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Lockheed's No-Bid Darfur Contract Ending, Ruecker to Leave Kosovo, UN Peacekeeping In Disarray

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, June 12 -- UN Peacekeeping is in turmoil, with chief Jean-Marie Guehenno's successor still not named and calls for the resignation of the head man of the UN Mission in Kosovo, Joachim Ruecker. Meanwhile, the UN's Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions has savaged Ban Ki-moon's report on the splitting of peacekeeping into two departments, saying that the role of each is still not clear, and that process not transparent.

    The ACABQ critique, dated June 5, released June 11 as A/62/855 and apparently not yet reported elsewhere, states that "the Committee would have expected more transparency on the part of the Secretariat in describing both the progress achieved thus far and the problems confronted in the implementation of the restructuring." It says of Jane Holl Lute that "it is expected that the Assistant Secretary-General for Field Support, who has been acting as Officer-in-Charge, will leave the Department in the coming months. The Committee was informed that it was still unclear what the division of labor would be between the Under-Secretary- General and the Assistant Secretary-General for Field Support."

  The splitting was Ban Ki-moon first and still largest change to the UN. The continuing lack of clarity found by ACABQ is not a good sign. It's popular to lay the entire blame for delays in the deployment of UNAMID in Darfur on the government in Khartoum. But one gleans from the ACABQ report that disorganization with the UN may also be playing a role.

Protest in Mitrovica, Sudan and Lockheed Martin not shown

   A watershed in the UN's errors in Sudan was the awarding without competition of a $250 million contract to U.S.-based military contractor Lockheed Martin, through its PAE subsidiary, for camps in Darfur.  Last week in Khartoum, Sudan's UN Ambassador told Inner City Press that his government will not agree to any extension of Lockheed's contract beyond July 15, including "no new visas" and "no joint ventures."  Inner City Press on June 11 asked UN spokesperson Michele Montas about this, and on June 12 the following arrived

"We have undertaken a competitive commercial solicitation to support the UNAMID deployment plan for Darfur and procurement actions are still underway. The sole source contract was signed on 15 October 2007 for a period of six months with options for two 3-month extensions. The contract is currently in the first 3-month extension until 15 July 2008. The original Not to Exceed (NTE) amount of approx. USD 250 million was reduced by the Controller to USD 150 million to reflect work expected to be undertaken by the end of the current contract period. Out of the USD 150M, 137M (91%) is currently obligated or has been spent (data as of 28 May)."

  Previously on May 30, DFS' Susana Malcorra had specified

"Out of the USD 150M  -- Current Task Orders total: USD 127M to date (85%)

Pending Task Orders total: USD 10M in value  

A total USD 137M out of USD 150M (or 91% of revised NSE) will be utilized by end of contract period."

     This appears to show an awareness on the UN's part that there can be no second extension of Lockheed's no-bid contract. So when before July 15 will a new contractor -- allegedly French -- be announced? When in July will the successor to Jean-Marie Guehenno as head of UN Peacekeeping -- almost certainly French, and said now to be Alain le Roy -- be named?

   In another UN Peacekeeping flashpoint, Russia has called for the removal of Joachim Ruecker as head of the UN Mission in Kosovo, in response to the step-by-step shift of authority from the UN to the European Union, despite no change in the underlying Security Council resolution. Thursday outside the Council chamber in New York, Inner City Press asked Ambassador Alejandro Wolff of the U.S., this month's Council president, if Ruecker and Ban Ki-moon's proposed changes to UNMIK had been raised in consultations. Amb. Wolff said that Ban's proposal is being studied. Video here, from Minute 7:47. U.S. Deputy Spokesman Ben Chang told Inner City Press that "in our view, Ruecker is a respected international official" and that his role "is determined by the Secretary General."  Inner City Press asked about the confirmation earlier on Thursday that Ruecker is being replaced. "That's his choice and Ban's," Chang said. "The call that he step down, we don't agree with." But stepping down he is.

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These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click 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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