UNDP Will Be Called to Greater Transparency, Says
President of Spain, on UNDP's Board, and Flaws of UNOPS
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN, 15th in a series Intro,
2nd,
3rd,
4th,
5th,
6th,
7th,
8th,
9th,
10th,
11th,
12th,
13th,
14th
UNITED NATIONS, December 18 -- The failure
of the UN Development Program to provide copies of its audits, even to the 36
countries which serve on its Executive Board, was raised on Monday to Spanish
president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Spain had just announced a major fund
with UNDP, in a photo-op with UNDP Administrator at which no questions were
allowed. Inner City Press asked about transparency, and bringing UNDP at least
in line with the rest of the UN system in terms of providing full copies of
audits. Video
here,
from minute 11:57. Spain in 2007 is on UNDP's Executive Board.
"In the management of public funds,
transparency must be a constant demand," Spanish president Zapatero said. "Of
course the government of Spain, as an active contributor to UN programs, always
wants maximum transparency... That is fundamental."
Therefore it would appear that at the
upcoming UNDP Executive Board meetings beginning January 19, 2007, Spain will be
looking for a change in UNDP policies -- or demanding such changes, if they have
not by then been formally proposed by the Dervis - Melkert regime at UNDP.
Messrs.
Zapatero and Ban Ki-Moon, Dec. 18, 2006
Ad Melkert on
December 15 answered Inner City Press' questions by stating that he is now
aiming for more transparency - click
here for
Inner City Press' story,
here for
a UN mis-summary, and
here
for a slightly more accurate UN News write-up, including:
"Responding
to a reporter's questions on the lack of availability and detail of UNDP audits
and the reported difficulty in getting media requests answered by the agency,
Mr. Melkert said any report that he had told staff not to talk to the press was
'absolutely totally ludicrous.' But he added he would like the agency's
transparency level to reach wider UN standards. 'Talking about transparency, the
best criterion for me is my own transparency - I'd like to bring our procedures
in line with the UN procedures, I think that should be normal, so I'm looking
into that at this moment,' he said."
Kemal Dervis appears for a press
conference on December 21 and well might be expected to commit himself on this
issue, even in his opening statement so that questions can be asked on other,
also-pressing matters.
UNDP manages the UN Office of Project
Services, UNOPS. Beyond the previously reported controversy regarding UNOPS'
(and UNDP's) provision of funds to support one side of the debate about Cyprus,
and the subsequent demand for testimony from UNDP's representative, there are
other UNOPS issues. Inner City Press has obtained an April 2006 memo concerning
UNOPS relocation to Copenhagen. Previously, senior UN officials have ridiculed
this move, purportedly to save funds, to Inner City Press. "Copenhagen sure has
a low cost of living," one said sarcastically. The Staff Council has other
concerns, including:
"Inadequate oversight of the MCC, which at that time
was chaired by the current Deputy Secretary-General, to ensure financial
disclipline and respond to management failures as evidenced in the audit reports
[of 2004, A/59/5/Add.10, Supp. No. 5J, etc.]....The executive board has been
generally vague on any specific measures to address structural and systemic
problems of UNOPS. There was no follow-up on the Staff Council's request to the
OIOS on management and waste of financial resources...UNOPS staff are not
considered as internal candidates at UNDP and other agencies in New York.
Affected General-Service staff holding a G-4 visa and unsuccessful in seeking
employment within 30 days after the end of their contract, will be required to
relocate to their home country."
This provision of U.S. immigration law,
that G-4 visa holders have to leave the U.S. thirty days after losing their job,
is a major factor in the fear of retaliation among staff and employees of the UN
in New York. A change in immigration law, or significant strengthening of
whistleblower protections are needed. UNDP's position will be inquired into
(particularly after UNDP answers the many long-pending questions, including one
concerning UNDP's activities in Somalia, and others for 2006 Trust Fund
Agreements for contributions from SPAIN, China, Norway, France, the UK, Russia
and the United States, and information about Africa, which should be provided
forthwith, including in keep with the December 18 statement of the president of
Spain, major UNDP contributor. Developing...
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
UNDP's Ad Melkert Says He Will Finally Increase
Transparency, Describes Fraud in Russia, Dodges Uganda
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN - 14th in a series Intro
followed by
2nd,
3rd,
4th,
5th,
6th,
7th,
8th,
9th,
10th,
11th,
12th,
13th
UNITED NATIONS, December 15 -- "I'd like
to bring our transparency in line with the UN procedure", the Associate
Administrator of the UN Development Program, Ad Melkert, answered Inner City
Press on Friday. This answer came after UNDP had refused to provide copies or
even summaries of audits of its admittedly
troubled Russian Federation office,
and after Inner City Press
pointed out
that the UN Secretariat at least provides full copies to any of the 192 member
states which make a request. Mr. Melkert added, "That should be normal...
Talking about transparency, the best criteria for me is my own transparency..
I'm looking into that right now." Video
here,
from Minute 45:46.
