At
UNFPA, Audit Shows Asset Transfers to N. Korean Government, Hard Currency
through UNDP
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
January 31 -- Even before the UN Development Program scandal fully broke on
January 19, Ban Ki-moon had said that the UN in 2007 would exhibit a new
transparency, a new trustworthiness. One of the most apparently resistant UN
agencies is the UN Population Fund, UNFPA.
For the
past ten days, Inner City Press has awaited answers from UNFPA about its
programs in North Korea. While other funds such as the
UN Children's Fund
and even more attenuated specialized agencies such as the
Food and Agriculture Organization
have responded to exactly the same questions, UNFPA has refused to provide a
single answer.
In the
interim, sources have provided Inner City Press with a copy of the most recent
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 failing to criticize UNFPA's provision of hard
currency to the Kim Jong Il government -- perhaps because all of UNFPA's
payments were and are through UNDP, which has been criticized by its Executive
Board for this -- the audit paints a disturbing picture of UNFPA.
At UNFPA
in North Korea there is slopping 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
pen 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.
Inner City Press has
previously obtained and reported on UNFPA internal audits from Pakistan -- where
the country officer who received a rating of Deficient, Olivier Brasseur, was
then elevated to head all of UNFPA's audits -- and Nigeria and Congo. Click
here for
that coverage. Ten days ago, 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 two days later he sent out a message that he was out of the
office., This despite numerous other spokespeople informing Inner City Press
that not only was and is Mr. Dungus inside UN Headquarters, he is conferring
with them about responding or not responding to Inner City Press' questions. The
prevarication apparently continues, because in ten days, and despite a reminder
on the morning of January 31, there has been no response at all.
Mr.
Ocampo, Mr. Annan and UNFPA's Thoraya Obaid, a blast from the past
On January 26, Mr. Dungus' boss Safiye
Cagar, previously seen knitting or crocheting in the January 25 Executive Board
meeting, 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 Executive Board meeting. When this failed, Ms.
McCusker was seen whispering with Ms. Cagar, Kwabena Osei-Danquah and UNFPA
Executive Director Thoraya Obaid. The three had previously been discussing, with
some distain, the call for the release of internal audits of such issues as lack
of independence in hiring, payment of hard currency, and lack of oversight of
nationally-executive programs.
Ban Ki-moon has called for an audit of
just such issues. While he remains traveling, questions about the timing and the
scope of the audits are going unanswered. But given the contents of UNFPA's
internal audit, and given UNFPA's unique approach to press relations, UNFPA
would seem ripe for external audit, right behind UNDP. UNDP's limited
disclosure of the size of payments in North Korea is another issue to be
addressed. But for now, here below are findings from UNFPA's May 2006 internal
audit.
On accepting personnel from the DPRK government, the
internal audit says:
"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."
In the "Management comments" that follow, 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 refuses to show these audits even to the member states
on its Executive Board, perhaps there's no reason for KPMG to reply, or to even
in this audit reach a conclusion on the payment of hard currency to the Kim Jong
Il government.
On the hiring of consultants for a seemingly
self-serving report, the internal audit says
"A consultant
was recruited to prepare a report on UNFPA’s role in DPR Korea entitled
'Remembering 20 years of Partnership.' The SSA was processed and managed by
UNFPA China. Our review of available documentation in the Office revealed the
following:
-the signing
dates of both the consultant and Country Director were not noted; and
-a final
evaluation of the consultant’s work was not prepared to certify satisfactory
completion work prior to release of final payment.
- Validity of
contract could not be ascertained.
-Release of
final payment prior to satisfactory completion of work."
This sounds not unlike the consulting
contracts at UN DESA's
DPADM under Guido Bertucci,
the status of whose audit by OIOS remains unclear, as raised at the Office of
the Spokesperson for the Secretary General's noon briefing on January 30, click
here
for video.
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."
When UNDP proclaimed low figures as
volumes of payments in North Korea, it omitted any mention of money it pays for
other UN agencies. A full accounting is being sought.
On procurement, the UNFPA internal audit
states
"We noted that
one PO CHN40-000262 raised by UNFPA China amounting to US$96,020 did not specify
the details of the medical supplies procured. The narration recorded in the PO
was only a one line narration of 'Pharmaceutical Products' referring to the
Invitation to Bid (ITB) No. 04BJDRKDM.
In addition, we also noted that the procurement file maintained in the Office is
not always updated with the hardcopies of the PO raised by UNFPA China and email
correspondences between the Office and UNFPA China. For example, a copy of PO
for the procurement of pharmaceuticals products amounting to US$ 93,327 was not
available in the procurement file and the Office kept the draft version
(unauthorized) of the PO CHN40-000397 amounting to US$77,726 in their
procurement file. Supplier may supply wrong product --Absence of documentation
for independent verification."
Also on procurement, the audit states
"An invitation
to bid was conducted by UNFPA China for the Office to procure Medical Equipment
and Beijing Renfa RH Company ('Beijing Renfa') had quoted the lowest price of
US$59,339. The opening of bid was performed by UNFPA China on 10 May 2005.
