While
UN Overspent
$7 M on Afghan
Police, OCHA
Asks for More
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive, 9th
in Series
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 15 -- UN
system
officials
including from
its
humanitarian
arms and UN
Women talked
July 13 about
Afghanistan,
but
without
addressing the
System's
demonstrated
corruption
there.
Meanwhile this
ninth
installment of
Inner City
Press'
exclusive
series shows
that
the UN
Development
Program's Law
& Order
Trust Fund for
Afghanistan overspent by over $7
million on
"police
remuneration"
and $4 million
on
"procurement
of non-lethal
equipments."
For
the UN's
credibility,
however, these
unrebutted
internal audit
may
well be
lethal. Click
here to view
"Observation
#9," which
blames the
overruns on
"intentional
overriding of
internal
controls and
or human
error."
Who
is being held
accountable
for these
errors /
"intentional
overridings of
internal
controls"?
While these
questions go
unanswered, at
its July 13
noon briefing
the UN asked
for more money
and
speechified:
"The
Office
for the
Coordination
of
Humanitarian
Affairs..
notes that the
current
consolidated
appeal
for
Afghanistan
for this year
calls for $448
million to
implement 165
projects
across the
country.
Halfway
through the
year, this
appeal
is only 30 per
cent funded."
Might
the
UN's
unaddressed
corruption
have something
to do with
this
resistance to
give it more
money? And for
Michele
Bachellet,
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
read out that
"Afghanistan
has
been
witnessing
cases of
extreme abuse
and appalling
violence
against women.
These
actions.. have
once again
focused
attention on
the continuing
and
urgent need to
protect
women's and
girls' rights
as the world
redefines its
role in
Afghanistan,
and as the
Government of
Afghanistan
moves forward
in
transition."
Bachelet
as a former
head of state
is reputed
to get things
done -- maybe
SHE should
oversee the
UN's response
to
and clean up
of Afghanistan
operations,
now that she
has spoken
about
the country.
, 
