Afghan
Scandal
Wider Than
UNDP Admits,
Grynspan on
Lear Jet, Hid
Armored Cars
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 22 -- As
the Law and
Order Trust
Fund for
Afghanistan
scandal has developed,
the UN
Development
Program has
downplayed for
how long it
knew of the
"irregularities."
Now internal
audit
documents
obtained and
exclusively
published
today by
Inner
City Press
show the wider
nature and
longer term
guilty
knowledge of
the problems.
LOTFA
purports to
be about
training and
"building
capacity" of
Afghan police.
But it is
essentially a
money transfer
and payroll
service, with
a
sideline as a
travel agency.
While
for example
UNDP claimed
to donors it
was training
Afghan police
at a program
in
Turkey, Inner
City Press is
informed that
no UNDP staff
with policing
experience
ever checked
the Turkish
program.
Sample "Observation
# 8" which
is the first
of the LOTFA
documents
Inner City
Press is
exclusively
putting online
says auditors
"were not
provided
copies of bank
transfer
letters" for
"MoI Chartered
Flight Kabul -
Turkey,"
costing
$459,100.
Inner
City Press
has sought
comment from
UNDP:
This
is
a press
question on
deadline about
the attached
LOTFA audit,
one
of several
Inner City
Press has
obtained. In
the second to
last
Description on
the first
page, MoI
Chartered
Flight Kabul
Turkey,
please confirm
or deny that
UNDP did not
send anyone
with policing
experience to
go check out
the training
in Turkey and
please respond
to the view
that in this
case UNDP
operated like
a glorified
travel
agency.
Please
describe
criticisms
brought to the
attention of
UNDP by donors
about
LOTFA, even
prior to the
public
exposure of
the scandal.
Please
describe
expenses for
Ms. Grynspan's
trip to
Afghanistan,
including
leasing (from
UNAMA) of
plane for
flight from
Dubai, and the
redeployment /
hiding of
armored
vehicles
during her
visit.
There
has, as yet,
been no
response from
UNDP's media
office. The
previous
spokesperson
who answered
Inner City
Press'
question is
still listed
on the UNDP
web site, even
while
functioning as
a spokesperson
from the UN
envoy
mission in
Syria.
The
third of the
questions
above refers
to a high
profile (for
UNDP) visit in
2011. Inner
City Press is
informed that
prior to
Deputy
Administration
Grynspan's
arrival,
UNDP's armored
vehicles,
which cost
between
$200,000 and
$300,000, were
driven into
storage in the
driveways of
guest houses
so Grynspan
wouldn't see
them as waste.
But
UNDP leased
the UNAMA
Mission's Lear
Jet to fly in
Grynspan from
Dubai, at a
cost
insiders tell
Inner City
Press
approached
$40,000.
Recently
in the
UN budget
committee the
US has raised
the issue of
interns flying
business
class. But
what about
UNDP deploying
a Lear Jet,
when even
the Special
Representative
of the
Secretary
General, while
living in
"Palace
Seven," flies
commercial for
$400 to $500?
The
person most
responsible
for the LOTFA
scandal, Inner
City Press is
told, is the
past (and
present?)
Indian
diplomat in
charge of
Pillar I, and
overall
project
manager:
Sandeep Kumar.
Inner City
Press has
learned that
he still flies
on an Indian
diplomatic
passport,
which would be
a violation of
UN Charter
Article 100.
We
will have more
on this.
, 
