Senior UNDP Officials Summoned to Southern District of NY in N. Korea Case

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, March 28 -- Alongside the delayed "urgent audit" by the UN Board of Auditors of the UN Development Program's payment of hard currency in North Korea, there is a criminal investigation of senior UNDP officials.

  Inner City Press has learned that 13 UNDP officials have been invited to appear at the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for questions about, among other things, their awareness of UNDP's acceptance and concealing of counterfeit bills in North Korea.

  Among the invited are said to be UNDP finance director Darshak Shah, the head of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, Hafiz Pasha, UNDP trust fund controller Bruce Jenks, Julie Anne Mejia, and UNDP finance chief Darshak Shah. Among the topics is who knew what, when. Most of the invited individuals -- and several individuals yet to be invited -- are known to have received warnings of irregularities in UNDP's programs in North Korea and elsewhere, long before the problems were inquired into by letters from the U.S. Mission. These began with a November 17, 2006, letter to UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis from the U.S. Ambassador for UN Management and Reform, Mark D. Wallace. While the current process is described as voluntary, if declined the next step would be a request to the UN to have the officials' immunity lifted.

            The prosecutors have yet to invite the top two in UNDP, Kemal Dervis and Ad Melkert. While decried by knowledgeable sources as spin, some inside UNDP opine that, channeling Machiavelli, Dervis is hoping that the investigation provides him with a pretext to fire or clear out senior staff whom he inherited from previous Administrator Mark Malloch Brown. The danger in Dervis' strategy, these sources say, is that while Dervis directed Ad Melkert and even chief of staff Tengegnwork Gettu to sign most of the letters responding to U.S. Ambassador Wallace's questions, Dervis himself made representations about purported lack of knowledge or responsibility, including at a meeting held on December 22. UNDP sources recount to Inner City Press a more recent, and more heated, meeting between Amb. Wallace and Dervis. We aim to have more on this.

Kemal Dervis: show me the money (but is it counterfeit?)

   In earlier meetings with the U.S. Mission, finance chief Darshak Shah was asked about topics including the counterfeit (how much and when did he know), and Mr. Shah responded with denials which are now being more fully weighed.

            The issues inquired into implicate not only current but also past UNDP officials, and provide a roadmap of the various clans or "families" in UNDP. For example, the current head of UNDP's Regional Bureau for Africa, Gilbert Houngbo, served as financial overseer during much of the time at issue.  Mr. Houngbo is described as a right hand man of Mark Malloch Brown, and close associate of Bruce Jenks. Houngo had been Malloch Brown's chief of staff but could not keep that position as Kemal Dervis came in. So Malloch Brown arranged for Houngbo to be named head of the Regional Bureau for Africa. But Houngbo's counterfeit knowledge travels with him, from one floor to another in UNDP's First Avenue headquarters building.

            Another UNDP power at that time has since left the agency, to head the UN Office of Project Services: Jan Mattsson. As Inner City Press reported earlier today, Mattsson has this month threatened the "severest disciplinary action" against any individuals who share whistle-blowing information with the press. Click here for that story. On Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Ambassador Mark D. Wallace provided this on-the-record comment to Inner City Press: "The U.S. strongly supports real whistleblower protection.  Too often we have seen the UN bureaucracy hunker down to protect itself from criticism rather than taking the real steps to reform itself.  The US stands by any legitimate and truthful whistleblower and calls on all UN entities to take steps to ensure their protection."

            We aim shortly to have more on UNDP's reactions in the face of the audit and the criminal investigation.

            UNDP's Administrator Kemal Dervis, spokesman David Morrison, and North Korea Resident Coordinator Timo Pakkala were each asked, days ago and without answer, questions including about the particularly batch of counterfeit currency, from "an Egyptian" whom has thus far been left unnamed by UNDP, which purportedly "remained in a safe at the UNDP  office until last month when the head of the North Korea office recalled that  the bills were there during a visit to UNDP headquarters in New York." Inner City Press asked the three:

How long did Mr. Pakkala, the head of the North Korea office, have access to the safe? Why was it only in February that it was "recalled" that the bills were in the safe?

What is the name of the referenced "Egyptian"?

Confirm or deny (and if confirm, explain) any recent suspension by UNDP --  which Mr. Morrison was directly asked about last week outside room 226, when he answered that he was unaware of any such suspension and has yet to seek to amend or supplement his answer.