Inner City Press inquired into
a meeting Mr. Melkert held on December 1 with the staff of UNDP's Poverty Group,
concerning steps taken to quickly bring Jeffrey Sachs' team from the UN
Millennium Group onto the UNDP payroll. Having just referred to transparency,
Mr. Melkert nevertheless began with the "hope you are not going to ask me about
all the meeting that I've had." He continued that "for this exception case, yes,
this First December meeting, I was... It was a managerial decision to merge,
it's my responsibility, everybody can and should work with that. With respect to
staff rules, we have tried to make the best out of that." While confirming much
of what Inner City Press
sources have said
about the meeting, Mr. Melkert denied that he has told staff not to speak to the
press. Time will tell.
Mr. Melkert claimed that UNDP
never funded disarmament in Uganda, only "community development." Rather than
naming Karamoja, the region in Eastern Uganda in which the program was funded,
Mr. Melkert apparently confused it with the Lord's Resistance Army-impacted area
he called "Northern Uganda," where he said it is "hard to distinguish from the
situation of risk and potential conflict including the roles weapons play."
Video here,
from Minute 36:25. But William Orme, previously of UNDP's Communications Office,
said earlier in the year
there was a voluntary disarmament component, and UNDP in Uganda issued a
press release announcing the suspension of funding. When the seeming dissembling
spreads to the Number Two in the agency, the plot thickens. What will the often
invisible Number One, Kemal Dervis, have to say? While his December 18
appearance has been cancelled, Inner City Press was again told on Friday that he
will appear on December 21. He can be expected to be asked to spell out UNDP's
plan for greater transparency, among other things.
UNDP's
Klein in Uganda UNDP's Melkert in New York,
12/15/06
Perhaps as a forerunner of the increased
transparency needed at UNDP, hopefully as a sample of the type of response that
will come regarding other scandals and locales inquired into, the following was
provided to Inner City Press in response to questions:
Subject: UNDP
responses
From:
cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org
To: Inner City
Press
"On UNDP's
Russia office: Three Resident Representatives have headed the UNDP Country
Office (CO) in the Russian Federation since it began operations in 1997.
Philippe Elghouayel served from August 1997 until January 2001. Frederick Lyons
served from March 2001 until April 2003. Stefan Vassilev served as acting
Resident Representative from April until June 2003, and then as Resident
Representative from September 2003 until August 2005.
A full
internal UNDP audit of the Russia Country Office was conducted in August 2001.
This cited numerous shortcomings and gave the CO an overall rating of
"deficient." A follow-up partial audit was conducted in September 2003. This
noted improvement in many areas and issued a rating of "partially
satisfactory."
The discovery
of suspected fraudulent activity triggered an internal investigation in June
2005. This investigation concluded that one payment amounting to $190,000 was
fraudulent. Additional payments that could be fraudulent were under
investigation. Three former UNDP staff members, all locally employed Russian
nationals, were implicated in the fraud. All three resigned from the Country
Office before the investigation was launched.
When the
extent of the fraud became evident, Mr. Vassilev was summoned to headquarters.
He was removed from his post in August 2005 and subjected to disciplinary
proceedings stemming from shortcomings in management performance and oversight.
Mr. Vassilev is no longer employed by UNDP.
In September
2005, drawing on the evidence collected in the investigation, the UNDP
Administrator made an official request to Russian law enforcement authorities to
open a criminal investigation into the fraud. Such an investigation was opened
by the Moscow Prosecutor and is currently under way, with UNDP's active
cooperation.
UNDP informed
its Executive Board of the fraud, as part of its regular reporting processes. In
the wake of the special audit and rigorous internal reviews, UNDP has undertaken
a painstaking restructuring of its finance operations and management structure,
enacting the recommendations both of UNDP auditors and of a regular UN Board of
Auditors audit conducted early in 2006. In addition, oversight roles and
functions have been carefully reviewed at Headquarters, and fresh efforts have
been devoted to ensuring that audit recommendations are heeded.
To support
these corrective efforts, UNDP has assigned some of its most experienced staff
to the Russia CO. Ercan Murat, a UNDP veteran who had served previously as
Resident Representative in Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Afghanistan,
came out of retirement to serve as acting Resident Representative in Russia from
September 2005 until September 2006. Marco Borsotti, who currently serves as
UNDP Resident Representative in Azerbaijan, has received clearance from the
Russian Government and is expected to take up his post as the new Resident
Representative in January 2007.
The
effectiveness of UNDP's corrective measures was recently confirmed through an
independent external review which judged the management practices of the Russia
CO to be fundamentally sound and in line with UNDP regulations and standards."
There. Some of the things not yet
addressed are the Brussels funding for the Moscow planetarium project, as well
as the other requested audits concerning Honduras, Afghanistan and the Private
Sector Unit of the Bureau of Resources and Strategic Partnerships. There is also
the reference to "receiv[ing] clearance from the Russian Government," more on
which anon.