We noted the following issues relating to this bidding: Subsequent to the
bidding process, Beijing Renfa sent a letter to UNFPA China on 22 June 2005 that
they had wrongly quoted the price in their original bidding document, due to
their mistake of not adding the video printer cost in the Ultra Sound Scanner
price resulting in additional amount of US$6,760 of the total price; The total
worth of goods delivered by Beijing Renfa was increased from US$59,339 (as per
the invitation to bid document on 11 May 2005) to US$ 99,326 (as per the
supplier’s invoice on 5 August 2005 due to additional request for procurement
from the Office. The Office did not maintain records to evidence competitive
bidding for the additional procurement and the final delivery reconciled to the
request for procurement; The freight charges in the supplier’s invoice was
US$1,700, which was higher than UNFPA’s PO by US$500; and The invoice for this
procurement was from Beijing Marine Shipping Company for US$99,326, and not from
Beijing Renfa. The documents were only provided to us after requesting the Head
of Office to contact UNFPA China. Unauthorized payment.
On the "transfer of assets to the Government" of
North Korea, the internal audit states:
"Our review of
the Asset Management Module’s ('AMM') report revealed the following: The Country
Director had authorized the transfer of US$420,293 worth of assets to the
Government on 9 November 2005. However, as at 31 December 2005, the AMM has yet
to be updated to reflect the above assets transfer. The Office had been
communicating with HQs to update the AMM with the latest email dated 21 April
2006; The assignment of profile IDs did not reflect the nature of the asset, for
example:
Description of
asset Profile ID Asset ID
Canon NP-7210 photocopier Furniture 00000000004
AKHO 5000 Ultrasound Scanner Heavy machinery 00000000035
Infant incubator YP90AB Heavy machinery 00000000055
(Source: Asset Management Module)
Inaccurate
reporting of assets. Erroneous profiling of assets.
The following lapses were noted in asset recording in the Asset Management
Module ('AMM'):
Assets worth
US$420,293 from the previous Country Program transferred to the Government on 9
November 2005 was still registered in the AMM’s as of 31 December 2005, and the
assignment of profile IDs for some of the Assets in AMM did not reflect the
nature of the asset. The common services agreement for 2005 has yet to be
finalized and agreed with UNDP as of May 2006 There was no matching exercise
conducted for the implementation of the Office which was classified under
typology type II as per the circular from the Chief of Human Resources on 7
March 2003. Due to the operating constraints within the country where the
national staff were selected and seconded to UNFPA from the Government and
competitive selection was not a viable option.
The Office had
written to the Director of the Asia Pacific Division ('APD') informing him that
the compliance to the Office typology could not be met during his visit to the
Office in 2003 as noted in the Country Office Annual Report 2003. On 6 February
2006, a follow-up meeting was conducted between the Director of APD, Country
Director and Head of Office to discuss this issue. However, there has yet to be
a formal response from HQs that the Office was exempted from complying with the
Office typology. As a result, the compliance of the Office typology particularly
on competitive recruitment, succession planning and continuous education program
could not be met since the Government would have the right to appoint or recall
the seconded national staff. "
Inner City Press also asked UNFPA, ten days ago,
to describe a sample project in North Korea. Since UNFPA has literally hidden
from the question, here from the internal audit of UNFPA is a sample project:
"In 2004,
European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) has agreed to fund US$
302,000 (Euro 275,000) for DRK03P01 (Strengthening of Obstetric Care at
Community Level) and the Office was allocated 80% of the total fund in 2004. The
arrangement was ECHO would only release the final 20% upon completion of the
project and clearance of the final report. The following issues were noted:
-The ATLAS has
recorded 100% of the contribution in the project budget. However, ECHO had only
released to HQs 80% of the fund resulted in the inability of the Office to issue
payment to procurements that has been committed;
-Due to the
urgency to meet outstanding payment to the procurement made in 2004, the Office
has created the 2005 project budget (DRK3R203) on 6 January 2006 before the
signing of the project’s CPAP on 1 February 2005. The budget was used for
outstanding payment whilst the reconciliation on final budget and expenditure on
DRK03P01 was ongoing;
-After
receiving the remaining 20% of ECHO funds, the Office and HQs had tried to
reconcile the actual expenditure and the budgeted amount. However, there was
still a remaining balance of US$23,065 recorded for DRK03P01 in the budget
status report for 2005. There should not be any remaining balance since the
budgeted amount has been fully utilized... Inaccurate information of remaining
fund. Incomplete information of accounting record Unauthorized use of project
resources."
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."
We'll have more about the World Health
Organization in the near future.
