As
Ban
Pitches UN
Afghan
Mission,
"Erratic" Cuts
by Scheer
UNexplained
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
8th in Series
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 7 --
While UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon is at
the
Tokyo
Conference on
Afghanistan,
the level of
dysfunction in
the UN
Mission in
Afghanistan
has been
brought to the
fore in the
course of
Inner City
Press'
exclusive
series on outright
corruption in
the UN
Development
Program's Law
& Order
Trust Fund for
Afghanistan.
On that, we
are today
publishing
another in our
series of
internal LOTFA
audits, this
time Observation
#4, that
the Afghani
"Ministry of
Interior has
maintained
manual general
ledger system
for recording
the
transactions
relating to
payments of
police forces
salaries,
allowances and
food costs" -
click
here to view.
As
to the UN
itself, before
the Fourth of
July holiday
-- not
celebrated to
our knowledge
in
Kabul -- Inner
City Press asked
about how
UNAMA and its
chief of
mission
support are
going about
finding the
$45 million in
cost
savings
required:
Inner
City
Press: One
question I
wanted to ask
you because
it's about
UNAMA
and
Afghanistan.
Maybe you’ll
answer this or
maybe you can
get an
answer to it.
I've heard
that UNAMA and
UNAMI were
both ordered
to
cut their
staff costs by
15 per cent, I
was told.
There was a
recent
video
conference
with them. I
was told that
UNAMA has
decided to cut
their
international
support staff
by only 5 per
cent, but
their
political
staff, mostly
Afghan, by 20
per cent.
There seems
people
working in
UNAMA —
whistleblowers
of the type
that have come
forward with a
law-and-order
trust fund for
Afghanistan
material —
said that it’s
hurting the
UNAMA presence
in the
country. And I
wanted to
know, since it
seems like a
big cut, can
you confirm
whether it’s
DPA or DPKO,
has imposed a
15 per cent
cut on both
missions and
that this is
cut, as the
whistleblowers
in Afghanistan
say, is being
imposed on
UNAMA, and
what’s the
rationale for
imposing it
disproportionately
on political
officers?
Spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky: I
would need to
check on the
precise nature
of any
cuts that
there might
be. But it’s
self-evident
that cuts that
are
being made
across the UN
system are not
without pain.
But I think we
need to look
into the
details and
then come back
to you on
that.
While
Nesirky
has yet to
come back with
information --
when he does,
we
will report it
-- others have
stepped
forward to
describe the
Video
Teleconference
Call or VTC
that Inner
City Press
reported on
from the
UNAMA side.
In
New
York, it took
place in the
Department of
Field Support
conference
room. UNAMI,
represented by
SRSG Kobbler,
was prepared,
how to cut
$30 million
including less
need for
security in
Erbil. The
UNAMA
presentation,
on the other
hand, was
described as a
fiasco. Jan
Kubis
wasn't on the
VTC; nor was
the real power
behind the
throne,
Stephani
Scheer.
Since
Inner
City Press
began
reporting on
UNAMA, more
and more
information
has come in
from
whistleblowers,
particularly
about Ms.
Scheer. She
is described
as erratic, as
shifting her
friends to
Kuwait to
pretend
these were
cuts while
punishing
other staff.
Notably,
she worked
in the UN's
Iraq Oil for
Food Program
for Benon
Sevan, of whom
even
Mark Malloch
Brown writes
of
"traced
payments
to Sevan from
a beneficiary
of oil
contracts for
whom Sevan
had lobbied in
Baghdad. He
was indicted
on that basis
[and] is now
hiding from
American
justice in
Cyprus."
And
Stephani
Scheer is
running the
show for UNAMA
in
Afghanistan.
Watch
this site.
, 
