| In Corrupt UN of Guterres
Scarcia of UNIDO Again IDd by
Whistleblower fearing Retaliation
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
UN GATE,
Oct 3– How corrupt is the UN
system under Antonio Guterres?
A month after our first Inner
City Press story on UNIDO, we
add to it, below:
"Dear Matthew
Lee, We are writing to
urgently bring to your
attention serious concerns
regarding the mismanagement
and potential misappropriation
of European Union funds
allocated to the United
Nations Industrial Development
Organization (UNIDO).
Our efforts reporting Ygor
Scarcia internally to UNIDO
Human Resources and the
Internal Oversight Directorate
have gone in vain.
Mr. Ygor Scarcia
appears to be protected...
Mr. Scarcia has
submitted forged invoices and
deliverable reports to justify
approvals from the UNIDO
finance and procurement team,
transferring payments to
vendors with personal ties.
These funds are then channeled
to offshore bank accounts [End
of Part 1] And now:
Employees within
the UNIDO Finance and HR
departments are anxious to
come forward due to harassment
and threats from Mr. Scarcia.
Finance team members at UNIDO
in Vienna, who have witnessed
Mr. Scarcia’s fraudulent
practices, have been coerced
into approving payments
through constant harassment
and threats. One finance team
assistant admitted that Mr.
Scarcia threatened her in the
hall on the 18th Floor at
UNIDO during Mr Scarcia’s
visit to Headquarters in
November 2023. She was
later found sobbing and
shaking in the women's
bathroom. We have spoken to
her, and she confirmed the
story but refused to be named
or come forward due to fear of
retaliation. We urged
via OLAF the European Union to
initiate an immediate and
thorough audit of Project ID
200319 and Grant ID 2000004755
to ascertain the extent of the
financial irregularities and
take appropriate corrective
actions. Additionally, we
requested that FAO and UNDP
suspend all current and future
funding commitments to Mr.
Ygor Scarcia and Mr. Najib
Abdi. It is crucial to ensure
that all involved parties are
held liable and that measures
are put in place to bring them
to justice and prevent such
occurrences in the
future. Allies and
Connections Furthermore,
BEGER Gunther and Jason Slater
are believed to be Mr
Scarcia’s closest allies
within UNIDO walls, benefiting
from the embezzlement through
kickbacks. Mr Beger, with a
history at the World Bank, was
appointed to UNIDO by Director
General Gerd Mueller due to
their past
acquaintance.... Given
the serious nature of these
allegations and the potential
for retaliation by Mr.
Scarcia, we formally request
whistleblower protection in
line with EU and UN
regulations. It is vital to
ensure that individuals who
come forward with such
information are safeguarded
against any form of
reprisal. Please
consider this email a formal
whistleblower report. We trust
that you will handle this
matter with the seriousness it
deserves. We kindly ask you to
facilitate leaking this story
through appropriate channels
to the mass media and through
your own networks and the
journal called Inner City
Press. Thank you for
your prompt attention to this
urgent request. We appreciate
the vital work you do [End of
Part 2 - and what is the UN
system doing? Nothing
Part 3:
Jason Slater and
Ygor Scarcia, UNIDO, in the
context of the ambitious
transformational change
promised under the leadership
of DG Gerd Müller, has
continuously exploited the
vulnerabilities within UNIDO's
oversight mechanisms. The
investigation into Scarcia's
actions reveals a disturbing
pattern of misconduct that
erode the integrity of UNIDO.
Scarcia has been manipulating
financial records to
misappropriate donor funds for
personal gain, violating
UNIDO's legal obligations. He
engaged in bribery, silencing
employees who were aware of
his financial misconduct.
Mounting evidence suggest that
Scarcia issued threats to
individuals who refused to
comply with his demands,
creating a climate of fear
within the organization. The
situation has escalated, with
reports of Scarcia making
physical threats against
individuals who oppose him.
UNIDO's leadership has failed
to address these serious acts
of intimidation, allowing
Scarcia to operate with
apparent impunity. Jason
Slater, in collusion with Ygor
Scarcia, unlawfully terminated
Mr. Sebastian Hochwallner
following Hochwallner’s
whistleblowing on Scarcia's
illicit operations. Such
actions also contravene EU
directives and Austrian law on
whistleblower reprisal. The
manipulation of financial
records by Scarcia and Slater
exposes broader corruption
within UNIDO's internal
controls, implicating the
involvement of dozens of UNIDO
officials. Slater has played a
critical role in instructing
Scarcia to fabricate
operational bills and
misrepresent financial data to
deceive the Director General
and UNIDO member states. This
involved inflating
expenditures in violation of
donor agreements to enhance
the perceived effectiveness of
technical cooperation
capabilities and misled
stakeholders about the
legitimacy of UNIDO’s
financial operations. Why are
UNIDO's Directors of Oversight
and Human Resources failing to
take decisive action against
Scarcia despite overwhelming
evidence of misconduct and
actively defending him? How
were financial records
manipulated without detection
by UNIDO’s oversight
mechanisms, and what role did
Slater play in it? Who are the
other individuals involved in
this illicit scheme? Why did
Scarcia and Slater collude to
aggressively pursue
Hochwallner's dismissal
following his revelations of
Scarcia's illegal operations?
What caused for the Oversight
Directorate of UNIDO to take
harsh action against Sebastian
Hochwallner, despite his
adherence to the
organization’s Policy on Fraud
Awareness and Prevention and
Whistleblowing? Who is Egbert
Von Mentzingen, and what is
his relationship with Scarcia
in defending him and
continuously facilitating the
authorization of unqualified
procurements in Somalia?
Why has a comprehensive
internal audit not been
conducted to uncover these
financial irregularities? What
steps are being undertaken to
address the evident violations
within UNIDO’s leadership?
Scarcia's ongoing evasion,
intimidation, and threats of
violence are deeply
concerning. UNIDO's failure to
restore trust has necessitated
the compilation of a
comprehensive report detailing
all the evidence we have
gathered. This report will be
submitted to the UN
Secretariat, the Austrian
Criminal Intelligence
Services, Austrian Federal
Bureau of Anti-Corruption, and
the European Commission
Secretariat to initiate a
legal investigative action
into Ygor Scarcia and all
UNIDO employees involved in
Scarcia's illicit operations.
Keep it coming.
Though Inner City Press
remains banned
by Guterres and no response by
his Melissa Fleming to this,
we continue reporting - keep
it coming. And watch this
site.
***
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