Waste at UNDP Includes Environmental Unit's Junket of
145 Staffers to Goa, Hometown of Unit's Director
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN
UNITED NATIONS, December 27 -- The UN Development
Program flew 145 staffers, at agency expense, to the Indian resort of Goa, for a
length "retreat" of a unit whose director is a native of Goa. The UNDP's Global
Environmental Facility, run by Frank Pinto, spent money meant for the poor in
what UNDP staffers characterize as a junket. Of the UNDP-determined $300 of
Daily Sustenance Allowance (DSA), each attendee directly received only $20 in
cash. The rest went straight to contractors, it is reported, chosen by hometown
guy Frank Pinto. After the conference was finally over, Frank Pinto stayed some
extra days to see his mother.
After stonewalling for twelve days,
UNDP's Communications Office confirmed the Goa location, the DSA arrangement and
that Mr. Pinto stayed behind, while intially avoiding the asked questions about
how much it cost, and, while claiming Goa was the cheapest of five locations
they considered, declining to name the other location nor how they, or the
venues in Goa, were selected. Even in response to Inner City Press' follow-up
questions, UNDP declined to provide the simple information: how much did it
cost?
Beyond the waste of money and the lack of
transparency, virtually nothing was decided on at the retreat, attendees say. It
was not even restful, according to more than one participant. Arriving on time
required missing a first weekend at home, where many had children to attended
to. Attending the full retreat required three weekends away from home. After
thirty hours of flying, jet lag made concentration more than a little difficult.
By the time jet lag wore off, some had already left. But the money kept being
spent. What's the accounting to donor countries, or to the poor for whom these
wasted funds were meant?
A group shot of UNDP's Global Environmental
Facility
Twelve days ago, Inner City Press asked
UNDP in writing for information about the Goa retreat, including the DSA
arrangements. No information, not even a confirmation of receipt of the
questions, was received until, on December 26, Inner City Press sent Mr. Pinto,
his deputy Yannick Glemarec and his planning associate Veronique George the
following factual questions about the retreat:
"what was
discussed, how many staff (and which) attended, for how long, how much it cost,
and all Daily Sustenance Allowance arrangements. Please provide an itinerary,
including costs and expenses at each. Please confirm or deny that you stayed
afterwards, with relatives. How were the venues, including restaurants, chosen?
And anything else you wish to say, again, as quickly as possible and on
deadline. We requested information on Goa retreat ten days ago, but have
received none, have interviewed sources and prepared article."
Twenty-four hours after this inquiry, Mr.
Pinto responded by, instead of providing any information or defense, referring
Inner City Press back to the UNDP Communications Office which had refused to
provided information or responses for the past twelve days --
In a message
dated 12/27/2006 2:50:24 PM Eastern Standard Time, frank.pinto [at] undp.org
writes:
Dear Mr. Lee,
Please be advised that your email of 26th Dec below will be answered by
Cassandra Waldon of UNDP's Office of Communications.
This is the Office to which Inner City
Press directed written questions, including about Goa and DSA, twelve days ago.
But perhaps it took Mr. Pinto's entreaty to begin to get some answers.
The Global Environmental
Facility (GEF) was founded in 1991, with the involvement of since-disgraced
official Maurice Strong, driven out of the UN system for nepotism and
corruption. According to the in-house history for which
UNDP paid over $500,000, "UNDP: A Better
Way?", the GEF made "the range
of environment funds.... available for UNDP's use... three times the core
funding of the autonomous programs then embedded within UNDP."
A sample project, earlier this month,
involved UNDP-housed GEF funding "a night of food and fashion" in the former
Soviet republic of Georgia, click
here
for more.
The GEF is co-run by UNDP and by the
World Bank. Twelve days ago, Inner City Press asked UNDP for details on this Goa
retreat; no information has been provided. This article thus runs, and inquiries
will begin with the World Bank in Washington.
