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In Afghan Scandal, UNDP Failed to Oversee,
Despite
Taking 7% Fee, Dervis and Akbank
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 14
-- After the UN
Development Program and UN Office of Project Services repeatedly
refused
information requests from the U.S. government about missing and
misallocated aid
money, UNDP spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday told the Press that
"there were lapses, perhaps, in responding" and they he estimates
$1.5 million will be returned. But the U.S. government report -- online
here
--
puts the missing money at over $7 million; a collection agency had to
be hired.
Dujarric on Tuesday said that the lesser known agency UNOPS was
responsible for
the work, that $25 million was, to UNDP, "pass through" money. But
what oversight did UNDP provide for the seven percent fee that Dujarric
says it
charged? Clearly, very little. Funds were reported moved to projects in
Sri
Lanka, Sudan, Haiti and Dubai. Click here for a 2007
Inner City Press report on
UNOPS in Dubai, cracking down on a whistleblower; here for UNOPS' own open
bragging about Dubai.
In
fact,
UNDP has something of a conflict in purporting to oversee or watchdog
UNOPS.
The director of UNOPS, Jan Mattsson, who notably has refused to follow
Ban
Ki-moon's call for basic public financial disclosure, was to work at
UNDP.
Mattsson has been noticeable absent in defending UNOPS against it
recent back
to back scandals, leaving that job to his also scandal-scarred deputy.
UN's Ban speaks to UNDP staff,
Mattsson's disclosure and 7% fee, response to USAID not shown
Inner
City
Press asked, and Dujarric did not answer, which of the individuals
named in the
U.S. report are still in the employ and pay of UNDP. Carlos Haddad, for
example, who refused repeated request for information -- is he there?
Dujarric
referred to the "acting
Administrator" leading the response to this most recent UNDP scandal.
To many, this lacks credibility. Ad Melkert, twice passed over for the
agency's top job and tapped by insiders to leave, proclaimed during
UNDP's tight-lipped response to a previous scandal that "you ain't see
nothing yet." We still haven't.
All
of
this take place mere weeks before new Administration Helen Clark
arrives. Will
she move to clean up UNDP, to improve or cancel its lax "pass through
money" programs?
Footnote: previously
Administrator Kemal Dervis,
who quickly landed another UN gig advising Ban Kid-moon for the G-20 in
London,
has
now taken a post with Akbank in Turkey. Inner City Press asked the
UN's
spokesman if this might implicate the anti-revolving door rules
announced by
yet another previous UNDP Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown, in the
final weeks
of the Kofi Annan administration. The spokesman said he wasn't yet sure
of the
facts of the case. Watch this site.
Click here
for a new YouTube video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian
deaths
in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
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
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
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
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com -
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