Because
a number of Inner City Press' UNFPA 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 what will be an ongoing series by saluting the
stated goals of UNFPA and many of its staff and
programs. 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
UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile
(and weekends): 718-716-3540
At
UNFPA, Press Questions Met With Armed Guards, Despite Audit Irregularities,
Saudi Arabia in NY
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
January 26 -- The UN Population Fund has a way with the media. For five days,
putative spokesman Abubakar Dungus had dodged questions about UNFPA's operations
in North Korea. On January 22, Dungus told Inner City Press a response was to be
provided that day. None was, then Mr. Dungus claimed to be out of the office,
while he was seen in UN headquarters. Friday a UNFPA staffer, sitting next to
Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, told Inner City Press that Dungus has
"been on retreat." In retreat is more like it.
While
still sitting next to Ms. Obaid and her staff, Inner City Press' correspondent
briefly videotaped the podium at the Executive Board meeting. After the camera
had been put away from five minute, a chairperson of the Executive Board,
Camilla Bruckner of Denmark, approached. Identifying the correspondent by name,
she said that Press must sit in the gallery, and that video taping is only
permitted from up in the photo booth, under escort. Inner City Press replied
that the gallery has no electrical outlets for computers, and that no escort for
filming had been present, but that the camera had long been put away. The
correspondent moved up to the gallery. But UNFPA's actions were only then
beginning.
Ten
minutes later, as the discussion on the podium turned to audits, a woman who
identified herself as "a UNFPA security" person, later identified as Janie
McCusker, jointly UNDP and UNFPA, arrived with a uniform-clad UN security
officer, who made Inner City Press' correspondent leave the room. Inner City
Press explained that the camera had only been used for ten seconds, and had been
put away from fifteen minutes. "Our meetings are never filmed," a staffer
said. But once the UN security officer learned that it was, in fact, an open
meeting, he told Inner City Press to get back to work, inside the meeting room.
Ms.
Obaid, Mr. Piot and Ms. Veneman of
UNICEF
Ms.
McCusker went over to Thoraya Obaid to have a discussion. Apparently the attempt
to exclude or eject a reporter had not worked out as planned. But why this
anti-press reaction? "A little piece of
Saudi Arabia, right in the
United Nations," one wag was later heard to say. Twenty minute later in the
UN's briefing room, Inner City Press asked about press freedom in Eritrea. Click
here for
video, click
here today's
story on the UNDP / UNFPA Executive Board meeting, and on the statement that
UNFPA too will be audited. We'll see.
At UNFPA, Audit Failures Are Put In Charge of Audits,
Olivier Brasseur, While Milk Is Bought and Money Is Missing
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, January 23 -- On Friday, responding
to the breaking scandal around the UN Development Program, Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon called for an "urgent, system wide and external inquiry into all
activities done around the globe by the UN funds and programs." This would
include the UN Population Fund, which alongside some
laudable
programs also reportedly pays its national staffers' salaries, as well as
rent and utilities, in North Korea with hard currency Euros.
Inner City Press asked UNFPA's
spokespeople some simple questions, and was told by Abubaker Dunga that
information would be provided on Monday ("I will put together the information
and send it to you as soon as possible today"). However, despite multiple email
and telephone reminders, UNFPA did not end up answering the questions or
providing any information by 11 p.m. on Monday.
UNDP had refused for months to provide
Inner City Press with copies of internal audits it has requested. Among the
reasons given by Administrator Kemal Dervis is that these documents are
"management tools," which are acted on to improve agencies' functioning.
Inner City Press has obtained copies of
UNFPA internal or "management" audits. A sample May 2006 audit recites that
"The Division
for Oversight Services conducted a management audit of the UNFPA country office
in Nigeria from 23 January to 10 February 2006.... The management of the Office
was Deficient... Until the completion of the audit, the post of Representative
was occupied by Mr. Niangoran Essan... The Office did not properly monitor the
advances and the expenditures of the 64 implementing agencies under the 19
respective projects. Some Certificate of Expenditures were misplaced or lost in
the Office, and were not subsequently recorded in ATLAS, therefore overstating
the outstanding advances. In January 2005, a Memorandum of Understanding was
signed between UNDP and UNFPA covering sub-contacted activities under the
National population census project. The MoU did not include a provision for the
Administrative Overhead Support (AOS) Cost application in respect of the
activities for which an amount of US $2,066,311 was budgeted... Information on
vendors in ATLAS was incomplete and duplicate records were identified... The
registry function within the Office was very weak; a list of files was not
maintained. Several files and documentation were destroyed in 2005 without
following the guidelines of the UNDP Manual of Operations Management. There was
considerable risk to the staff... the general administration of the Office was
Deficient."
So after so damning an internal audit,
what happened to the head administrator of the Office, Mr. Niangoran Essan? He
was promoted, to head a regional Country Technical Services Team based in
Zimbabwe, a so-called L-7 post.
The head of UNFPA's Division
for Oversight Services, which conducted the above-quoted audit, is Olivier
Brasseur, who when he was the head of UNFPA's office in Pakistan received a bad
audit himself, which stated that "the management of the Office was Deficient.
control weaknesses identified were widespread and were significant enough to
have a negative impact on performance. They include the lack of reliance that
can be associated with the data produced by the Atlas system at this time... the
Representative during the period under review was Dr. Olivier Brasseur." Then
Mr. Brasseur was put in charge of auditing other country offices, being
quoted in
April 2006 as the head of Oversight Services
praising
a census in Nigeria that was fraught with "logistical problems." This is the
revolving-door system that Ban Ki-moon is being told can fix itself.