            We will have more on UNDP's reactions and actions, including against staff, in the face of the delayed "urgent audit" and the widening criminal investigation. One of the way it may widen is based on the recognition that the half-dozen UN operations managers in North Korean during the time at issue came not only from UNDP, but also from UNFPA, UNICEF, OCHA and the World Health Organization, which has acknowledged to Inner City Press being the pass-through for separate funds from South Korean to North Korea. Developing.

    Again, because a number of Inner City Press' UN sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to conclude this installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals of the UN agencies and many of their staff. Keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we apologize for any phone tag, but please continue trying, and keep the information flowing.

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

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On UNDP Audit's 7th Day, Questions of Two Sets of Books and Prejudged Outcome

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, March 26 -- One week now into the delayed "urgent audit" ordered by Ban Ki-moon on January 19, sources point out recent changes in the financial books of the UN Development Program concerning spending in North Korea in 2006. In one set of books, the figure is $4,569,000. In another, more recent or "beta" set of books, the figure is $3,279,000. This second set of book is called "Executive Snap 4.0 Beta."

            The modifications are attributed by sources to the Director of UNDP's Office of Finance, Darshak Shah, and UNDP's trust fund meister Bruce Jenks. While what explains the $1,291,000 difference is not yet clear, this switch may explain the extraordinary gun-jumping comments to Sunday's Chicago Tribune by UNDP's spokesman David Morrison.

  Morrison wrote, "The audit began last week at UNDP headquarters in New York. UNDP welcomed this audit, it is doing everything it can to facilitate it, and it looks forward to the findings -- which we are confident will flatly contradict the assertions in" the Chicago Tribune and by implication elsewhere. Monday's AP picked up on the UNDP counterfeit story, quoting Morrison that the counterfeit bills "remained in a safe at the UNDP office until last month when the head of the North Korea office recalled that the bills were there during a visit to UNDP headquarters in New York." But what of the 22 months that this head of office, Timo Pakkala, had the keys to the safe? Did he never open it? UNDP's spokesman was seen earlier Monday trying to spin invited media, while ignoring questions about improper hiring, click here for that story.

   The audit began on March 19, a full two months after Ban Ki-moon called for it. Why did the UN Board of Auditors wait so long to begin the audit, and now a week in still not even have specific terms of reference?

   How can the audit proceed without access to those with first-hand knowledge?  

 These questions will be explored in coming days.

  In addition to the $4.6 million in reported 2006 spending in North Korea, in UNDP's first set of books there are additional expenditures characterized as "Thematic Trust Funds Expenditure" and plain "Trust Fund Expenditure," raising the 2006 total to $7 million, quite different from the number UNDP presented to its Executive Board in January 2007.

UNDP's Atlas: danger ahead

    At Monday's UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked to question UNDP Associate Administrator (and self-described managing director) Ad Melkert in person before or after he met with Deputy Secretary General Migiro at 3:15 p.m.. From the transcript:

Inner City Press: And the other thing is: I noticed on the Deputy Secretary-General's meeting with Ad Melkert of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) this afternoon... I guess I want to know the purpose of that, and whether we could speak to either or both of them before or after, given the North Korea-UNDP situation, and we also have a question for the UNDP about some hiring by Mr. Melkert.  So, it would be very timely if you could at least put in a request for a brief stakeout.

Deputy Spokesperson:  Sure.

            As usual with UNDP, the silence was and is deafening.  It was never explained why UNDP's Bureau of Management's Akiko Yuge was sent out of town for the two weeks that auditors would be working in New York; now sources say Ms. Yuge and others have been summoned back. We will have yet more on UNDP immanently.

On 4th Day of N. Korea Audit, UNDP Spins From Leaked Minutes

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, March 22 -- As the delayed "urgent audit" of the UN Development Program's operations in North Korea went into its fourth day, UNDP spokesman David Morrison dismissed the leaked minutes of a meeting of UN Operation Management Team in North Korea, which specifically asked that cash payments in hard currency stop. "We are clear on the record that we don't deal in cash," Mr. Morrison said.

            Minutes of a December 8, 2005 meeting in Pyongyang involving local officials of UNDP and five other UN agencies clearly stated that "CASH payments should be eliminated." Click here to view. While in the online version of the minutes, the names of meeting participants were whited-out, Inner City Press today in this article, below, publishes the names of operations managers. All of these individuals, each of whom, unlike spokesman David Morrison, has direct knowledge of UN practices in North Korea, has yet to be interviewed by the UN Board of Auditors.