In fairness, on Thursday evening UNDP
sent Inner City Press among other things this denial:
---Original
Message-----
Subject: UNDP responses
From:
cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org
To: Inner City
Press
Sent: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 7:00 PM
"Dear Matthew,
regarding the allegations relating to the Bratislava Regional Centre... Ben Slay
has not collected any improper daily sustenance allowance at any time. We find
no suggestion that his predecessor did, either, but because his tenure ended
some time ago, we are pulling additional records out of storage to confirm this.
The Vienna office you appear to be making reference to opened before Ben Slay
even arrived as Director of the Bratislava Centre. Ben Slay sometimes works from
the Vienna office. He does not collect DSA for doing so. "
Sources in Bratislava indicate that the
individual opened a small UNPD office in Vienna, then sought to recruit other
UNDP officials in Slovakia to relocate to Vienna, "to make his move look less
strange." When an investigation into UNDP-Bratislava and the antics of Kalman
Mizsei began, the individual hurriedly moved back to Slovakia...
The UN Development Program Is Important For The Poor,
It Therefore Must Be Made Transparent
Tenth Installment in Inner City Press' Ongoing UNDP
Series, Reported by Matthew Russell Lee: Intro
followed by
second,
third,
fourth,
fifth,
sixth,
seventh,
eighth,
ninth
UNITED NATIONS, December 10 -- The UN
Development Program, a $5 billion agency whose Administrator Kemal Dervis has
not held a press conference in UN Headquarters for over 14 months, on December 8
issued a
press release attacking
Inner City Press by name. The same day, UNDP informed Inner City Press that it
would no longer respond to any requests for comments about seeming violations of
UN recruitment, hiring and promotion rules, and that it does not disclose to the
press or to the public its internal audits.
Given that it appears, at least for the
short term, that UNDP will not be providing even this basic information, despite
its status as an international agency funded by the publics of member states,
Inner City Press has decided to recapitulate the reasons that it began this
series about UNDP on November 29, and why it will continue. This brief overview
inevitably may mention UNDP's press release. But since UNDP did not
contact Inner City Press for comment before distributing its press release, and
only provided the subject of its statement with a copy six hours after it
was released.
UNDP's
Kemal Dervis, at left - holding secret audits?
UNDP has an important role,
including enabling development to benefit poor people. It is therefore important
that UNDP be transparent, both in its finances and its hiring and promotion
practices. UNDP often preaches to the governments of developing countries that
they must become more transparent. For example, only last week Neil Buhne,
UNPD's representative in Bulgaria and previously Belarus, preached in Sofia on
the topic of transparent administrative services, saying that a lack of
transparency can
intensity existing inequalities.
But this preaching must be applied all the more to UNDP itself. It is
particularly inappropriate for UNDP to now say that it will not release its
audits of its spending, nor comment on seeming violations of its own stated
rules against cronyism and sham competition in hiring and promotion.
There are many, many serious and
well-meaning people within UNDP. Some of them clearly see a need for
improvements in how UNDP is run, and feel the threat of retaliation if they make
their views known in a way in which their supervisors and other high UNDP
officials could identify them. For this reason, Inner City Press has been
willing where necessary to use anonymous sources in the course of this series.
Inner City Press follows accepted rules of journalism, explaining the reasons
for which a source has requested anonymity. As one employee said, "You will not
get any on the record sources on this story. But everyone in this workplace
knows this is true."
This last quote was concerned
widely-alleged sexual harassment by an individual whom UNDP selected to head up
its entire Europe and CIS States operation. It is time, then, to explain why
Inner City Press in this series has at time mentioned sexual harassment. While
this has provided a pretext for UNDP's Communications Office, and also former
UNDP Administrator, to try to portray the entire series as salacious and as a
violation of privacy, this aspect of harassment is integral to the story. First,
the incidents took place in the workplace. But also, the fact that the incidents
were allow to go on for so long, due to connections to high officials of the UN
and rich UN supporters, shows inappropriate favoritism and lawlessness within
this organization which so impacts the world's poor.
A UN source generally respected by Inner
City Press has explained that the UN is "like a village," leading to upset at
overly-personal investigative reporting. This village analogy seems apt, not
only among the press corps and members of Security Council members' missions,
but among the UN staff as a whole, for example in the Headquarters cafeteria, or
during this past summer's World Cup. There is another aspect, though: some of
the UN, particularly UNDP, is like a *feudal* village, in which a small group
and some courtiers who feel they are protected are left outside of
otherwise-applicable rules, and bristle if this is ever reported.
To do such reporting, one must be in
the village, but not entirely of it. UNDP has asked Inner City Press,
"Who is telling you these things?" But Inner City Press will not sell out its
sources. UNDP has demanded to speak with editors or, it would seem, corporate
owners amenable to pressure. It is a dynamic well sketched by one of the paragon
American journalists, I.F. Stone, and it is not a demand to which Inner City
Press will acquiesce.