In fairness, speaking for UNDP since it
refuses to speak for itself, there are other Inner City Press sources who argue
that GEF is by far from the most wasteful UNDP unit, and who specifically praise
Mr. Frank Pinto. That is why, despite UNDP's Communications Office stonewalling,
Mr. Pinto was provided with his own opportunity to substantively comment on the
Goa trip. It is unfortunate, we think, that he did not. Rather, after twelve
days of silence (and delaying the story for more than a week), UNDP's
Communications Office on Wednesday afternoon sent the following partial
response:
From:
cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org
To: Inner City
Press
Cc:
veronique.george [at] undp.org; yannick.glemarec[at] undp.org; frank.pinto [at]
undp.org
Sent: Wed, 27
Dec 2006 3:42 PM
Subject: RE:
Questions re UNDP-GEF, Goa retreat- on deadline
Dear
Matthew, I am writing in response to your query received by UNDP's
Communications Office and our Energy and Environment Group (EEG) regarding that
Group’s strategic planning workshop, which took place in Goa, India in June
2006. We have looked into this matter and are convinced that all aspects of this
meeting – from selection of the venue to travel itineraries and daily
subsistence arrangements for participating staff – followed UNDP procurement
rules and travel procedures. On the two specific points you raised:
a) The GEF
strategic planning workshop was part of the larger EEG strategic planning
workshop which brought together UNDP energy and environment staff from across
the globe. Initially, five possible locations for the workshop were explored,
and Goa was approved as the least expensive option, as per UNDP procurement
rules. The contract with the hotel in Goa included full room, board and
transport to and from the airport. Hence, $20/day was provided to participating
staff for incidental expenses.
b) The
cheapest air ticket routing for the workshop for staff traveling from New York
was NY-Mumbai-Goa-Mumbai-Goa-NY. Mr. Pinto received approval to remain in Mumbai
on the return trip for annual leave and did not receive DSA or other allowances
during this period. This fully complies with all UNDP travel procedures.
This does not provide an itinerary, or,
most striking, explain which the other four "possible locations" were, and how
Goa could be the cheapest. UNDP has now been asked, in writing:
How many staff
attended? did any non-staff attended - in which case, who?
How much did it
cost?
How were venues
selected?
Please provide
an itinerary, including costs and expenses at each.
And, questions
obviously raised by your message --
What were the
other four "possible locations"?
How were they
selected?
How much more
would each have cost?
Beyond the other pending questions, Inner City
Press asked re-asked about Somalia, and about specific projects at UNDP-Russia
"in light of the fraud finding in the most recent public audit, and refusal to
provide the 'report... released'" mentioned in the public audit but apparently
"released" only to UNDP itself, and not even to the member states on UNDP's
Executive Board.
At or past deadline, UNDP answered some of the
above, while glaringly still refusing to say how much the Goa junket cost. The
number of participants, however, was 145:
From:
cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org
To: Inner City
Press
Sent: Wed, 27
Dec 2006 6:10 PM
Subject: RE:
Goa- 4 other options and costs, also Somalia, Russia
Matthew, On
participants: 145 UNDP-EEG staff attended the Goa workshop along with a handful
of long-term UNDP environment consultants essential to EEG strategic planning
purposes.
On other
locations considered: Bangkok was 14% more expensive, Nairobi was 28% more
expensive, Marrakech was 33% more expensive, and New York was 68% more
expensive. Prospective conference venues had to have facilities available to
accommodate the group in one room for plenary session plus sufficient breakout
rooms and hotel rooms for participants. Proximity to UNDP field environment
projects for site visits was also considered an advantage.
The simple question, how much was spent,
has still not been answered, nor has any itinerary, including the referenced
site visits to UNDP field environment projects. As to the "short list" of five
sites, and the estimated costs, we'll have more - including any response we
receive from Mr. Pinto or his associates. As to UNDP's Communications Office
and transparency, should it be this difficult -- 12 days of silence, then two
rounds of follow-up and reiterated questions -- to get confirmation of a
retreat, still without the price tag?
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
Fraud in UNDP-Russia Includes Malloch Brown's French
Water Scheme and Kalman Mizsei's Excess
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN
UNITED NATIONS, December 26 -- The fraud
in the Russian Federation office of the UN Development Program, blamed on local
employees and a
mid-level Bulgarian supervisor,
may also trace to the very top of UNDP, an ongoing inquiry has found.