   Meanwhile, for two weeks after UNDP ostensibly ordered the suspension of its operations in North Korea, staff members seconded by the Kim Jong Il government were still allowed access to the computer files and ATLAS financial records needed for the audit. As acknowledged Thursday by UNDP's Morrison, four such seconded staff still have access to UNDP's computer system. These include ostensible drivers, who according to published reporters cash checks into hard currency, so such access may be hard to defend. Concerns about destruction of and tampering with evidence have been raised to the agencies and to the auditors. The response has been retaliation.

Dervis: 1st of 2 press conferences in 19 months

            Since UNDP sent its spokesman David Morrison to the UN's televised noon briefing on Thursday, Inner City Press asked that he take questions on camera. From the transcript:

Inner City Press: I noticed the Spokesman for UNDP is here and I'm assuming this is about these memos that have surfaced showing that requests were made earlier than previously recorded about cash payments and seconded staff.  Is he going to come to the podium?

Spokesperson:  I understand that we do have Dave Morrison here and he is willing to take questions.  I actually don't know whether he is coming to the podium but we do have a guest first.  So, maybe you can talk to him immediately after the briefing....

...Inner City Press: I guess I just want to say on the UNDP thing, it will work much better that Morrison come to the podium, whatever we're calling it, just because on procurement, I know that you did... by Friday, they came, but they did it in the hall and today they’re coming back.  So it just seems it’s just more efficient to just do it on the record or whatever.

Spokesperson:  Okay, well let's ask him after we finish.

            Despite a second request, David Morrison declined to speak on camera, but rather waited in the hall. At 1 p.m., Inner City Press asked him if UNDP fires or suspends staff for providing documents to the press. Mr. Morrison responded, "I don't know, I don't know enough about the intricacies of UNDP's human resources policy.... I can look into it." Ten hours later, no information had been provided.

   During those ten hours, UNDP management continued on what staff describe as a "witch hunt," demanding to know who has spoken to the media, to Inner City Press, by name. Ban Ki-moon has spoken of transparency and of rooting out corruption. Suspending and threatening to retaliate against those who blow the whistle on irregularities is inconsistent with this -- it is "criminal," in the words of one UNDP staff member.

            The local UN staff in North Korea raised their concerns about cash payments and seconded staff to the UN's Resident Coordinator Timo Pakkala in January 2006.  Thursday Inner City Press asked David Morrison how and when this information was conveyed further up inside UNDP. "I don't know what is our standard procedure with minutes of country team meetings," he said. "Can we find out?" There was no answer. Meanwhile, the practice is that minutes of country team meetings go to Regional Directors of each UN Country Team member -- in the case of UNDP, to Hafiz Pasha.

            Inner City Press is told that the warning was conveyed to officials including UNDP Director of Finance Darshak Shah, to Treasurer Julie Anne Mejia and to Jan Mattsson, the head then of UNDP's Bureau of Management and now the Executive Director of UNOPS. Thursday, Inner City Press asked again that UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis take questions. Morrison said that he is the spokesman, and that "Kemal Dervis, as I think is established, meets with the press on a very regular basis."

  At UN headquarters, Dervis last took questions in December 2006, before this North Korea scandal broke, and before that not for sixteen months. Even to the UNDP Executive Board session about the North Korea issues, Dervis did not appear. Sources say that Dervis will not last long on the job. But the scandal will not go away.

The attendees of the December 8, 2005 meeting in Pyongyang, calling for reform: Wannee Piyabongkarm (WFP); Lorraine Lamtey (WFP); Tony Shkurtaj (UNDP), Charles Lolika (UNICEF); Toe oung (WFP); Umesh Gupta (WHO); Withers U (UNFPA).

    Developing...

On Third Day of UN's North Korea Audit, Memos Show Warnings But Not the Source of Funds

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, March 21 -- On the third day of the delayed "urgent audit" of four UN agencies that Ban Ki-moon called for on January 19, Fox News ran a retrospective on the attempts by a group of unnamed individuals whom Fox calls reformers to get the UN agencies to harmonize their policies and, Fox implies, to clear them up. Fox links to a half dozen documents, including minutes of meetings in late 2005 and early 2006. The minutes memorialize for example that UNICEF in particular wanted to continue to pay in hard currency, but to limit staff "R&R" from every two to every three months. WFP on the other hand awarded R&R every six weeks, and had a bus that fit 60 people. There was nowhere to go, however. The international staff were confirmed to what Fox calls the "secrecy-shrouded diplomatic Munsudong district of Pyongyang (known to some North Korean diplomats as 'the greenhouse')."