UNDP, even after declaring that is will
not respond to questions about seeming violations of applicable rules on hiring
and promotion, has sent Inner City Press a ludicrous list of supposedly required
corrections. These include demands that a headline, "UNDP Spent $567,000 on a
Book to Praise Itself," be modified since it is UNDP's position that despite the
payments, the book is a work of independent scholarship. Perhaps UNDP deserves
this repetition of the argument. But reasonable minds can and do
disagree with UNDP.
We have waited to the near-end
of this column to sketch the history and motives of Inner City Press. First,
Inner City Press has long reported on and been immersed in community development
efforts. Among other things, Inner City Press has investigated and reported on
redlining by banks: their failure to lend fairly to low income people. In
connection with this reporting, Inner City Press vindicated the rights to
information of the wider press corps, for example in a Freedom of Information
Act win in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, reported in the New
York Times earlier this year. Click
here for
a more detailed write-up by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Inner City Press' investigative series on
Citigroup, which like this series included reporting on the nitty-gritty of
employment practices, resulted in Citigroup being held accountable to its
overseer, the Federal Reserve Board, which imposed a fine of $75 million and
required detailed reforms. But where are the overseers of UNDP?
In its UN reporting, Inner City Press
most often focuses on human rights. In fact, Inner City Press' first stories on
UNDP involved the agency's funding of disarmament programs in Uganda, where
civilians have ended up killed in the name of disarmament, as now confirmed by
the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights. UNDP's Communications Office
repeatedly misstated and tried to downplay UNDP's enabling of the Ugandan
People's Defense Forces' disarmament programs, and despite having quietly
announced a suspension of funding in June, has most recently reverted to entire
denial. The issue will continue to be pursued so that it is not repeated.
To avoid any misunderstanding, which some
have tried to cause, that Inner City Press is part of the so-called vast right
wing conspiracy, we simply state that Inner City Press has most often be placed
in the public record on the left wing side of the equation. That does not mean
that lack of transparency and lack of accountability in programs to benefit to
the poor should be excused -- in fact, quite the contrary, in fact. That is the
motive and justification for this ongoing series.
Some have asked, why UNDP and
not (yet) other UN agencies. Only a few months ago, Inner City Press inquired
closely into the process for selecting Josette Sheeran Shiner as the new head of
the World Food Program. But the range of issues at UNDP, from a lack of
oversight on disarmament programs it funded in Uganda, to allowing its head of
European and CIS states to run wild (to choose only two examples), may indicate
that UNDP's amorphous mandate combined with a lack of transparency and of
independent press coverage have resulted a fiefdom whose only response to
questions is to attack the questioner. How
UNDP's December 8 press release
comports with the UN System's exhortations for journalistic freedom, or with
UNDP's own purported attempts to encourage governments in the developing world
to allow for media independence, remains to be seen.
Since we cannot resist further reporting,
we feel that the following UNDP staff email, the identity of whose sender we
will protect due to fear of retaliation, may show why we use anonymous sources
and why UNDP's arbitrary employment practices are a legitimate journalistic
subject. This extended quote precisely illustrated the reality of UNDP conduct
in connection with the Millennium Development Goals project.
Dear Matthew,
thanks for your recent coverage of UNDP HR policies. I would like to reconfirm
your information regarding the integration of the Millennium Project (MP) in
UNDP Bureau for Development Policy Poverty Group, directed by Nora Lustig.
The evidence
gathered in the adopted project document regarding Dr. Sachs' remuneration shows
that over 200,000 US Dollars are supposed to cover his services. I believe you
already have this document in your possession.
The problems
associated with the Millennium Project's integration go far beyond Dr. Sachs'
charity fees. Ms. Chandrika Bahadur and M. Guido Schmidt-Traub, who have been
working for the MP over the last years have benefited from the different
breaches of procedures during the merger. Their "new" positions with UNDP have
only been advertised for a week on a limited basis. There has not been a formal
panel interview process but a mere "desk review" of the different candidates.
Following that fast-track process, MM. Melkert and Gleeson recommended the
appointment of Ms. Bahadur and M. Schmidt-Traub as policy advisors and, for the
latter, head of the MDG support team. While both candidates show limited
professional and managerial experience, they have furthermore benefited from
promotions that are not linked with their background. Ms. Bahadur has been hired
as P4 though she does not have the minimum professional required for that level
(7 years). M Schmidt Traub has been appointed as P5 and head of MDG support team
though he has very limited managerial experience (this position involves
managing a team of 25 professional staff) no background in economics or
development (M. Schmidt Traub has a degree in Chemistry).... At the junior
level, some Research Associate staff do not even have master's degrees, which is
mandatory to be considered even for an internship.
Following
growing tensions among UNDP staff, M. Melkert, UNDP Associate Administrator, met
the extended Poverty group team on December 1. He took full responsibility for
the decisions made regarding the merger between the MP and the Poverty Group,
including HR management decisions. The Associate Administrator considers that it
is the role of UNDP's top management to make strategic decisions, including
breaking UNDP HR policies in the name of necessity and higher interests. This
approach is not acceptable within an international organization accountable to
member countries and publicly funded.
