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UN Denies Development Aid Used for $25 M
Ceiling, "Voluntarily Funded" Disaster Post Left Murky
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
November 17, updated -- The
UN on matters of
money, how it is raised and how it is spent, is either willfully out of
touch
or intentionally misleading. In the space of one minute on Monday, UN
Deputy
Spokesperson Marie Okabe claimed that a controversial
$25 million ceiling at
its Palais des Nations in Geneva is being paid for entirely by
foundations. But
the Spanish government has admitted that it is using part of its
development
aid budget to pay the UN for the ceiling. Specifically, Spanish
Ambassador Javier Garrigues has been quoted that "Funding the human
rights headquarters clearly falls into the category of development
aid."
Since
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
is appearing in Geneva on November 18 to inaugurate the
stalactite-draped
ceiling, it seems impossible that his Spokesperson's Office has not
conducted a
cursory review of Spanish governmental admission in even the English
language
press, in this case the Sunday Times of London.
Inner
City Press at Monday's UN noon briefing asked for Ban Ki-moon's
position on whether this is an appropriate use of development aid funds
given
that the global financial crisis is leading countries, including most
recently
Italy and Iceland, to official reduce development aid. Ms. Okabe's
claim that
it is only foundation money seems designed to avoid Ban giving an
answer about
the appropriate uses of development aid, or even giving a no comment.
When in
doubt...
UN's Ban in Geneva, comment on use of
development aid for $25 million ceiling not shown
Ms. Okabe
had announced earlier in the briefing that Ban has named to a
"voluntarily
funded" UN disaster reduction post Margareta Wahlstrom, most recently
on the
so-called Accountability Report about the December 2007 bombing of UN
premises
in Algiers. Inner City Press asked the obvious, who is paying for this
explicitly "voluntarily funded" position. "You can ask
OCHA," said Ms. Okabe, who had just highlighted that the UN wouldn't be
paying for the post. While it may well be Ms. Wahlstrom's government,
Sweden,
how could Ms. Okabe and her office not anticipate that a question might
arise
about who was funding the position? And if, as some assume was the case
with
the $25 million ceiling question, more and even difference was known
that what
was said on-camera at the briefing, where is the UN going, in terms not
only of
transparency, but more fundamentally of truthfulness?
Update: Despite
the quote above from the Spanish government in
the Sunday Times of London that "Funding the human rights headquarters clearly falls into the
category of development aid," the UN
later on Monday put out a statement that
"The cost of the renovations
to the new Human Rights Council and Alliance of Civilizations (Room XX)
at the
Palais des Nations were entirely funded by ONUART, a foundation in
place to
collect public and private money from Spanish society."
So what
kind of "public... money" did this ONUART foundation collect?
News analysis: Ban should further
disclose and speak out before standing
under the $25 million ceiling, including on, is or would this is a
correct use of development aid?
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
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here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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