This Atlas system was described as one of
Mark Malloch Brown's crowning achievements at UNDP and its satellites like UNFPA.
But repeatedly the audits show the system not working or not being used. A major
UNDP country office, Brazil, refused to use it, saying that because it raised
enough of its own money, no one could make it do anything. This is the
fragmentation and world of UN fiefdoms to which Ban Ki-moon cast fear on Jan.
19, and then offered a reprieve on Jan. 22 by limiting the scope of the inquiry
and leaving it up to the agencies, in some sense, to consent to and design the
audits by already-used insiders.
UNFPA: This is the picture, now read the
until-now-secret audits
The UNFPA audits are damning, were never
sufficiently disclosed, and were rarely if ever acted on. Another sample audit,
of UNFPA's country office in the Republic of Congo - Brazzaville, states that
"As of June
2005, the Office had not sought the agreement of the Government to extend the
conditions applicable to UNDP under the standard basic assistance agreement to
UNFPA... the projects under the Interim Program had not been financially closed
because of difficulties with the recovery of unspent advances totaling US $
43,671... The internal controls over the processing of payments was inadequate.
426 disbursement vouchers totaling US $ 708,264 were missing and the could
therefore not be included in the sample of transactions to be included."
Forty thousand dollars here, 700 thousand
dollars there -- pretty soon you're talking about real money. Inner City Press
has reviewed payment records for UNFPA conference in Harrison, New York,
invoiced on December 8, 2005 ($24, 303) and December 29, 2005 ($26,334) and then
March 1, 2006 ($40,314). Inner City Press is informed of UNFPA purchases of baby
milk in Egypt, unauthorized and outside of UNFPA's mandate, purchase done in
order to facilitate the evasion of taxes.
In the upcoming Executive Board meeting
on UNFPA, one of the controversial items is UNFPA Regionalization. The UN's
Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, the ABACQ, has
opined that "the level and number of posts in the areas of management,
administration and support are relatively high. The Advisory Committee believes
that the proposed organizational arrangements should be re-examined with a view
to streamlining structures and reporting lines."
Since UNFPA has not re-examined or
re-drafted the proposal, it is trying to get the item removed from this week's
agenda. We'll see.
As this interim profile of UNFPA should
make clear, issues to be inquired into in the wake of the UNDP scandals should
not be limited just to North Korea, or to hard currency, secondment and
auditors' access. The problems, at UNDP's satellite UNFPA and at other funds,
programs and specialized agencies to be examined in the near future, are
systematic and require full public review and disclosure, and then substantive
action. This is what Ban Ki-moon called for on January 19, then appeared to turn
away from on Jan. 22. With the poor and needy be served by reform and
accountability of these agencies in charge of money to serve them? We'll see.
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
At the UN,
Mysterious Deletion from Iran Sanctions List of Aerospace Industries
Organization Goes Unexplained
At the UN, Iran
Resolution Passes 15-0 Amid Media Frenzy While Somalia and UN Reform Are
Ignored
At the UN,
Security Council and GA Games and Holiday Spirit As Revolving Door Ban
Disappears on Final Day
UNDP Not Covered
By Weak UN Post-Employment Restrictions, Dervis and Mizsei and Aid to
the Scapegoated
UN
Post-Employment Restriction Are Watered Down for Senior Officials,
Comparison to June Draft Reveals
At the UN, Curt
Eulogies for Dictator, Revolving Door and Budget Left for the Last Day
UNDP's Dervis
Backtracks on Transparency, Promises Accounting of Funds, Denies Role in
Uganda Abuse
At the UN,
Jeffrey Sachs Answers the $75,000 Question But Not on UNDP, Still
Laudable Goals for 2025
Burundi Spin
at the UN, Amid Coup Trial and Ceasefire Not Implemented, Great Lakes
Commission Moves In
At the UN, Iran
Resolution Goes Blue as Ivory Coast is Traded Away With No Follow-up on
Hmung
At the UN,
Annan's Long Goodbye, With Oil for Food in the Air and Hothouse Musical
Chairs
At Kofi Annan's
Farewell, UNDP Transparency is Raised, and Brian Gleeson Steps Up
At UN
in Beirut, Dueling Charges of Job-Trading and
Tax-Evasion, the Burden of
Mervat Tallawy, Retaliation from Below
UNDP Will Be