            The memos have all names redacted, and Fox's story does not mention the name of the Administrator of UNDP, Kemal Dervis. This seems strange, given that sources among the UN Security Council's Permanent Five members opine that Mr. Dervis' tenure at UNDP is drawing to a close, that "only the modalities" remain to be worked out.  Similarly, the Fox story mentions now-gone Secretary-General Kofi Annan before it mention, in its final paragraph and only with reference to the audit, current S-G Ban Ki-moon. Not mentioned at all is where the money being spent by the UN agencies came from: in large part, South Korea, where and while Ban Ki-moon was Foreign Minister.

Mr. Ban with former South Korean Amb. to the UN Lee See-Young, March 21, 2007

   Perhaps Fox' tale is one in a forthcoming series. There are rumblings afoot to that effect. Also, interesting questions have been raised about the UN accepting then holding counterfeit currency from the Kim Jong Il government, click here.

            Because the Fox story does not provide the names, and the memos put on line have all the names redacted, here from Inner City Press is a list of UNDP's Pyongyang international staff: Timo Pakkala, Vineet Bhatia (still in-country); Du Yuexin; Paul Brewah; Mulualem Zeleke; Melvin Padua; Vijay Thapa and Maartin Boon. Here is a link to the December 8, 2005 meeting Fox describes, here is the January 24, 2006 memo to Timo Pakkala, and here are the minutes of the resulting April 13, 2006 meeting, in which we learn among other things that UN international staff had fruits and vegetables imported from China, and that WHO wanted to fly its own flag, and not the UN's, on its vehicles. What does it all add up to? That remains to be seen.

Click here for Inner City Press' coverage today of the UN Office of Drugs and Crime.

UNFPA's Dubious Tales On UN's N. Korea Audit's 2nd Day, Red Faces at UNDP

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, March 20 -- With the delayed "urgent audit" of North Korea programs called for by Ban Ki-moon on January 19 now in its second day, inconsistencies are cropping up.

  The 90-day deadline for the audit is now described as merely being a goal. The government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has yet to signal that any auditors will even be allowed to enter the country.

   While the delay in starting the audit is attributed to "unforeseen staff travel arrangements of one of the auditors," UN insiders tell Inner City Press that it was the Pyongyang to New York travel of Resident Coordinator Timo Pakkala that was delayed for one week, so that certain surgical modifications to the records could be made. A point at issue now is not only how much money was expended, but where in fact it went.

            On Tuesday, the audit's second day, officials from the UN Population Fund put in an appearance at the UN Board of Auditors' office on the 26th floor of the UNDP building, where they claimed that UNFPA's programs in Pyongyang did not have the problems which forced UNDP to suspend its operations earlier this month.

            This is belied by a draft internal audit report obtained by Inner City Press, and presumably available to the Board of Auditors. If it is not, since in the face of this audit documents have a way of disappearing or being modified, extensive quotes from the UNFPA internal audit are below.

     But first, after receiving no-comment from the Board of Auditors, Inner City Press' previous questions about the audit have been responded to by UN Controller Warren Sach:

Subj: Question on audit, from today's noon briefing: why was audit pushed back a week, etc, thanks 

From: Warren Sach

To: Inner City Press

CC: goolsarrans [at] un.org

Date: 3/19/2007 2:14:37 PM Eastern Standard Time

   1. Why was the audit pushed back a week? As per a 7 March 2007memorandum from the Board of Auditors, the planned start date of the audit will be delayed by one week due to unforeseen staff travel arrangements of one of the auditors.

   2. What impact might it have on complying with the 90 day time frame?

   Please see below answer on the proposed time frame.

   3. When does the 90 day time frame expire?  The Secretary General has requested through the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) that the Board of Auditors conduct the required activities within a time frame of 90 days.  The Board of Auditors has agreed to take up the work as a matter of priority which we hope can be achieved within the timeframe requested by the Secretary General.