Hopefully
member states will take the opportunity of UNDP Executive Board meeting to ask
UNDP Senior management for clarification on these matters."
We share that final hope, and trust that
this series will play some small role in cleaning up UNDP, for the benefit of
the poor. And so this series will continue.
Here is / was UNDP's position on the
above-described:
From: cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 6:27 PM
Subject: RE: Additional Qs re UNDP, response to your Q re deadlines,
thank you in advance
Dear Matthew,
For the record, Jeffrey Sachs will continue to be involved with the UN’s
effort on the Millennium Development Goals. As of 1 January, he will
serve as Special Adviser to UNDP on the Millennium Development Goals.
His salary will continue to be $75,000 per year.... we have decided to merge the work of the
Millennium Project into UNDP. To this end, UNDP has set up a new
sub-unit in our poverty group, which will consist of some 20 positions.
To complete the integration by the end of the year, UNDP management is
using an expedited competitive recruiting process for five lead
positions. These five positions have been advertised and are in the
process of being filled.
Five other positions do not require a competitive process under UNDP
recruitment procedures and will be filled with people currently working
for the Millennium Project.
All other positions will be recruited according to standard UNDP
recruitment procedures, and this process is on-going.
and
then
In a message dated 12/8/2006 7:14:39 PM Eastern Standard Time,
cassandra.waldon@undp.org writes:
Dear Matthew,
UNDP is working to address the numerous questions you have asked us. As many of
your concerns touch upon similar kinds of issues we thought it might be helpful
if we were to state, for the record:
--That we will no longer be responding to unsubstantiated allegations about
UNDP’s recruitment and personnel practices. We urge you to desist from
publishing such allegations...
--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 in the form of an annual Administrator’s report on
Internal Audit and Oversight...
In this, UNDP lags behind even
the rest of the UN System. Compare to Secretariat's Office of Internal Oversight
Services (OIOS), under General Assembly Resolution 59/272 of December 23, 2004:
--
OIOS provides a summary of all of its reports to all member states as
well as the general public in its annual reports; whereas UNDP only provides
a summary of its reports to the limited membership of its executive board (with
not even summaries provided to the general public).
-- OIOS makes some reports available as public documents; UNDP makes no reports
available to the general public.
-- OIOS makes all non-public reports available to all member states at
their request; UNDP makes only summaries (and not the full text of reports)
available to only 36 out of 192 member states.
This is not to say that the UN Secretariat is transparent enough -- rather, that
UNDP is even less transparency, despite its $5 billion a year budget.
Developing.
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, including but not limited to withheld internal audits, flowing.
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
At the UN,
Indigenous Rights Get Deferred, As U.S. Abstains, Deftly or Deceptively
At the UN,
Threat and Possible Statement on Fiji Spotlights Selection and Payment
of UN Peacekeepers
At the UN, China
and Islamic Dev't Bank Oppose Soros and World Bank On How to Fight
Poverty
At the UN,
Misdirection on Somalia and Myanmar, No Answers from UNDP's Kemal Dervis
UNDP Dodges
Questions of Disarmament Abuse in Uganda and of Loss of Togo AIDS Grant,
Dhaka Snafu
At the UN, The
Swan Song of Jan Egeland and the Third Committee Loop, Somalia Echoes
Congo
UN Silent As
Protesters Tear Gassed in Ivory Coast, As UNMOVIC Plods On and War
Spreads in Somalia
In the UN,
Uzbekistan Gets a Pass on Human Rights As Opposition to U.S. Grows and
War's On in Somalia
At the UN,
Cluster Bombs Unremembered, Uighurs Disappeared and Jay-Z Returns with
Water -- for Life
From the UN,
Silence on War Crimes Enforcement and Conflicts of Interest on Complaint
from Bahrain
En Route to
Deutsche Bank, the UN's Door Revolves, While Ban Ki-moon Arrives and
Moldova Spins
As Two UN
Peacekeepers Are Killed, UN Says Haiti's Improving, Ban Ki-moon on
Zimbabwe?
Nagorno-Karabakh President Disputes Fires and Numbers, Oil and UN, in
Exclusive Interview with Inner City Press
Inside the UN,
Blaming Uganda's Victims, Excusing Annan on Mugabe, and U.S. Blocked
Darfur Trip
U.S. Blocked
Council's Trip to Darfur Meeting, Brazzaville Envoy Explains After U.S.
Casts a Veto
At the UN,
Council Works Overtime To Cancel Its Trip About Darfur, While DC Muses
on John Bolton
UN Panel's
"Coherence" Plan Urges More Power to UNDP, Despite Its Silence on Human
Rights
On Water, UNDP
Talks Human Rights, While Enabling Violations in Africa and Asia, With
Shell and Coca-Cola
Will UN's
Revolving Door Keep Human Rights Lost, Like Bush's Call and WFP
Confirmation Questions?