Called to Greater Transparency, Says President of Spain, on UNDP's
Board, and Flaws of UNOPS
UNDP's Ad
Melkert Says He Will Finally Increase Transparency, Describes Fraud in
Russia, Dodges Uganda
In Eastern
Congo, Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made a Colonel, Clooney And Now
Guehenno Might Stay
At the UN,
Ocampo 1 Says Kony To Jail and Ocampo 2 Sees No Serious Bertucci
Charges, Dueling Parties
In UNDP's Book,
Strong's Scandals Are Missing, While Workers Complain, MMB Schmoozes the
Korean Mission
At UNDP, Flighty
Rhetoric Founders in Mismanagement, MMB's Net, a Genocidaire and Whither
ECOSOC
At the UN,
Disabled Are Freed from a Footnote, Murky Answers from Gbagbo to Kosovo
to a Genocidaire
Countering UN's
Vanity Press, UNDP Histories from Below, Brussels and Two Views of Omar
Bakhet
At the UN,
Indigenous Indignation, Revolving Door Mysteries and Peace Pipe
Belatedly Smoked
At the UN,
Questions of Congo Mass Graves and Kazana, Mugabe and Forests and Rich
German Ships
UNDP Is
Important For The Poor, and Therefore Must Be Made Transparent
As UN
Speechifies, UNDP Audits Are Still Being Withheld, While War in Somalia
and Sudan, Pronk Blogs On
Waste, Fraud and
Abuse at UNDP in Vietnam, While UN Secretariat Urges Censorship
At the UN,
Questions of Humanitarian Aid and Congo Body Count, Despots' Crackdown
on Dissent
In UNDP,
Questions of Money Wasted, Neutrality Trampled, Russian Office Audits
Withheld and Sachs Expenses
From Baidoa
to the UN, Denials on Ethiopian Troops Being in Somalia, Resolution Is
Passed
Retaliation
Found at UNDP, While Dervis Is Focused on Turkey, In Two Weeks Will Take
Questions
Annan's
Spokesman Silent on 150 Dead in Congo, War in Somalia - But in Loud
Defense of UNDP's $567,000 Book
At the UN,
Interlopers into Somalia Are Discussed, With Chadian Pull-Back,
Peacekeepers and Uganda's Karamoja
UNDP Spent
$567,000 on Book to Praise Itself, While the Well-Placed Feed Off UNDP's
Core Budget and Prime Postings
As UNDP Questions
Mount, Mark Malloch Brown Calls Them Irresponsible, Answers Only in
Vanity Press
In UNDP Series,
Questions of Jeffrey Sachs and Associates Payments, From $1 to $75,000
From Sleaze in
Vietnam to Fights in DC-1, UNDP Appears Out of Control at the Top
On Somalia,
Past Arms Embargo Violations Forgiven in Zeal to Contain Islamic Courts
In UNDP, Drunken
Mis-Managers on the Make Praised and Protected, Meet UNDP's Kalman
Mizsei
From Violent
Disarmament in Uganda to the National Bank of Serbia, UNDP Leaves Others
to Answer for It
UNDP Sources Say
Dervis Fires Malloch Brown-linked Officials, Then Offers Hush-Up Jobs
On Somalia, Fiji
and Oil-for-Food, UN Ambiguity Leads to Hypocrisy and Corruption
At the UN,
Indigenous Rights Get Deferred, As U.S. Abstains, Deftly or Deceptively
At the UN,
Threat and Possible Statement on Fiji Spotlights Selection and Payment
of UN Peacekeepers
At the UN, China
and Islamic Dev't Bank Oppose Soros and World Bank On How to Fight
Poverty
At the UN,
Misdirection on Somalia and Myanmar, No Answers from UNDP's Kemal Dervis
UNDP Dodges
Questions of Disarmament Abuse in Uganda and of Loss of Togo AIDS Grant,
Dhaka Snafu
At the UN, The
Swan Song of Jan Egeland and the Third Committee Loop, Somalia Echoes
Congo
UN Silent As
Protesters Tear Gassed in Ivory Coast, As UNMOVIC Plods On and War
Spreads in Somalia
In the UN,
Uzbekistan Gets a Pass on Human Rights As Opposition to U.S. Grows and
War's On in Somalia
At the UN,
Cluster Bombs Unremembered, Uighurs Disappeared and Jay-Z Returns with
Water -- for Life
From the UN,
Silence on War Crimes Enforcement and Conflicts of Interest on Complaint
from Bahrain
En Route to
Deutsche Bank, the UN's Door Revolves, While Ban Ki-moon Arrives and
Moldova Spins
As Two UN
Peacekeepers Are Killed, UN Says Haiti's Improving, Ban Ki-moon on
Zimbabwe?
Nagorno-Karabakh President Disputes Fires and Numbers, Oil and UN, in
Exclusive Interview with Inner City Press
Inside the UN,
Blaming Uganda's Victims, Excusing Annan on Mugabe, and U.S. Blocked
Darfur Trip
U.S. Blocked
Council's Trip to Darfur Meeting, Brazzaville Envoy Explains After U.S.
Casts a Veto
At the UN,
Council Works Overtime To Cancel Its Trip About Darfur, While DC Muses
on John Bolton
UN Panel's
"Coherence" Plan Urges More Power to UNDP, Despite Its Silence on Human
Rights
On Water, UNDP
Talks Human Rights, While Enabling Violations in Africa and Asia, With
Shell and Coca-Cola
Will UN's
Revolving Door Keep Human Rights Lost, Like Bush's Call and WFP
Confirmation Questions?
