As
UNDP Loses Somalia Retaliation Case, Perps Relocated to Haiti, Paper
Trail
Emerges
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March 11 -- When whistleblower Ismael Ahmed complained of
irregularities in and then retaliation by the UN Development Program
in Somalia, UNDP's own ethics machinery rejected his claims. But on
appeal, as reflected in a 16 page decision Inner City Press obtained
and is putting online here, Mr. Ahmed prevailed.
But
there's more.
The first retaliator against Ahmed, Eric Overvest, was
promoted to the UNDP in Haiti. After the earthquake, he was quoted
that the situation was "an opportunity" -- rather the way
he saw Somalia.
Inner
City Press
is informed that Overvest also retaliated against Dr. Edwina
Thompson, an Australia national, who was hired to evaluate the
remittance program.
Overvest
demanded that she should approve a report from a second consultant
that he had hied in Nairobi. In response to this she wrote to him on
5 November 2007 saying that “I would love to comply with your
request to endorse Jamasai's report, if for no other reason than to
expedite payment for my fee. I hope however that you'll appreciate as
a matter of principle that I am unable to do that”. However,
Overvest went ahead and issued the report claiming that it was a
consolidated report jointly produced by the two consultants.
On
23
November Edwina wrote to Eric and said: “As I said previously, I
cannot agree with all the findings in Jamasai's report because some
of them are neither factual, nor based on adequate investigations.
Moreover, I am certainly not happy that Jamasai will take portions of
my report and reference me as an acknowledgement. May I remind you
that we did not agree that a 'consolidated' report would be produced.
The revised TOR was to produce two reports, and then discuss what
should happen once your team reviewed the quality. I have not been
consulted in your process, even despite my comprehensive email
correspondence with yourself since the original submission of my
report - which is indeed almost 2 months ago. This is entirely
unprofessional, and I am convinced will not stand up if the UNDP
Evaluation Office were to review what has unfolded”.
UNDP's Helen Clark @ WEF, musical chairs to Haiti not shown
On 29
November
Edwina responded to Eric again and said: “At the teleconference
meeting you agreed that we would submit individual reports - I was
given the extra task of assessing risk issues, while Jamasai was
tasked to focus on the Central Bank. We did not agree that there
would be a consolidated report. I have not approved any ensuing
consolidation by Jamasai. Regardless of this, I understand that you
had already distributed your consolidated report with my name on it
before asking for my feedback by COB on 23 November. Perhaps you
could explain this. On the issue of payment; no, I have not received
it. I understand from your finance and admin staff that you have been
blocking that payment. If you will now approve it again, I would be
grateful”.
Edwina
faced retaliation for producing an independent report. Almost six
months after she submitted her report, her consultancy fees were
still being blocked by Eric. Although in earlier emails Eric argued
that her payment was ready, after this email he confirmed that her
payment would not be processed until she complied with his demands.
And
now Eric
Overvest has been replaced by his former boss, Bruno Lemarquis, also
responsible for the retalation. We aim to have more on this.
* * *
On
Darfur, UN Can't Confirm Who Controls Jebel Marra, Can't Protect
Itself
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March 9 -- Ever since the Sudanese government and JEM rebels
announced a cease fire and the UN quickly praised it, there have been
reports of an upsurging in fighting in Darfur's Jebel Marra between
the government and another rebel group, the SLA. Inner City Press
repeatedly asked the UN to confirm the death tolls reported by the
SLA, to no avail.
On
March 8, the
government announced it had full control of Jebel Marra. At the UN
later that day, after some happy talk about efforts for gender
equality through UN Police, Inner City Press sought to ask about
Darfur. But there was no noon briefing that day. Inner City Press
sought answers elsewhere.
On
March 9, Inner
City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky about the competing
critiques of the SLA and government: both in their way say the UN is
doing nothing. The government mocks the UN Mission UNAMID's over 60
troops, who let the SLA take from them seven four by fours, more than
50 automatic weapons and communications equipment, without a fight.
The SLA's
Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur said of UNAMID, "They are unable to protect
civilians nor are they writing reports to document what happened so
what exactly are they doing?"
Factually,
Inner
City Press asked Nesirky if the UN could confirm or deny that the
government retook control of Jebel Marra. "I don't have anything
on that," Nesirky said. "I need to find out." Video
here,
from Minute 1:09:36
Inner
City Press
asked for a UN response to the government's claim that it told UNAMID
to take a different route to Jebel Marra. "I don't know the
answer to that," Nesirky said, not even offering to find out.
Video here,
from Minute 1:09:28.
UNAMID in El Fasher "Super-camp" - Lockheed
and protection of civilians not shown
What
Nesirky did
have was a read out statement about the UN's surrender on March 5. It
was 63 UNAMID personnel,
Nesirky corrected, not 61. Fifty six were in
the "protection force." If they can't or won't protect
themselves, how could they protect civilians?
The
UN appears to
be in a see no evil, hear no evil mode about Darfur, and Sudan more
generally. This was supposed to be one of the UN's main commitments.
What happened? Watch this site.
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