The
most recent public audit of UNDP, A/61/5/Add.1, cites but does not fully
disclose the fraud at the Russia office. Irregularities in UNDP's Russia
operations date back at least to 2000, to a controversial water purification
project championed by then-incoming UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown.
Subsequently the regional director whom Malloch Brown chose, Kalman Mizsei, used
the Russia office as a slush fund for personal expenses, while bragging about
flying on George Soros' personal plane.
Those disciplined by UNDP, including Stefan
Vassilev, now with the Bulgarian military, and Tatiana Gorlatch, required to
cover-up for Mr. Mizsei's excesses, may have taken
some blame more appropriately apportioned to those above them in the UNDP
hierarchy. This is the story of an agency out of control, rarely scrutinized by
the press, jealous and abusing of its ever-growing power.
Mark Malloch Brown took over
at UNDP in 1999. One of his first moves was to fire three regional directors,
including Africa's Thelma Awori and Europe and CIS States' Anton Kruiderink. The
latter's replacement,
appointed by
Mark Malloch Brown, was Kalman Mizsei, who was then with insurance conglomerate
AIG and who identifies himself as a close associate of George Soros (a status
shared with Mr. Malloch Brown).
Malloch Brown claimed he would bring
financial sophistication to what he portrayed as a sleeping UNDP. As quoted in a
book he paid over
$500,000 to have published, Malloch Brown decided that too few UNDP country
offices had "sustainable business models," something he sought to change with
so-called "cost-sharing projects" of the type into which UNDP's Latin America
Bureau first veered ("UNDP: A Better Way?", pages 299, 295.)
A major initial project was in
Russia, where UNDP arranged to be a middleman for a water purification project
in St. Petersburg. In fact, the project was financed by and to be carried out by
a private company, the French firm SNF Floerger. After misidentifying the
beneficiary as Sanofi SA, Malloch Brown
told Reuters
that UNDP saw its new "role in piloting the project through local red tape."
Click
here for
that Reuters June 18, 2000, article.
Virtually all of the $90 million cost was equipment.
UNDP sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation,
state that UNDP's role was to help the company evade or avoid paying taxed on
importing the equipment. Running UNDP's Russia office at the time was one
Philippe Elghouayel.
In a
UNDP newsletter replete with photos of
himself, Malloch Brown called
the arrangement "an example of UNDP’s increasing efforts to foster
public-private partnerships." Click
here for
a copy of that UNDP newsletter.
In this scheme, UNDP would charge money
to cut through "local red tape." UNDP sources indicate that concern and
amazement at this Russian financial scheme and "cost sharing agreement" was
widespread within the agency. UNDP would collect a hefty fee for playing the
middle-man in a project regarding which is had little technical expertise, in
which is role was little more than vehicle for tax evasion. One close observer
of the project asked, "This is UNDP's definition of development?" But
this is what UNDP has become, at least in some places and parts.
Malloch Brown
In fairness, others in UNDP argue that
the water purification proposal was far from the most outlandish project of the
Russia office. They argue that clean water was needed, and that while UNDP's
role was that of a middleman, along with Credit Lyonnais Bank, the goal was more
to limit the ten to fifteen percent usually required in bribes than to evade
taxes. A variety of even less meritorious project have been pointed out, on
which we hope to run future reports, not only the Moscow planetarium but also
schemes with Russian prisons, social services, oil and environmental matters --
more on UNDP and the environment, and on UNDP's Russia and CIS operations, in
the near future.
For barely two years, Frederick
Lyons ran the Russian office, until as previously
reported a Bulgarian, Stephan Vassilev, was
sent to force him out. (Mr. Lyons went on to UNDP in Iran and then Afghanistan.)
There are conflicting accounts of Mr. Vassilev, ranging from as the
re-establisher of corrupt tied who forced Lyons to grant approval to a dubious
project to renovate the Moscow planetarium to, on the other end of the spectrum,
relatively upright militarist who might have let corruption continue, but would
not have started it. Even if his motives may have been less than pure, Mr.