On Somalia,
We Are All Ill-Informed, Says the UN, Same on Uganda, Lurching Toward
UNDP Power Grab
On WFP, Annan and
Ban Ki-Moon Hear and See No Evil, While Resume of Josette Sheeran Shiner
Is Edited
Would Moon
Followers Trail Josette Sheeran Shiner into WFP, As to U.S. State Dep't?
At the UN,
Positions Are Up For the Grabbing, Sun's Silence on Censorship, Advisor
Grabs for Gun
In WFP Race,
Josette Sheeran Shiner Praises Mega Corporations from Cornfield While
State Spins
At the UN,
Housing Subsidy Spin, Puntland Mysteries of UNDP and the Panama Solution
In Campaign to
Head UN WFP, A Race to Precedents' Depths, A Murky Lame Duck Appointment
At the UN,
Gbagbo and his Gbaggage, Toxic Waste and Congolese Sanctions
WFP Brochure-Gate? John Bolton Has Not Seen Brochure
of "Official" U.S. Candidate to Head World Food Program
Ivory Coast
Stand-Off Shows Security Council Fault Lines: News Analysis
At the UN,
It's Groundhog's Day on Western Sahara, Despite Fishing Deals and
Flaunting of the Law
"Official" U.S.
Candidate to Head WFP Circulates Brochure With Pulitzer Claim, UN Staff
Rules Ignored
Senegal's
President Claims Peace in Casamance and Habre Trial to Come, A Tale of
Two Lamines
A Tale of Two
Americans Vying to Head the World Food Program, Banbury and Sheeran
Shiner
At the UN, the Unrepentant Blogger Pronk, a Wink
on 14 North Korean Days and Silence on Somalia
At the UN,
Literacy Losses in Chad, Blogless Pronk and Toothless Iran Resolution,
How Our World Turns
Sudan Pans Pronk
While Praising Natsios, UN Silent on Haiti and WFP, Ivorian Fingers
Crossed
UN Shy on North
Korea, Effusive on Bird Flu and Torture, UNDP Cyprus Runaround, Pronk is
Summoned Home
At the UN,
Silence from UNDP on Cyprus, from France on the Chad-Bomb, Jan Pronk's
Sudan Blog
Russia's Vostok
Battalion in Lebanon Despite Resolution 1701, Assembly Stays Deadlocked
and UNDP Stays Missing
As
Turkmenistan Cracks Down on Journalists, Hospitals and Romance, UNDP Works
With the Niyazov Regime
At the UN,
Darfur Discussed, Annan Eulogized and Oil For Food Confined to a
Documentary Footnote
With All Eyes
on Council Seat, UN is Distracted from Myanmar Absolution and Congo
Conflagration
As Venezuela and
Guatemala Square Off, Dominicans In Default and F.C. Barcelona De-Listed
At the UN, North
Korea Sanctions Agreed On, Naval Searches and Murky Weapons Sales
At the UN,
Georgia Speaks of Ethnic Cleansing While Russia Complains of Visas
Denied by the U.S.
At the UN,
Deference to the Congo's Kabila and Tank-Sales to North Korea, of
Slippery Eels and Sun Microsystems
At the UN,
Annan's Africa Advisor Welcome Chinese Investment, Dodges Zimbabwe, Nods
to Darfur
At the UN,
Richard Goldstone Presses Enforcement on Joseph Kony, Reflecting Back on
Karadzic
UN Defers on
Anti-Terror Safeguards to Member States, Even in Pakistan and Somalia
Afghanistan
as Black Hole for Info and Torture Tales, Photos and Talk Mogadishu, the
UN Afterhours
Amid UN's Korean
Uproar, Russia Silent on Murder of Anna Politkovskaya, Chechnya Exposer
UN Envoy Makes
Excuses for Gambian Strongman, Whitewashing Fraud- and Threat-Filled
Election
Sudan's UN
Envoy Admits Right to Intervene in Rwanda, UNICEF Response on Terrorist
Groups in Pakistan
At the UN, As
Next S-G is Chosen, Annan Claims Power to Make 5-Year Appointments,
Quiet Filing and Ivory Coast Concessions
Chaos in UN's
Somalia Policy, Working With Islamists Under Sanctions While Meeting
with Private Military Contractors
U.S. Candidate
for UN's World Food Program May Get Lame Duck Appointment, Despite
Korean Issues
At the
UN, U.S. Versus Axis of Airport, While Serge Brammertz Measures
Non-Lebanese Teeth
Exclusion from
Water Is Called Progress, of Straw Polls and WFP Succession
William Swing
Sings Songs of Congo's Crisis, No Safeguards on Coltan Says Chairman of
Intel
Warlord in the
Waldorf and Other Congo Questions Dodged by the UN in the Time Between
Elections
In Some New
Orleans, Questions Echo from the South Bronx and South Lebanon
In New Orleans,
While Bone Is Thrown in Superdome, Parishes Still In Distress
At the UN, Tales
of Media Muzzled in Yemen, Penned in at the Waldorf on Darfur, While
Copters Grounded
US's Frazer
Accuses Al-Bashir of Sabotage, Arab League of Stinginess, Chavez of
Buying Leaders -
Click
here for
video file by Inner City Press.
