On
Haiti, While US Says $70M of Obama's $100M Through UN, US Overhead
Costs Listed When Other Countries' Arent
By
Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS, January 20 -- How aid to Haiti is being accounted for
appears unclear. The UN has asked for $562 million; US President
Barack Obama has announced $100 million in American aid. Inner City
Press has asked
both the UN and US whether Obama's $100 million will
be part of the UN's $562 million flash appeal, and has received three
different answers, none consistent with the UN web site.
Inner
City Press
asked Deputy U.S. Permanent Representative Alejandro Wolff, who said
on camera at the Security Council stakeout that "the one hundred
million dollars that have been announced is bilateral contributions
to the Haitian Government. We will also be contributing a significant
amount to the Flash Appeal, which should be announced shortly."
Video here,
from Minute 4:24.
Later, to its
credit, the US Mission to the UN called Inner City Press and said
this was not correct, that in fact $70 million of the $100 million
announced by President Obama would be part of the UN flash appeal.
For this proposition, the US Mission helpfully sent a link to the UN
web site.
The
difficulty is
that the UN's "List of all commitments / contributions and pledges
as of 20 January, 2010," numerous US pledges and expenditures
are listed and counted, some of which are explicitly labeled
"bilateral," and $36 million of which are USFEMA search and
rescue. Click here
for the UN link, here
for copy saved by Inner City Press as it appeared on the afternoon of
January 20, 2010.
UN's Ban and US' Obama, overhead costs in, other
nations' not
Listed
by
the UN
for the United States --
United
States of America USAID 50,000 0
United
States of America USAID Administrative costs 70,930 0
To
provide three Dominican Public Hospitals
near
the Haiti border crossing at Jiman with
medications
and supplies
United
States of America USAID 1,000,000 0
United
States of America USAID Logistics and relief supplies 1,350,000 0
United
States of America USDOD Logistics and relief items 1,500,000 0
United
States of America WHO Basic health services 5,000,000 0
United
States of America IOM to be allocated to specific projects 7,000,000
0
United
States of America USAID Logistics and relief supplies 7,893,641 0
United
States of America WFP to be allocated to specific projects 10,000,000
0
United
States of America USDHHS Health (USAID/OFDA) 13,000,000 0
United
States of America USFEMA Search and rescue (USAID/OFDA) 36,000,000 0
United
States of America WFP Food aid 48,000,000 0
The
listings for
China, by contrast, includes $4.4 million for "humanitarian aid,
including medicines, tents,
food, emergency lights, clothing and water," but puts no
value for China's search and rescue effort -- ''50-member rescue team;
three
sniffer dogs" -- which came by air from
China less than three hours after the earthquake. Similar flights and
food from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Greece, Iran, Israel, Mexico,
Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland,
Portugal, the UAE, South Africa, "Taiwan (Province of China)"
and Canada are also given zero value as of January 20.
Canada's
"Disaster
Emergency Response Team deployed to Haiti; C-17 aircraft full of
medical aid and a pair of search and rescue helicopters" is, as
of January 20, valued at zero by the UN. So are 60 Cuban doctors. For
France Morocco and South Korea, on the other hand, every listed item
is given a dollar value.
On
January 20, Inner City Press
asked top UN humanitarian John Holmes about this.
Before the press conference monitor cut the questions off, Holmes
said that "we depend on member states to give us
[information]...they will decide, they don't give to us." Video
here,
from Minute 23:31.
To
a skeptic it
appears that both the UN and the Obama Administration want to make it
appear that unlike previously, the US is now working through the UN.
But the American funds listed on the UN web site, to which the US
Mission to the UN referred Inner City Press, are nearly entirely
bilateral, or even simply US expenditures on, apparently, its own
administrative costs ($70,930).
Back on
January 15, Inner City Press asked UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon if there would be an independent watchdog
-- to audit and report on how aid is spent, and if donors following
through on their loud pledges.
Mr. Ban replied
that "there needs to be some transparency as well as accountability on
how this money should be effectively and properly used. That we will
discuss later."
That "later,"
it would seem, has arrived. The time is now.
Footnote:
also
listed by the UN as contribution are tabacconist Philip Morris'
parent company Altria, multi level marketing concern Amway, the
"Build a Bear Workshop Foundation," $3000 from Burger King,
Dollar General Corporation, food speculator Cargill, Go Daddy -- a
cynic wondered, why not Moussa Dadis Camara?
* * *
On
Haiti, Ban Says All Through UN, Through U.S. Not, Watchdog Possible,
Staff Questions
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, January 15 -- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in his third
day in a room of addressing the Press about Haiti, declined to Friday
to provide casualty figures, leaving that for his spokesman Martin
Nesirky. Inner City Press asked Mr. Ban, in light of his call that
all aid be "coordinated" through the UN, whether the $100
million announced by U.S. President Barack Obama will be part of the
UN's $550 million flash appeal.
Mr.
Ban answered
that giving money NOT through the UN is a decision that any sovereign
government can make. Only yesterday, he said that increased U.S.
military presence in Haiti would be coordinated with the UN, or as
some reporters heard it, under UN control.
Already,
there is
a call for an independent aid monitor. Inner City Press asked Ban
about the idea. Ban said yes, there is a need for transparency, the
idea will be studied. Notably, after Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, the
UN allowed millions of dollars in aid to be taken by the Than Shwe
government, as exposed by Inner City Press. The UN at first denied
it, then admitted it, then later downplayed it.
Nesirky
came back
after Ban and took very few questions. The paper of record asked
about visits to national staff members homes, which the Deputy SRSG
described in response to Inner City Press' question on January 15,
but only as to UNDP. Nesirky said the visits are continuing.
But
are the
peacekeeping mission's national Haitian staff all being visited?
Bill Clinton taps UN's Ban, coordination and
watchdog not yet shown
In
terms of now 38 deaths among the "UN presence in Haiti," on
January 14 the briefers from Haiti said that deaths are only listed
once families are informed, which is coordinated through UN
headquarters in New York.
But
is that the
process for national Haitian staff? Nesirky took no more questions. So
here's another: what about contractors who worked for the UN? At
UN headquarters in New York, the cooking and cleaning and even UN TV
is done by contractors, many of whom have worked in and for the UN
for more than a decade. But such contractors would not show up or be
counted, as the UN is doing it. Watch this site.
, 