   4. Has any request been made for auditors to enter DPRK?  The Secretary General has sent a letter to the Permanent Representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea informing them of the audit and requesting assistance to facilitate travel arrangements and visas.

   5. Has there been any response? The letter to the DPRK was sent on the 12th of March 2007. We have not received any follow up communication in the past few days.

   6. Has there been any response to Ban Ki-moon's February 28 letter on this issue?  The letter from the Secretary General dated 28 February 2007 was a response to a correspondence received from the Permanent Representative of DPRK.  We have not received any follow up communication from the DPRK.

            While appreciating this reply from Warren Sach, who has also taken back on but has yet to respond about the post of Ban Ki-moon's representative to the UN Pension Fund, it is still unclear when the audit's 90 day "clock," previously referred to by Ban Ki-moon's staff, expires. Additionally, there is among insiders a counter-explanation of the audit's one-week delay in starting, that involves the Pyongyang to New York travel of Resident Coordinator Timo Pakkala being delayed for one week, so that targeted chances to documentation could be made. More on this to follow. Within UNDP, there is growing paranoia. The Administrator's discomfort is, insiders say, incarnated in a skin condition used to deny press access. No questions!  And no answers, either, for example as to why the head of UNDP's Bureau of Management Akiko Yuge has left New York for precisely the two weeks of the audit's first (and some say only) phase.

            For now, the members of the Board of Auditors are making phone calls and holding meetings. On Tuesday, they went to UNFPA, where they were told a number of stories, including that UNFPA's programs in Pyongyang did not have the problems which triggered the audit and forced UNDP to suspend its operations in North Korea.

UNFPA's Thoraya Obaid: UN interview, not (yet) audit

            UNFPA's story is contradicted by a document obtained by Inner City Press, an internal audit report of UNFPA's County Office in DPR Korea, dated May 2006.

            This internal audit was carried out by KPMG in-country from May 23 to May 29 and is 68 pages in length. Even while sidestepping UNFPA's provision of hard currency to the Kim Jong Il government -- perhaps because all of UNFPA's payments were and are through UNDP, as more recently acknowledged by UNDP's spokesman -- the audit paints a disturbing picture of UNFPA.

            At UNFPA in North Korea there is sloppy bookkeeping, at least, for payments of $96,000 and $93,000 and $77,000. KPMG diplomatically notes an "absence of documentation for independent verification." There was a murky "transfer of assets" worth $420,000 to the North Korean government. A consultant was hired to slap together some praise of UNFPA's and the DPRK's "partnership," but was paid before the work was done, and the work was never evaluated. In a project from the European Commission, KPMG notes "unauthorized use of project resources," without saying by whom. But this is what the Board of Auditors should find out and make public.

   Back in January, Inner City Press asked UNFPA for comment on these issues. Spokesman Abubakar Dungus on January 22 said he would respond that day. He did not, and has not. On January 26, Mr. Dungus' boss Safiye Cagar told Inner City Press that Mr. Dungus was on retreat.  Minutes later, UNFPA security chief Janie McCusker attempted to have Inner City Press' correspondent barred from the UNFPA Executive Board meeting. When this failed, Ms. McCusker was seen whispering with Ms. Cagar, Kwabena Osei-Danquah and UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid. Missing from this scene was UNFPA's Alaadin Morsy, who has been threatened by Ms. Obaid with a document, contested by Mr. Morsy, concerning

"the vehicle that you imported when you were first place on the ATR Project in Egypt... the vehicle was imported for your personal use without paying customs duties to the Government of Egypt.  If you were employed for less than three years on the project, you were obligated to either re-export the vehicle or pay the customs duty that would have been owed when you imported the car in 2002. Your employment with the project was terminated after one year and you should have taken one of these two action. To the best of our knowledge and that of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry and the Egyptian Customs Authority, you have not done so. Mr. Tim S. Buehrer of the Secretary-General's office has stated that he has contacted you on numerous occasions concerning this matter but that you have not responded."

            Some have predicted the ejection from the UN System of either Mr. Morsy or Ms. Obaid. These are other issues, beyond but not unrelated to hard currency and mis-management, into which the Board of Auditors should delve, along with these additional findings from UNFPA's May 2006 internal audit, for example on the key question of accepting personnel from the DPRK government:

"National staff were seconded from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for National Program Officer, Finance and Administration Associate and Secretary positions and the driver was seconded from the General Bureau for Affairs with Diplomatic Missions... There was no documentation on the health status and evidence of educational background in addition to the Curriculum Vitae for seconded staff maintained in the staff personal file... Competencies of personnel not verified prior to secondment acceptance."

