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UNDP Moved on 30,000 Boxes of Records
Mid-Investigation, Dervis' Successor Must Answer
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
January 17 -- Just after the sudden
departure announcement of its Administrator Kemal Dervis, the Iran-led
Executive Board of the UN Development Program is slated to meet this
week in
New York. Dervis' tenure was steeped both in secrecy and controversy --
click
here
for Inner City Press' farewell to Dervis -- and these two come together
in
an emerging story the Board should be considering this week.
In
the midst of
the so-called Nemeth Committee's investigation into UNDP's dealings
with the
Kim Jong-il government of North Korea, UNDP quietly sought bids to move
30,000
boxes of documents out of its headquarters to private locations until
at least
2011. Inner City Press has obtained a copy of UNDP's "Terms of
Reference" and, beyond the prevalence of mis-spellings not usually
found
in such formal document, finds therein no argument about why wider UN
system
restrictions on document outsources are not complied with. Click here for the
document.
Earlier
this month, Inner City Press asked outgoing US Ambassador to the UN
Zalmay
Khalilzad a number of questions about unfinished reforms at the UN and
UNDP.
Khalilzad said that access to past audits remains a problem at UNDP,
but
claimed that "going forward," UNDP audits will be available on the
same terms as those of the UN Secretariat. We'll see.
Dervis speaks of Algiers bombing: a role in his
departure?
The US
Mission also said that Ban Ki-moon would have preferred having a single
unified
UN Ethics Office, the one run by the now-isolated Robert Benson,
covering
UNDP. Why then shouldn't acceptance of
this desire of the UN Secretary General be a condition for nomination
to
succeed Dervis? There are Scandinavian names being thrown around, a
Norwegian
minister and others. Associate Administer Ad Melkert is said to have
disqualified himself. This will be a litmus test.
Footnote: also
indicative of UNDP's lack of
transparency is the agency's role in the disappearance of the UN's
envoy to
Niger, Canadian Robert Fowler. He was visiting a UNDP-funded,
Canadian-owned
gold mine in a remote region of Niger not related to his purported
mandate.
There was reportedly a UNDP driver, but no security. The UNDP vehicle
was found
its with doors open and lights on, cell phones still in the car. Inner
City
Press posted basic questions to UNDP's spokesman, who responded that
there will
be no comments or information until the "denouement." That was more
than three weeks ago.
There
are
UNOPS issues into which we are and will be separately reporting.
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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[at] innercitypress.com
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