On Somalia,
We Are All Ill-Informed, Says the UN, Same on Uganda, Lurching Toward
UNDP Power Grab
On WFP, Annan and
Ban Ki-Moon Hear and See No Evil, While Resume of Josette Sheeran Shiner
Is Edited
Would Moon
Followers Trail Josette Sheeran Shiner into WFP, As to U.S. State Dep't?
At the UN,
Positions Are Up For the Grabbing, Sun's Silence on Censorship, Advisor
Grabs for Gun
In WFP Race,
Josette Sheeran Shiner Praises Mega Corporations from Cornfield While
State Spins
At the UN,
Housing Subsidy Spin, Puntland Mysteries of UNDP and the Panama Solution
In Campaign to
Head UN WFP, A Race to Precedents' Depths, A Murky Lame Duck Appointment
At the UN,
Gbagbo and his Gbaggage, Toxic Waste and Congolese Sanctions
WFP Brochure-Gate? John Bolton Has Not Seen Brochure
of "Official" U.S. Candidate to Head World Food Program
Ivory Coast
Stand-Off Shows Security Council Fault Lines: News Analysis
At the UN,
It's Groundhog's Day on Western Sahara, Despite Fishing Deals and
Flaunting of the Law
"Official" U.S.
Candidate to Head WFP Circulates Brochure With Pulitzer Claim, UN Staff
Rules Ignored
Senegal's
President Claims Peace in Casamance and Habre Trial to Come, A Tale of
Two Lamines
A Tale of Two
Americans Vying to Head the World Food Program, Banbury and Sheeran
Shiner
At the UN, the Unrepentant Blogger Pronk, a Wink
on 14 North Korean Days and Silence on Somalia
At the UN,
Literacy Losses in Chad, Blogless Pronk and Toothless Iran Resolution,
How Our World Turns
Sudan Pans Pronk
While Praising Natsios, UN Silent on Haiti and WFP, Ivorian Fingers
Crossed
UN Shy on North
Korea, Effusive on Bird Flu and Torture, UNDP Cyprus Runaround, Pronk is
Summoned Home
At the UN,
Silence from UNDP on Cyprus, from France on the Chad-Bomb, Jan Pronk's
Sudan Blog
Russia's Vostok
Battalion in Lebanon Despite Resolution 1701, Assembly Stays Deadlocked
and UNDP Stays Missing
As
Turkmenistan Cracks Down on Journalists, Hospitals and Romance, UNDP Works
With the Niyazov Regime
At the UN,
Darfur Discussed, Annan Eulogized and Oil For Food Confined to a
Documentary Footnote
With All Eyes
on Council Seat, UN is Distracted from Myanmar Absolution and Congo
Conflagration
As Venezuela and
Guatemala Square Off, Dominicans In Default and F.C. Barcelona De-Listed
At the UN, North
Korea Sanctions Agreed On, Naval Searches and Murky Weapons Sales
At the UN,
Georgia Speaks of Ethnic Cleansing While Russia Complains of Visas
Denied by the U.S.
At the UN,
Deference to the Congo's Kabila and Tank-Sales to North Korea, of
Slippery Eels and Sun Microsystems
At the UN,
Annan's Africa Advisor Welcome Chinese Investment, Dodges Zimbabwe, Nods
to Darfur
At the UN,
Richard Goldstone Presses Enforcement on Joseph Kony, Reflecting Back on
Karadzic
UN Defers on
Anti-Terror Safeguards to Member States, Even in Pakistan and Somalia
Afghanistan
as Black Hole for Info and Torture Tales, Photos and Talk Mogadishu, the
UN Afterhours
Amid UN's Korean
Uproar, Russia Silent on Murder of Anna Politkovskaya, Chechnya Exposer
UN Envoy Makes
Excuses for Gambian Strongman, Whitewashing Fraud- and Threat-Filled
Election
Sudan's UN
Envoy Admits Right to Intervene in Rwanda, UNICEF Response on Terrorist
Groups in Pakistan
At the UN, As
Next S-G is Chosen, Annan Claims Power to Make 5-Year Appointments,
Quiet Filing and Ivory Coast Concessions
Chaos in UN's
Somalia Policy, Working With Islamists Under Sanctions While Meeting
with Private Military Contractors
U.S. Candidate
for UN's World Food Program May Get Lame Duck Appointment, Despite
Korean Issues
At the
UN, U.S. Versus Axis of Airport, While Serge Brammertz Measures
Non-Lebanese Teeth
Exclusion from
Water Is Called Progress, of Straw Polls and WFP Succession
William Swing
Sings Songs of Congo's Crisis, No Safeguards on Coltan Says Chairman of
Intel
Warlord in the
Waldorf and Other Congo Questions Dodged by the UN in the Time Between
Elections
In Some New
Orleans, Questions Echo from the South Bronx and South Lebanon
In New Orleans,
While Bone Is Thrown in Superdome, Parishes Still In Distress
At the UN, Tales
of Media Muzzled in Yemen, Penned in at the Waldorf on Darfur, While
Copters Grounded
US's Frazer
Accuses Al-Bashir of Sabotage, Arab League of Stinginess, Chavez of
Buying Leaders -
Click
here for
video file by Inner City Press.