Third Day of UN
General Debate Gets Surreal, Canapes and Killings, Questions on Iran and
Montenegro and Still Somalia
On Darfur, Hugo
Chavez Asks for More Time to Study, While Planning West Africa Oil
Refinery
At the UN, Ivory
Coast Discussed Without Decision on Toxic Politics, the Silence of
Somalia
Evo Morales
Blames Strike on Mobbed-Up Parasites, Sings Praise of Coca Leaf and Jabs
at Coca-Cola
Musharraf Says
Unrest in Baluchistan Is Waning, While Dodging Question on Restoring
Civilian Rule
At the UN, Cyprus
Confirms 'Paramilitary' Investigation, Denies Connection to Def Min
Resignation, CBTB Update
A Tale
of Three Leaders, Liberia Comes to Praise and Iran and Sudan to Bury the UN
UN Round-up:
Poland's President Says Iraq Is Ever-More Tense While Amb. Bolton Talks
Burmese Drugs, Spin on Ivory Coast
As UN's Annan
Now Says He Will Disclose, When and Whether It Will Be to the Public and
Why It Took So Long Go Unasked
At the UN,
Stonewalling Continues on Financial Disclosure and Letter(s) U.S.
Mission Has, While Zimbabwe Goes Ignored
At the UN,
Financial Disclosure Are Withheld While Freedom of Information Is
Promised, Of Hollywood and Dictators' Gift Shops
UN's Annan Says
Dig Into Toxic Dumping, While Declining to Discuss Financial Disclosure
A Still-Unnamed
Senior UN Official in NY Takes Free Housing from His Government,
Contrary to UN Staff Regulations
UN Admits To
Errors in its Report on Destruction of Congolese Village of Kazana,
Safeguards Not In Place
As UN Checks
Toxins in Abidjan, the Dumper Trafigura Figured in Oil for Food Scandal,
Funded by RBS and BNP Paribas
Targeting of
African Americans For High Cost Mortgages Grew Worse in 2005, While Fed
Downplays Its Own Findings
The UN and
Nagorno-Karabakh: Flurries of Activity Leave Frozen Conflicts Unchanged;
Updates on Gaza, Gavels and Gbagbo
The UN Cries
Poor on Lawless Somalia, While Its Ex-Security Chief Does Business
Through Ruleless Revolving Door
At the UN,
Micro-States Simmer Under the Assembly's Surface, While Incoming Council
President Dodges Most Questions
"Horror Struck"
is How UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments Would Leave
U.S., Referral on Burma But Not Uzbekistan
Security Council
President Condemns UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments,
While UK "Doesn't Do It Any More"
At the UN,
Incomplete Reforms Allow for Gifts of Free Housing to UN Officials by
Member States
Rare UN Sunshine
From If Not In Chad While Blind on Somalia and Zimbabwe, UNDP With Shell
in its Ear on Nigeria
Annan Family
Ties With Purchaser from Compass, Embroiled in UN Scandal, Raise
Unanswered Ethical Questions
At the UN, from
Casamance to Transdniestria, Kosovars to Lezgines, Micro-States as
Powerful's Playthings
Inquiry Into
Housing Subsidies Contrary to UN Charter Goes Ignored for 8 Weeks, As
Head UN Peacekeeper Does Not Respond
On the UN -
Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost
Stop Bank
Branch Closings and Monopolies in the Katrina Zone, Group Says,
Challenging Regions- AmSouth Merger
Ship-Breakers
Missed by UN's Budget for Travel and Consultants in Bangladesh, Largest
UNIFIL Troop Donor
With Somalia on
the Brink of Horn-Wide War, UN Avoids Question of Ethiopian Invasion
In UN's Lebanon
Frenzy, Darfur Is Ignored As Are the Disabled, "If You Crave UNIFIL,
Can't You Make Do With MONUC?"
UN Decries
Uzbekistan's Use of Torture, While Helping It To Tax and Rule; Updates
on UNIFIL and UNMIS Off-Message
On Lebanon,
Russian Gambit Focuses Franco-American Minds, Short Term Resolution Goes
Blue Amid Flashes of Lightening
Africa Can Solve
Its Own Problems, Ghanaian Minister Tells Inner City Press, On LRA Peace
Talks and Kofi Annan's Views
At the UN, Jay-Z
Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka
Kilcher in the Basement
In the UN
Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a
Shebaa Farms Solution?
