "criminal," in the words of
one UNDP staff member.
The local UN staff in North
Korea raised their concerns about cash payments and seconded staff to the UN's
Resident Coordinator Timo Pakkala in
January 2006.
Thursday Inner City Press asked David Morrison how and when
this information
was conveyed further up inside UNDP. "I don't know what is our standard
procedure with minutes of country team meetings," he said. "Can we find out?"
There was no answer. Meanwhile, the practice is that minutes of country team
meetings go to Regional Directors of each UN Country Team member -- in the case
of UNDP, to Hafiz Pasha.
Inner City Press is told that the warning
was conveyed to officials including UNDP Director of Finance Darshak Shah, to
Treasurer Julie Anne Mejia and to Jan Mattsson, the head then of UNDP's Bureau
of Management and now the Executive Director of UNOPS. Thursday, Inner City
Press asked again that UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis take questions. Morrison
said that he is the spokesman, and that "Kemal Dervis, as I think is
established, meets with the press on a very regular basis."
At UN
headquarters, Dervis last took questions in December 2006, before this North
Korea scandal broke, and before that not for sixteen months. Even to the UNDP
Executive Board session about the North Korea issues, Dervis did not appear.
Sources say that Dervis will not last long on the job. But the scandal will not
go away.
The attendees of the December 8, 2005 meeting in
Pyongyang, calling for reform:
Wannee
Piyabongkarm (WFP);
Lorraine Lamtey (WFP); Tony Shkurtaj (UNDP), Charles Lolika (UNICEF); Toe oung (WFP);
Umesh Gupta (WHO); Withers U (UNFPA).
Developing...
Other, earlier Inner
City Press are listed here, and
some are available in the ProQuest service.
Copyright 2006 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com -
UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile
(and weekends): 718-716-3540