Third Day of UN
General Debate Gets Surreal, Canapes and Killings, Questions on Iran and
Montenegro and Still Somalia
On Darfur, Hugo
Chavez Asks for More Time to Study, While Planning West Africa Oil
Refinery
At the UN, Ivory
Coast Discussed Without Decision on Toxic Politics, the Silence of
Somalia
Evo Morales
Blames Strike on Mobbed-Up Parasites, Sings Praise of Coca Leaf and Jabs
at Coca-Cola
Musharraf Says
Unrest in Baluchistan Is Waning, While Dodging Question on Restoring
Civilian Rule
At the UN, Cyprus
Confirms 'Paramilitary' Investigation, Denies Connection to Def Min
Resignation, CBTB Update
A Tale
of Three Leaders, Liberia Comes to Praise and Iran and Sudan to Bury the UN
UN Round-up:
Poland's President Says Iraq Is Ever-More Tense While Amb. Bolton Talks
Burmese Drugs, Spin on Ivory Coast
As UN's Annan
Now Says He Will Disclose, When and Whether It Will Be to the Public and
Why It Took So Long Go Unasked
At the UN,
Stonewalling Continues on Financial Disclosure and Letter(s) U.S.
Mission Has, While Zimbabwe Goes Ignored
At the UN,
Financial Disclosure Are Withheld While Freedom of Information Is
Promised, Of Hollywood and Dictators' Gift Shops
UN's Annan Says
Dig Into Toxic Dumping, While Declining to Discuss Financial Disclosure
A Still-Unnamed
Senior UN Official in NY Takes Free Housing from His Government,
Contrary to UN Staff Regulations
UN Admits To
Errors in its Report on Destruction of Congolese Village of Kazana,
Safeguards Not In Place
As UN Checks
Toxins in Abidjan, the Dumper Trafigura Figured in Oil for Food Scandal,
Funded by RBS and BNP Paribas
Targeting of
African Americans For High Cost Mortgages Grew Worse in 2005, While Fed
Downplays Its Own Findings
The UN and
Nagorno-Karabakh: Flurries of Activity Leave Frozen Conflicts Unchanged;
Updates on Gaza, Gavels and Gbagbo
The UN Cries
Poor on Lawless Somalia, While Its Ex-Security Chief Does Business
Through Ruleless Revolving Door
At the UN,
Micro-States Simmer Under the Assembly's Surface, While Incoming Council
President Dodges Most Questions
"Horror Struck"
is How UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments Would Leave
U.S., Referral on Burma But Not Uzbekistan
Security Council
President Condemns UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments,
While UK "Doesn't Do It Any More"
At the UN,
Incomplete Reforms Allow for Gifts of Free Housing to UN Officials by
Member States
Rare UN Sunshine
From If Not In Chad While Blind on Somalia and Zimbabwe, UNDP With Shell
in its Ear on Nigeria
Annan Family
Ties With Purchaser from Compass, Embroiled in UN Scandal, Raise
Unanswered Ethical Questions
At the UN, from
Casamance to Transdniestria, Kosovars to Lezgines, Micro-States as
Powerful's Playthings
Inquiry Into
Housing Subsidies Contrary to UN Charter Goes Ignored for 8 Weeks, As
Head UN Peacekeeper Does Not Respond
On the UN -
Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost
Stop Bank
Branch Closings and Monopolies in the Katrina Zone, Group Says,
Challenging Regions- AmSouth Merger
Ship-Breakers
Missed by UN's Budget for Travel and Consultants in Bangladesh, Largest
UNIFIL Troop Donor
With Somalia on
the Brink of Horn-Wide War, UN Avoids Question of Ethiopian Invasion
In UN's Lebanon
Frenzy, Darfur Is Ignored As Are the Disabled, "If You Crave UNIFIL,
Can't You Make Do With MONUC?"
UN Decries
Uzbekistan's Use of Torture, While Helping It To Tax and Rule; Updates
on UNIFIL and UNMIS Off-Message
On Lebanon,
Russian Gambit Focuses Franco-American Minds, Short Term Resolution Goes
Blue Amid Flashes of Lightening
Africa Can Solve
Its Own Problems, Ghanaian Minister Tells Inner City Press, On LRA Peace
Talks and Kofi Annan's Views
At the UN, Jay-Z
Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka
Kilcher in the Basement
In the UN
Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a
Shebaa Farms Solution?