UN Knew of Child
Soldier Use by Two Warlords Whose Entry into Congo Army the UN
Facilitated
Impunity's in
the Air, at the UN in Kinshasa and NY, for Kony and Karim and MONUC for
Kazana
UN Still Silent
on Somalia, Despite Reported Invasion, In Lead-Up to More Congo Spin
UN's Guehenno
Says Congo Warlord Just Needs Training, and Kazana Probe Continues
With Congo
Elections Approaching, UN Issues Hasty Self-Exoneration as Annan Is
Distracted
In DR Congo, UN
Applauds Entry into Army of Child-Soldier Commander Along with Kidnapper
Spinning the
Congo, UN Admits Hostage Deal with Warlord That Put Him in Congolese
Army
At the UN, Dow
Chemical's Invited In, While Teaming Up With Microsoft is Defended
Kofi Annan
Questioned about Congolese Colonel Who Kidnapped Seven UN Soldiers
UN Silent As
Congolese Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made An Army Colonel: News
Analysis
UN's Guehenno
Speaks of "Political Overstretch" Undermining Peacekeeping in Lower
Profile Zones
In Gaza Power
Station, the Role of Enron and the U.S. Government's OPIC Revealed by UN
Sources
UN's Corporate
Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and
UNDP Continues
BTC Briefing,
Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations
Conflicts of
Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts
UN Grapples with
Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without
Explanation
UN Gives Mugabe
Time with His Friendly Mediator, Refugees Abandoned
At the UN,
Friday Night's Alright for Fighting; Annan Meets Mugabe
UN Acknowledges
Abuse in Uganda, But What Did Donors Know and When? Kazakh Questions
In Uganda, UNDP
to Make Belated Announcement of Program Halt, But Questions Remain (and
see
The New Vision,
offsite).
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Leads UN Agency to Suspend Its Work and Spending
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Blamed on UNDP, Still Silent on Finance
Alleged Abuse in
Disarmament in Uganda Known by UNDP, But Dollar Figures Still Not Given:
What Did UN Know and When?
Strong Arm on
Small Arms: Rift Within UN About Uganda's Involuntary Disarmament of
Karamojong Villages
UN's Selective
Vision on Somalia and Wishful Thinking on Uighurs
UN Habitat
Predicts The World Is a Ghetto, But Will Finance Be Addressed at
Vancouver World Urban Forum?
UN's Annan
Concerned About Use of Terror's T-Word to Repress, Wants
Freedom of Information
UN Waffles on
Human Rights in Central Asia and China; ICC on Kony and a Hero from
Algiers
UN & US,
Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty
and Senator Tom Coburn
Human Rights
Forgotten in UN's War of Words, Bolton versus Mark Malloch Brown: News
Analysis
In Praise of
Migration, UN Misses the Net and Bangalore While Going Soft on Financial
Exclusion
UN Sees Somalia
Through a Glass, Darkly, While Chomsky Speaks on Corporations and
Everything But Congo
Corporate Spin on
AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence
The Silence of
the Congo and Naomi Watts; Between Bolivia and the World Bank
Human Rights
Council Has Its Own Hanging Chads; Cocky U.S. State Department Spins
from SUVs
Child Labor and
Cargill and Nestle; Iran, Darfur and WHO's on First with Bird Flu
Press Freedom?
Editor Arrested by Congo-Brazzaville, As It Presides Over Security
Council
The
Place of the Cost-Cut UN in Europe's Torn-Up Heart;
Deafness to Consumers, Even by the Greens
Background Checks
at the UN, But Not the Global Compact; Teaching Statistics from
Turkmenbashi's Single Book
Ripped Off Worse
in the Big Apple, by Citigroup and Chase: High Cost Mortgages Spread in
Outer Boroughs in 2005, Study Finds
Burundi: Chaos at
Camp for Congolese Refugees, Silence from UNHCR, While Reform's Debated
by Forty Until 4 AM
The Chadian
Mirage: Beyond French Bombs, Is Exxon In the Cast? Asylum and the
Uzbeks, Shadows of Stories to Come
Through the UN's
One-Way Mirror, Sustainable Development To Be Discussed by Corporations,
Even Nuclear Areva
Racial
Disparities Grew Worse in 2005 at Citigroup, HSBC and Other Large Banks
Mine Your Own
Business: Explosive Remnants of War and the Great Powers, Amid the
Paparazzi
Human Rights Are
Lost in the Mail: DR Congo Got the Letter, But the Process is Still
Murky
Iraq's Oil to be
Metered by Shell, While Basrah Project Remains Less than Clear
Kofi, Kony,
Kagame and Coltan: This Moment in the Congo and Kampala
As Operation
Swarmer Begins, UN's Qazi Denies It's Civil War and Has No Answers if
Iraq's Oil is Being Metered
Cash Crop: In
Nepal, Bhutanese Refugees Prohibited from Income Generation Even in
their Camps
The Shorted and
Shorting in Humanitarian Aid: From Davos to Darfur, the Numbers Don't
Add Up
UN Reform:
Transparency Later, Not Now -- At Least Not for AXA - WFP Insurance
Contract
In the Sudanese
Crisis, Oil Revenue Goes Missing, UN Says
Empty Words on
Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN and Georgia
What is the Sound
of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War
at UN
Kosovo: Of
Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of
Ferronikeli Mines
Abkhazia:
Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia
Post-Tsunami
Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
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