Vassilev was deployed and used by a Malloch Brown-selected regional supervisor,
Kalman Mizsei.
Mizsei was, until three months ago, the
head of Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States for UNDP. Mark Malloch
Brown brought Mizsei, which whom he shares connections to George Soros, into
UNDP from the American Insurance Group in late 2000. As described by multiple
sources inside and outside of UNDP, Mr. Mizsei was at best a womanizer and more
widely described as a serial sexual harasser. Mizsei imported a personal
assistant, whom he quickly promoted through the system until she reached her
peak in the UNDP office in Ukraine. This individual would, sources say, show up
at high level staff meetings and berate Mizsei "like a lover would," a person
attending the meeting says. Other female staffers he "hit on" by suggesting
they water the flowers at his residence, or bring him UNDP papers, personally,
on the weekend.
Kalman Mizsei also abused UNDP
and its finances. For example he took a lengthy "study tour" of Russia, all paid
by UNDP. There was no academic sponsor for the trip, which consisted of visiting
museum with personal guide and translator, paid by UNDP. Mark Malloch Brown was
responsible for signing off on these expenses. The number and length of Kalman
Mizsei's UNDP-paid visits to Ukraine raised eyebrows in the agency, although
often pretexts were found. Click
here
for UNDP photos of Mizsei's April 2006 sojourn in Ukraine to, among other
things, kick off the UN Global Compact with corporations there. Click
here for
another Mizsei trip to Ukraine, this time for a "mini-Davos" conference. Click
here
for UNDP in-house news of
Mizsei and Ben Slay in Zagreb,
Croatia. Click
here for
news of Mizsei partnering the UN with Coca-Cola. There are other legends about
Kalman Mizsei charging UNDP for unneeded helicopter rides over the
Balkans,
and throwing a cell phone at staffers while screaming, "I demand a woman!"
In the course of his many travels, Kalman
Mizsei instructed staff how he needed to be treated: a hotel no more than a
twenty minute walk from the work place, flowers when he arrived, and, perhaps
incongruously, that no required drinking take place in formal or informal
functions (sometimes difficult given the region that he covered).
Sources tell Inner City Press that Kalman
Mizsei required that these unjustifiable expenses come out of project budgets in
the Russia office. At first it was easy, to find long-finished projects with
still open budgets. But later, to meet the costs, full-fledged fraud became
required. The replacement as head of the office of Frederick Lyons by Stephan
Vassilev was, sources say, orchestrated by Kalman Mizsei, either for Mr.
Vassilev to perform a cover-up or to become the scapegoat.
GA
President and UNDP's Dervis -- she says transparency, he says not so fast
Inner City Press asked UNDP's
Communications Office about the Russia office, and also about Kalman Mizsei.
Each response increasingly seems like a whitewash:
In a message
dated 11/30/2006 11:29:56 AM Eastern Standard Time, cassandra.waldon [at]
undp.org writes:
Matthew, Below
are the responses to your questions:
Question: Was
Kalman Mizsei fired or otherwise relieved or removed from his position with UNDP?
If so, on what grounds?
Response: No.
As stated previously, at UNDP -- like at other organizations -- with time
colleagues retire, move on or are reassigned. After serving six distinguished
years at UNDP, Mr. Miszei is now Professor at Central European University's
Department of Public Policy in Budapest.
Kalman Mizsei left UNDP in the Fall of
2006. Despite Mark Malloch Brown's refusal to comment, sources tell Inner City
Press that Mizsei's antics became so legend, and the fall-out so undeniable,
that even Malloch Brown chastised Mizsei. Kalman Mizsei was given a choice: to
leave UNDP voluntarily, or to stay but face charges. Mizsei chose the former,
and from Hungary has sent emails bragging that he is now a personal advisor to
George Soros.