        These are precisely the issues on which Ban Ki-moon called for the audit. UNFPA now tells the Board of Auditors that everything's fine. How? There is also this, in the internal audit of UNFPA:

"World Health Organization (WHO) was the implementing UN agency for DRK3R203. An Annual Work Plan was developed and signed on 1 February 2005. The following issues were note in the execution arrangement with WHO:

The budget allocated for WHO execution was US$193,500 for 2005. However, in the AWP, an amount of US$47,000 was manually recorded as balance carried forward from 2004 in addition to the allocation in 2005. The amount was inconsistent with WHO financial report claiming that the amount carried forward from UNFPA from 2004 was US$62,452; Our review of the financial report submitted by WHO revealed that an amount of US$156,388 out of total budget of US$255,952 was still in 'unliquidated/earmarking' column indicating that the plan activities (mainly fellowships) for the year have not taken place. As at our audit date, the Office was not able to confirm whether WHO has successfully completed the outstanding activities as at 31 December 2005. The information on the utilization of the unliquidated amount was only provided to the Office after being requested the audit team. Ineffective monitoring of resources. Error in financial reporting."

            In response to a direct question from Inner City Press of whether the World Health Organization received $10 million from South Korea while Ban Ki-moon was foreign minister, WHO spokeswoman Christine McNab replied that, "Yes, last year South Korea committed to providing the equivalent of US 10 million per year as support to DPRK through WHO for health-related humanitarian assistance, for three years." This has given rise to a question of how much money the South Korean government transferred to North Korea, through UN agencies, while Ban Ki-moon was South Korean Foreign Minister, click here for that story.

            In the "Management comments" of the audit, UNFPA claims that it "is doing good comparing with other UN agencies resident in DPRK." The auditor KPMG -- also the auditor of UNDP in North Korea -- does not reply. Then again, since UNFPA has refused to show these audits even to the member states on its Executive Board, perhaps there's no reason for KPMG to reply. Reply to whom? Only now, there is an answer -- to the Board of Auditors, unless all of these documents and drafts disappear.

   On UNDP and bank accounts, the UNFPA internal audit says

"The monitoring and oversight of UNFPA funds in UNDP’s bank account in the Korea Foreign Trade Bank was performed by UNDP. The Office had no involvement in the management of banking accounts and facilities in 2005. However, according to the UNFPA Internal Control Framework, which came into effect on 22 March 2006, Country Offices are to receive and check completed bank reconciliations from UNDP on a monthly basis.... Lack of oversight on bank reconciliations."

            After dodging the question from the time it was raised to Kemal Dervis on February 1, UNDP's spokesman recently stated that upwards of $10 from "other UN funds and programs," the "vast majority of it" from UNFPA, was paid through UNDP. UNDP has not disclosed information which its spokesman, in the hallway outside the briefing room, promised to provide, about safeguards in place to track this UNFPA and "other" money. Rather, UNDP has said, "Wait for the audit."

            But if from Day Two of the audit, UNFPA does not tell the truth, and the auditors may never go to North Korea, how will the truth be found? Developing.

With Audit Starting in NY, UNDP Manager Akiko Yuge Leaves Town, Sale-of-Jobs Unanswered

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, March 19 -- As the delayed "urgent audit" of North Korea programs called for by Ban Ki-moon on January 19 today begins at the UN Development Program, the director of UNDP's Bureau of Management Akiko Yuge has conveniently left town, internal UNDP e-mails obtained by Inner City Press show.

            Sources say that UNDP's legal chief James Provenzano and finance director Darshak Shah may also have left. (Since UNDP no longer answers even basic questions, this cannot be confirmed. As to Ms. Yuge, see the intra-UNDP email below.)

          Mr. Shah and Ms. Yuge were among the eight UNDP officials to whom the Executive Secretary of the UN Board of Auditors, Swatantra Goolsarran, sent his March 1 memo scoping out the audit including requested interviews, their absence from headquarters during the audit has raised questions about staff. So has the fact that the scope of audit memo was not sent to UNDP's Asia chief, Hafiz Pasha, but only to his ostensible deputy, David Lockwood. The credibility of the audit is increasingly doubted by knowledgeable sources inside UNDP.