UN Knew of Child
Soldier Use by Two Warlords Whose Entry into Congo Army the UN
Facilitated
Impunity's in
the Air, at the UN in Kinshasa and NY, for Kony and Karim and MONUC for
Kazana
UN Still Silent
on Somalia, Despite Reported Invasion, In Lead-Up to More Congo Spin
UN's Guehenno
Says Congo Warlord Just Needs Training, and Kazana Probe Continues
With Congo
Elections Approaching, UN Issues Hasty Self-Exoneration as Annan Is
Distracted
In DR Congo, UN
Applauds Entry into Army of Child-Soldier Commander Along with Kidnapper
Spinning the
Congo, UN Admits Hostage Deal with Warlord That Put Him in Congolese
Army
At the UN, Dow
Chemical's Invited In, While Teaming Up With Microsoft is Defended
Kofi Annan
Questioned about Congolese Colonel Who Kidnapped Seven UN Soldiers
UN Silent As
Congolese Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made An Army Colonel: News
Analysis
UN's Guehenno
Speaks of "Political Overstretch" Undermining Peacekeeping in Lower
Profile Zones
In Gaza Power
Station, the Role of Enron and the U.S. Government's OPIC Revealed by UN
Sources
UN's Corporate
Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and
UNDP Continues
BTC Briefing,
Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations
Conflicts of
Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts
UN Grapples with
Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without
Explanation
UN Gives Mugabe
Time with His Friendly Mediator, Refugees Abandoned
At the UN,
Friday Night's Alright for Fighting; Annan Meets Mugabe
UN Acknowledges
Abuse in Uganda, But What Did Donors Know and When? Kazakh Questions
In Uganda, UNDP
to Make Belated Announcement of Program Halt, But Questions Remain (and
see
The New Vision,
offsite).
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Leads UN Agency to Suspend Its Work and Spending
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Blamed on UNDP, Still Silent on Finance
Alleged Abuse in
Disarmament in Uganda Known by UNDP, But Dollar Figures Still Not Given:
What Did UN Know and When?
Strong Arm on
Small Arms: Rift Within UN About Uganda's Involuntary Disarmament of
Karamojong Villages
UN's Selective
Vision on Somalia and Wishful Thinking on Uighurs
UN Habitat
Predicts The World Is a Ghetto, But Will Finance Be Addressed at
Vancouver World Urban Forum?
UN's Annan
Concerned About Use of Terror's T-Word to Repress, Wants
Freedom of Information
UN Waffles on
Human Rights in Central Asia and China; ICC on Kony and a Hero from
Algiers
UN & US,
Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty
and Senator Tom Coburn
Human Rights
Forgotten in UN's War of Words, Bolton versus Mark Malloch Brown: News
Analysis
In Praise of
Migration, UN Misses the Net and Bangalore While Going Soft on Financial
Exclusion
UN Sees Somalia
Through a Glass, Darkly, While Chomsky Speaks on Corporations and
Everything But Congo
Corporate Spin on
AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence
The Silence of
the Congo and Naomi Watts; Between Bolivia and the World Bank
Human Rights
Council Has Its Own Hanging Chads; Cocky U.S. State Department Spins
from SUVs
Child Labor and
Cargill and Nestle; Iran, Darfur and WHO's on First with Bird Flu
Press Freedom?
Editor Arrested by Congo-Brazzaville, As It Presides Over Security
Council
The
Place of the Cost-Cut UN in Europe's Torn-Up Heart;
Deafness to Consumers, Even by the Greens
Background Checks
at the UN, But Not the Global Compact; Teaching Statistics from
Turkmenbashi's Single Book
Ripped Off Worse
in the Big Apple, by Citigroup and Chase: High Cost Mortgages Spread in
Outer Boroughs in 2005, Study Finds
Burundi: Chaos at
Camp for Congolese Refugees, Silence from UNHCR, While Reform's Debated
by Forty Until 4 AM
The Chadian
Mirage: Beyond French Bombs, Is Exxon In the Cast? Asylum and the
Uzbeks, Shadows of Stories to Come
Through the UN's
One-Way Mirror, Sustainable Development To Be Discussed by Corporations,
Even Nuclear Areva
Racial
Disparities Grew Worse in 2005 at Citigroup, HSBC and Other Large Banks
Mine Your Own
Business: Explosive Remnants of War and the Great Powers, Amid the
Paparazzi
Human Rights Are
Lost in the Mail: DR Congo Got the Letter, But the Process is Still
Murky
Iraq's Oil to be
Metered by Shell, While Basrah Project Remains Less than Clear
Kofi, Kony,
Kagame and Coltan: This Moment in the Congo and Kampala
As Operation
Swarmer Begins, UN's Qazi Denies It's Civil War and Has No Answers if
Iraq's Oil is Being Metered
Cash Crop: In
Nepal, Bhutanese Refugees Prohibited from Income Generation Even in
their Camps
The Shorted and
Shorting in Humanitarian Aid: From Davos to Darfur, the Numbers Don't
Add Up
UN Reform:
Transparency Later, Not Now -- At Least Not for AXA - WFP Insurance
Contract
In the Sudanese
Crisis, Oil Revenue Goes Missing, UN Says
Empty Words on
Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN and Georgia
What is the Sound
of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War
at UN
Kosovo: Of
Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of
Ferronikeli Mines
Abkhazia:
Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia
Post-Tsunami
Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
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