UNDP's
Silence on No Audit Help from N. Korea Broken By Barcena, Diamond Questions
Multiply
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, May
16 -- The 90-day "urgent audit" of the North Korea operations of the UN
Development Program which Ban Ki-moon called for 117 days ago "has been
finalized and sent to the principles, France, the Philippines and South Africa,"
Under Secretary General for Management Alicia Barcena said on Wednesday.
Inner
City Press asked Ms. Barcena to explain how this audit can have credibility
without any visit to North Korea to see how and where the money was spent. Ms.
Barcena replied that the decision "not to solicit a visa" was made by the Board
of Auditors, which is by Pierre Brodeur of France and includes Ms. Odette Anthoo
of South Africa, Mr. Dioni Abalos of the Philippines and Ms. Martine Latare,
also of France.
Ms.
Barcena said that whether this decision by the Board of Auditors can be judged
"next week," when she said the audit will go to the UN's Advisory Committee on
Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ). But Ms. Barcena also said that
if the Secretariat -- for which she and Controller Warren Sach are the point
people on the issue -- had decided that visiting North Korea was essential to
the audit, they would have "helped them pursue" the visas.
DPRK
(neither UNDP nor auditors shown)
Inner
City Press asked about a May 4 UNDP document which recites that March 26, the
Kim Jong Il government "informed UNDP that while the audit exercise could be
held in DPRK for other UN agencies, UNDP could not expect Government to agree to
an audit of UNDP programs." Ms. Barcena said, "Yes there was this
communication." Video
here,
from Minute 58:10.
Ms.
Barcena's response Wednesday was more candid, or at least more affirmative, than
the Spokesperson's referral Tuesday to merely ask UNDP (again) about it. From
the
transcript:
Inner City Press: Also, you’ve got this
document where UNDP’s Bureau for Asia and the Pacific states that the North
Korean Government told them on 26 March that UNDP could not expect the
Government to agree to an audit of UNDP programs. This is a letter the UNDP
circulated to its own Executive Board. How does this relate to the idea that if
they wanted to go they could go? This seems to make pretty clear that UNDP was
told by the Government that they wouldn't "agree to" an audit.
Spokesperson: This should be addressed to
UNDP.
Inner City Press: I have a question
pending there for eight days. That’s why I’m asking you.
And
still no response, including on Inner City Press' question from May 11 about
the UN Secretariat's second-highest legal officer's reported letter confirming
an investigation into UNDP in Zimbabwe. Inner City Press asked UNDP in writing:
Also, as
arose at
the UN's noon briefing on Friday,
please describe any investigation of
UNDP's role in
the diamond industry and
diamond smuggling in Zimbabwe,
and
Please confirm, yes or no, has the UN
(through a UNDP-funded entity called AMSCO or any other entity), provided any
financial or in-kind support to the "River Ranch Limited" diamond mine in
Zimbabwe, one of whose directors one of whose directors is on a sanctions list?
UNDP has not responded. Nor did the Spokesperson say anything more about
this, after Inner City Press asked about it on May 11, until it arose again on
May 16 at the noon briefing:
Question: ...with regard to the letter
leaked, written by Larry Johnson, Legal Counsel, over allegations over Zimbabwe
and diamond smuggling and so forth. Do you have a comment on the status of that
investigation? That’s not for UNDP to comment on. UNDP doesn't want to comment
on that, since it’s not their investigation, it’s a Secretariat thing, as I
understand, but maybe I'm wrong. But would you please clarify what the
situation is with that investigation?
Spokesperson: I can only say that we are
aware of these allegations regarding to the letter sent by the Deputy Legal
Counsel, Larry Johnson. As you know, he thanked the sender for bringing the
allegations to the attention of the United Nations, and he said it is being
followed up. We have nothing new about this investigation.
Question: Okay, maybe you have nothing
new, but can you explain, what is the status of this investigation? Can you
treat me as if I know nothing about this, which I almost do? So what is the
status of what Larry Johnson is doing?
Spokesperson: There were allegations that
were made and these allegations are being looked into, first by UNDP itself.
And there will be a decision on whether to go beyond that.
Question: But, Larry Johnson doesn’t work
for UNDP.
Spokesperson: No. He's the Deputy Legal
Counsel who received the letter and answered.
Question: So his letter is saying that
UNDP is looking into the matter? I'm sorry, I'm totally confused. Why is
somebody working for the Secretariat writing about what UNDP is doing? I
thought they were separate.
Spokesperson: Because he received the
letter. You know, UNDP is not separate.
Question: Well, every time we ask a
question about UNDP in here we're referred to go to UNDP, so that suggests that
there is the suggestion that you treat yourselves as separate.
Spokesperson: But in this case, the
allegations were transmitted to Mr. Johnson, so that's why he answered them.
Question: So, just to clarify. There’s
nothing happening at the Secretariat level in terms of this investigation. It's
purely, only, a UNDP affair right now. Is that correct?
Spokesperson: At this point, yes...
Question: Is the allegation basically
that UNDP vehicles were used to get diamonds out of Zimbabwe?
Spokesperson: These were the original
allegations, but they have not been verified.
Inner City Press: This is also on
Zimbabwe. It's been reported that, although Larry Johnson said there was an
investigation, the Resident Rep of UNDP in Zimbabwe said there was no
investigation. That’s one of the reasons I asked you on Friday, and frankly, I
was surprised I never got an answer to that until today. But UNDP on the ground
said there’s no investigation. Larry Johnson says there is. This is why the
question of who’s doing the investigation if UNDP says there is none.
Spokesperson: Okay, so we can check a
little more on that.
UNDP's
Administrator Kemal Dervis has not held a press conference to answer questions
since December 2006, and not for more than a year before that. Associate
Administrator Ad Melkert has not come to speak since late January, even as he
has used UNDP's communications office to issue statements about the World Bank
president (regarding whom, without in any way defending, consider not only
Melkert's hiring of a Dutch Labor Party activist but now also
this UN
analogy).
Even
UNDP's David Morrison has not come to do a briefing on this, despite requests
from a number of correspondents that UNDP come and answer questions at least
weekly. This is the agency that is proposed to be made the central point of the
UN's presence in countries all over the world, under the "One-UN" or
"System-wide Coherence" proposal. The wisdom of that proposal, as relates to
UNDP, becomes more dubious by the day.
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.
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UN Office: S-453A,
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Reporter's mobile
(and weekends): 718-716-3540