            UNDP's large but recently lethargic (at least on this issue) communications office has not helped dispel the doubts. A series of questions about the audit and UNDP's North Korea program have done unanswered. Even two non-North Korea questions asked on camera then in writing last week, regarding UNDP's reported support of a gold mine in Romania and the selling of jobs and promotions alleged by UNDP staffers, have been entirely ignored.  UNDP's David Morrison was asked these questions at the March 13 noon briefing filmed by UN TV, click here for video, from minute 40:30 to 42:39.

  Inner City Press followed this up with an email:

Subj: Follow-up to today's UN noon briefing, & some long-outstanding questions, thanks 

Date: 3/13/2007 2:05:40 PM Eastern Standard Time

To: david.morrison [at] undp.org, ad.melkert [at] undp.org, kemal.dervis [at] undp.org

CC: [cc's deleted in this format]

 From: Inner City Press

Hello -- This follows up on questions asked at today's UN noon briefing. On  deadline,  need a yes or no answer on whether the previous head of the Department  of  Management ever imposed conditions appointments or promotion (or in  cases of demotion / re-classification downward). We are told that this was  sometimes explained as being akin to a "headhunter's fee."

  Because we are on deadline, we are also cc-ing some of the  individuals, who we have been told may on this question have knowledge. [Ed.'s note: cc's deleted in this format.]

I am attaching for your comment and explanation three documents  concerning the controversy regarding UNDP's position on, and involvement in, gold mining project in Romania.  Also, a breakdown of the $10.88 million  you cited today, and your response to Ben's question about the $151 million  figure in OCHA's consolidated appeal. I am pasting below yesterday's reminder email, and note that a  long-ago asked question -- how many people work for UNDP? --  message, which  included other still-unanswered questions, pasted below -- has yet to be  answered. Ad Melkert is cc-ed because he indicated such answers would  become faster.

 And again, we believe that Mr. Dervis as Administrator should come  and give a briefing in 226, given the issues that have been raised. 

  Still, no response whatsoever. Therefore, for now, here is an edited version of one of the UNDP staff complaints that has been directed to Inner City Press, despite David Morrison's counter-story that procedures and whistle-blower protections exist in UNDP such that no one should go to the press:

Subject: Re: Attn: Mr. Matthew Russell Lee
Date: 3/2007 [Date and time omitted due to last line of 2d email, below]
From: [Name withheld, entitled to all whistle-blower protections]
To: Inner City Press

 ...on jobs for favors first. I know some people to whom Brian Gleeson offered promotions or appointments in exchange of the cash equivalent of the first salary. He mentioned this option to me as well when my post was re-classified downwards. I pretended it was a joke, but afterwards the relations became very strained. For quite some time I was kind of sidelined...

   Then --

Subject: Re: Attn: Mr. Matthew Russell Lee - many thanks, some [follow-up] questions
Date: 3/2007 [Date and time omitted due to last line of this email]
From: [Name withheld, entitled to all whistle-blower protections]
To: Inner City Press

...Usually $10,000 or first salary. Brian was quoted to say that as UNDP was becoming corporate-like, it would be normal to charge as head hunter agency would charge.

...Our I.T. manager said that the management could track what we do on the Internet at any instant. So much for our rights, which could be another topic for you to explore.

  Yes, that will be another topic. And on the Romania gold mine controversy, we have tried another route, which we hope will soon bear fruit, at least a response of some sort. But why would UNDP made no response at all for six days to questions about these sale of jobs and promotions allegations, questions raised in a formal UN-televised press briefing and then also in writing, with additional names provided?

  This was sent out, Friday after close of business:

From: Bernadette Jones

Sent: Mar 16, 2007 18:10

Subject: O-I-C of BOM

Dear All,

This is to advise that Ms. Akiko Yuge will be away from Headquarters from 18 to 31 March 2007, inclusive.   During her absence Ms. Jocelline Bazile-Finley will be the Officer-in-Charge of the Bureau of Management. Please also note that Ms. Bazile-Finley is the Acting Chief Procurement Officer for this period.

Thank you

Bernadette Jones , Executive Assistant to the Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau of Management

            We will have more about UNDP's procurement. But why would UNDP send its new director of Management, Brian Gleeson's successor, away from headquarters precisely during the two week New York period of the "urgent audit" of UNDP's management of its North Korea program? Questions, questions...

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service.

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