At the UN, Jeffrey Sachs Answers the $75,000 Question But Not on UNDP, Still Laudable Goals for 2025

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN - 17th in a series 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th

UNITED NATIONS, December 20 -- Two faces of development aid were on display Wednesday at the UN, and both on  the same person. Jeffrey Sachs took questions from journalists, urging them to "keep your eye on" aid "commitments and gaps" to ensure funding for such initiative and medicated bed-nets against malaria, and a Green Revolution in Africa project of the Rockefeller and Gates Foundations. Smaller-scale, he acknowledged having previously been paid $75,000 a year by the UN Development Program, but stated that he has quite recently decided not to accept such funds in 2007 "so that there will be no confusion." Some who welcomed the announcement expressed hope that UNDP might someday become equally as adverse to confusion.

            During the now three weeks of Inner City Press' daily series on the UN Development Program, sources in UNDP have described a process in which the entire staff of the UN Millennium Project, which Mr. Sachs has led since 2002, was merged into UNDP, in seeming violation of applicable recruiting and hiring rules. UNDP has stated in writing that it will not respond to questions about these employment practices, nor will it release audits, neither to the media nor to countries which fund UNDP. Regarding Mr. Sachs, several UNDP sources suggested that inquiry be made into compensation beyond the previously announced One Dollar a Year service to the Secretary General.

            On December 6, UNDP finally wrote to Inner City Press, as is relevant to this story, that

Subject: RE: Additional Qs re UNDP

From: cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 6:27 PM

   Dear Matthew...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.

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.

            Outside spokeswoman Erin Trowbridge had previously confirmed in response to Inner City Press' questions that Mr. Sachs was being paid $75,000; UNDP stated that this would continue in 2007.

            Wednesday Inner City Press asked Mr. Sachs for his view on whether UNDP should, like the UN Secretary, make full copies of its audits available to any member state which asks, rather than only providing summaries of audits, and then only to the 36 nations on UNDP's Executive Committee, as is currently the case at UNDP. Inner City Press had on Monday asked the same question to the prime minister of Spain, who said, yes, that should happen, "of course."

            "I don't have any considered view or any expertise on this," Mr. Sachs responded on Wednesday, declining to comment further on audits.

            Inner City Press then asked Mr. Sachs to comment on the complaints of UNDP staff that the Millennium Project personnel are being brought into UNDP in violation of staff rules -- "making a mockery," one impacted UNDP staffer called it.

            "I am not aware of any of that process," Mr. Sachs said.

            Given Sachs' declining to comment on UNDP's policy on disclosure of audits and on lower-level and / or longer-time UNDP staff's distress at favoritism shown to Sachs' entourage, Inner City Press asked about the $75,000 payments, based on UNDP's begrudging disclosure of them.

            "That was during the Millennium Project. It is not the case going forward," Mr. Sachs said. Video here, from Minute 12:20.

            Inner City Press wanted to ask about UNDP's statement, two weeks ago, that these payments would be made in 2007 as well, but the moderator turned to another reporter, promising to allow further questions from Inner City Press later.

Messrs. Sachs and Annan

            Mr. Sachs went on to speak of bed-nets and projects in Malawi, to praise Hillary Benn of the UK and a fertilizer conference in Nigeria. A reporter from a salmon-colored daily opined that UNDP's Administrator Kemal Dervis has been missing in action for 14 months, and that UNDP's communications office is barely function, other than to strike back at reporters in attempts at brand control; he referred to the sound of tumbleweed blowing down First Avenue. Mr. Sachs responded that Mr. Dervis has been busy with the high level panel on coherence, after which the level of emailing has "scaled up."

            Once allowed another question, Inner City Press asked about UNDP's email of December 6. "Was that not true at the time?"

            "That's not true," Mr. Sachs said. "I will take in one dollar in salary, honorary."

            Inner City Press asked Mr. Sachs to explain accepting the payments in previous years, after acknowledging that it's not a huge amount of money.

            "To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure," Mr. Sachs said. "I took a modest salary, it's not modest for most of the world [but] modest in the context of round the clock work for four years, sir." Mr. Sachs paused. "I did not do this job for the money, I can assure you," he said. Video here, from Minute 43:56.  This final line, but neither the correct figures or quotes, appear in the UN's official write-up of the briefing, click here to view. Then again, the write-up on UN's "unofficial" News Service did not mention any figure, or the issues, at all, click here to view. (The UN's reflexive is sometimes Orwellian defensiveness and revisionism is not, we're clear, the fault of Professor Sachs.)

            After the press conference was over and the cameras were turned off, Mr. Sachs repeated to Inner City Press, "I did not do this job for the money, I've had much more lucrative offers."

            Inner City Press asked when the decision was made to not accept the money in 2007.

            Very recently, was the answer. Presumably after UNDP's December 6 email. Why, then, didn't UNDP send Inner City Press an update, in which case the $75,000 question would not have come up at Mr. Sachs' press conference, and MDG questions could have been asked, such as the one Inner City Press posed afterwards:

            If in Chad the percentage of people with access to improved water systems rose from 19% to 42%, while that is in a sense cutting the problem in half, is 42% acceptable? Mr. Sachs pointed out at the Goal is to cut in half those without access to clean water. Can a metric be designed to not provide "false positives" of acceptable levels of being confined to unclear water? We'll see.

            Mr. Sachs said, "I know you mean well, but be careful."

            News analysis: While a right-tilting but sunny journalist afterwards quipped that he'd say the same to Mr. Sachs, Inner City Press wants to distinguish between legitimate journalistic inquiry into UNDP, and the wider UN's system of Dollar-A-Year promoters, and any attack on the goals Mr. Sachs promotes: the eradication of extreme poverty by 2025. There are lacks of transparency, and the wasting of bottled-up talents from below due to favoritism and a star-system at the top -- but eradication of extreme poverty is the goal, to be advanced in 2007 and beyond.  Mr. Sachs' defenses of Africa against stereotypes are also heartfelt and much needed, and should and surely will continue.

            A wider development scandal, as pointed out by Mr. Pink, is the World Food Program's function of dumping surplus U.S. commodities and thereby undermining Africa's own agricultural markets, and then swooping in as the hero to solve a problem WFP itself has helped create. With Josette Shearan Shiner slated to take the WFP reigns at year's end, that too will be a focus.

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

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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...

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...

Other Inner City Press reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on www.InnerCityPress.com --

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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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