Despite the Office of the
Spokesman for the Secretary-General's refusal to comment on Inner City Press'
questions about Kalman Mizsei, most recently at the noon briefings of
December 1
and
December 6,
it is noted that Mr. Mizsei was given that very rostrum, as a UN
Assistant Secretary General,
on April 30, 2004, click
here for
the
Real video,
from Minute 13, for six minutes of eyeglasses playing and ironic reference to
human trafficking of sex workers and no follow-up questions, click
here
for the transcript. On the issue of UN rank, UNDP sources say that Kalman Mizsei
repeatedly and inaccurately declared that he was an Under-Secretary General. In
any event, he represented the UN, and the UN should answer for him; UNDP refuses
to.
UNDP's Communications Office
has said it will not comment on recruitment, hiring or promotions issues, and
will not released audits like that of the Russian Federation office. (Nor will
it release a full copy of that audit even to the nations on the UNDP Executive
Board.) Mark Malloch Brown, when Inner City Press previously requested comment
from him, responded with the word "jerk," click
here
for that story, in the spirit of full disclosure. Last week, Inner City Press
was told it would not be possible to get a comment on reports that Mr. Malloch
Brown was responsible for weakening the post-employment policy finalized on
December 22, his last day in the office. Therefore this story runs as such,
citing, for UNDP, its most recent public audit and long-delayed narrative
response.
The most recent public audit of UNDP,
A/61/5/Add.1, states
"Potential
fraud had been detected at the Russian Federation office and reported to it for
further investigation. The Office of Audit and Performance Review performed an
investigation and released its report on 6 December, 2005. This report concluded
that one payment amounting to $190,000 was fraudulent. Additional payments that
could be fraudulent were under further investigation."
An article entitled "$1.2 million fraud
revealed at the U.N. Office in Moscow," in Kommersant, No 163, page 9, quoted
UNDP's then-spokesman William Orme that "this appears to be a sophisticated
operation that has been difficult to detect. Unfortunately, we detected it only
this year." The irregularities of the water purification / tax avoidance scheme
dated back much further, however, as did Kalman Mizsei's use of the office.
Given the reference to an OAPR report being "released" on Dec. 6, 2005, Inner
City Press asked UNDP for this report. UNDP has refused to provide it, but after
some delay provided a narrative, which Inner City Press published in full,
stating in pertinent part:
"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... 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."
Ironically, of Mr. Murat it is reported
that while unlike Kalman Mizsei he is not abusive of staff, his brother engaged
in business deals in UNDP's Central Asia footprint that generated some
controversy within the agency. Of Mr. Borsotti, we hope to have more in the near
future -- UNDP's agreement with Russia specifying the procedures and standards
to received the above-referenced "clearance" was requested more than ten days
ago from UNDP, but has yet to be provided.
Stephan Vassilev
returned to the Bulgarian military. Ms. Gorlatch, who was embroiled in a
drag-out divorce and child custody fight with an affluent diplomat, may have
reasons to stay silent. But given UNDP's refusal to even respond to questions
about its recruitment, hiring and promotion practices, or to release audits of
the Russian office, Inner City Press runs this interim investigative piece.
Again, there are serious people who are arguing that the St. Petersburg water
purification proposal was far from the most outlandish UNDP project. A variety
of even less meritorious project have been pointed out, including schemes with
prisons, social services, oil and environmental matters -- more on UNDP and the
environment in the near future. Watch this site.
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
At the UN,
Mysterious Deletion from Iran Sanctions List of Aerospace Industries
Organization Goes Unexplained
At the UN, Iran
Resolution Passes 15-0 Amid Media Frenzy While Somalia and UN Reform Are
Ignored
At the UN,
Security Council and GA Games and Holiday Spirit As Revolving Door Ban
Disappears on Final Day
UNDP Not Covered
By Weak UN Post-Employment Restrictions, Dervis and Mizsei and Aid to
the Scapegoated
UN
Post-Employment Restriction Are Watered Down for Senior Officials,
Comparison to June Draft Reveals
At the UN, Curt
Eulogies for Dictator, Revolving Door and Budget Left for the Last Day
UNDP's Dervis
Backtracks on Transparency, Promises Accounting of Funds, Denies Role in
Uganda Abuse
At the UN,
Jeffrey Sachs Answers the $75,000 Question But Not on UNDP, Still
Laudable Goals for 2025
Burundi Spin
at the UN, Amid Coup Trial and Ceasefire Not Implemented, Great Lakes
Commission Moves In
At the UN, Iran
Resolution Goes Blue as Ivory Coast is Traded Away With No Follow-up on
Hmung
At the UN,
Annan's Long Goodbye, With Oil for Food in the Air and Hothouse Musical
Chairs
At Kofi Annan's
Farewell, UNDP Transparency is Raised, and Brian Gleeson Steps Up
At UN
in Beirut, Dueling Charges of Job-Trading and
Tax-Evasion, the Burden of
Mervat Tallawy, Retaliation from Below
UNDP Will Be
Called to Greater Transparency, Says President of Spain, on UNDP's
Board, and Flaws of UNOPS
UNDP's Ad
Melkert Says He Will Finally Increase Transparency, Describes Fraud in
Russia, Dodges Uganda
In Eastern
Congo, Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made a Colonel, Clooney And Now
Guehenno Might Stay
At the UN,
Ocampo 1 Says Kony To Jail and Ocampo 2 Sees No Serious Bertucci
Charges, Dueling Parties
In UNDP's Book,
Strong's Scandals Are Missing, While Workers Complain, MMB Schmoozes the
Korean Mission
At UNDP, Flighty
Rhetoric Founders in Mismanagement, MMB's Net, a Genocidaire and Whither
ECOSOC
At the UN,
Disabled Are Freed from a Footnote, Murky Answers from Gbagbo to Kosovo
to a Genocidaire
Countering UN's
Vanity Press, UNDP Histories from Below, Brussels and Two Views of Omar
Bakhet
At the UN,
Indigenous Indignation, Revolving Door Mysteries and Peace Pipe
Belatedly Smoked
At the UN,
Questions of Congo Mass Graves and Kazana, Mugabe and Forests and Rich
German Ships
UNDP Is
Important For The Poor, and Therefore Must Be Made Transparent
As UN
Speechifies, UNDP Audits Are Still Being Withheld, While War in Somalia
and Sudan, Pronk Blogs On
Waste, Fraud and
Abuse at UNDP in Vietnam, While UN Secretariat Urges Censorship
At the UN,
Questions of Humanitarian Aid and Congo Body Count, Despots' Crackdown
on Dissent
In UNDP,
Questions of Money Wasted, Neutrality Trampled, Russian Office Audits
Withheld and Sachs Expenses
From Baidoa
to the UN, Denials on Ethiopian Troops Being in Somalia, Resolution Is
Passed
Retaliation
Found at UNDP, While Dervis Is Focused on Turkey, In Two Weeks Will Take
Questions
Annan's
Spokesman Silent on 150 Dead in Congo, War in Somalia - But in Loud
Defense of UNDP's $567,000 Book
At the UN,
Interlopers into Somalia Are Discussed, With Chadian Pull-Back,
Peacekeepers and Uganda's Karamoja
UNDP Spent
$567,000 on Book to Praise Itself, While the Well-Placed Feed Off UNDP's
Core Budget and Prime Postings
As UNDP Questions
Mount, Mark Malloch Brown Calls Them Irresponsible, Answers Only in
Vanity Press
In UNDP Series,
Questions of Jeffrey Sachs and Associates Payments, From $1 to $75,000
From Sleaze in
Vietnam to Fights in DC-1, UNDP Appears Out of Control at the Top
On Somalia,
Past Arms Embargo Violations Forgiven in Zeal to Contain Islamic Courts
In UNDP, Drunken
Mis-Managers on the Make Praised and Protected, Meet UNDP's Kalman
Mizsei
From Violent
Disarmament in Uganda to the National Bank of Serbia, UNDP Leaves Others
to Answer for It
UNDP Sources Say
Dervis Fires Malloch Brown-linked Officials, Then Offers Hush-Up Jobs
On Somalia, Fiji
and Oil-for-Food, UN Ambiguity Leads to Hypocrisy and Corruption
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 --
Copyright 2006 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com - phone: (718) 716-3540
