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At UN, Friends Give Friends High Posts by Doctoring C.V.s, In $300 Million Delayed Umoja ERP

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, March 8 -- Corruption and nepotism have infected the UN's $300 million plus Enterprise Resource Planning computer project, sources and documents indicated.

  After Paul van Essche came in as head of the ERP at the D-2 level, he immediately moved to bring in colleagues and friends from Geneva, doctoring their Personal History Profiles to do so.

  Jon Solem had applied for a P-5 post in ERP, listing van Essche as his supervisor, but hadn't been selected. Aftr van Essche became the D-2 in charge, Solem applied for a D-1 post, one step down from Van Essche's D-2, but a step up from the P-5 he hadn't gotten.

  Suddenly Solem's PHP was doctored to delete references to Van Essche as supervisor. Van Essche served on and chaired the selection panel, and selected his friend Solem, without leaving any paper trail.

  The UN's ERP program is behind schedule and over budget. What has been the UN's response? To rename it Umoja, Swahili for "unity."  More than a year ago on January 19, 2009, the UN announced

The UN has decided to award a contract for Enterprise Resource Planning software to a European software company called SAP. The awarding of the contract is subject to successful negotiations, which will start immediately and are projected to wrap up within three months. As of now, no contract has been awarded, and the value of any such contract is as yet undetermined.

More than a year later, the contract has still not been finalized. Related, Inner City Press has asked what is the status of the implementation of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards? Four years ago, in November 2005, the High Level Committee on Management recommended system-wide adoption of IPSAS by 2010, and in 2006 the GA passed a resolution (60/283) which set the 2010 deadline. But it now appears that the Secretariat is running four years late, and does not expect to implement IPSAS until December 2014.

 Consultants from PriceWaterhouseCoopers are swarming, their meters running, while as one member of the UN's budget committee told Inner City Press, "nothing is being accomplished except high officials hiring their friends."

  Sources paint this picture, on which both Mr. Van Essche and Mr. Solem were asked to comment prior to publication of this story, without response:

* In early 2008, several ERP-related Vacancy Announcements (VAs) were announced by the UN including: D2 Project Director, D1 Business Process Reengineering Coordinator and P5 Senior Change Management posts.

* Mr. Jon Solem applied to the P-5 Senior Change Management post and Mr. Paul van Essche applied to D2 Project Director post.

* Mr. van Essche was selected for D2 post and started in September 2008. In October 2008, he canceled the VA for the D1 Business Process Reengineering Coordinator, changed the title to Organizational Change Manager and re-advertised it.

* Mr. van Essche chaired the interview panel for the P-5 Senior Change Management Officer post. Mr. Solem was not selected. These are extracts from the PHP, in which he names Mr. van Essche as his previous supervisor. At the time, he was not sure if Mr. van Essche would be selected Project Director.

Application for P5 (Mar-May 2008, VA 417551)
Employer Type of Business Year Supervisor Location
UNHCR Snr CM Officer 05/2006-06/2008 Colin Mitchell Swiss
UNHCR Snr Business Analyst 02/2005-03/2006 Colin Mitchell Swiss
ILO Snr.CM Officer 05/2004-12/2004 Paul van Essche Swiss
UNHCR Snr.CM Officer 07/2003-05/2004 Michael Malecha Swiss
Public relations firm Indp. Cnslt. 08/2002-07/2003 Illa Thompson South Africa
LeftBrain Consulting 01/2002-08/2002 Paul van Essche Swiss
Health Online Clinical Laboratory 04/2000-12/2001 Paul van Essche Swiss
SGS Testing & Quality 08/1993-04/2000 Robert Collier Swiss

Mr. van Essche also chaired the interview panel for the D1 Organizational Change Manager. The panel selected Mr. Solem, this time. Mr. Solem however doctored his PHP to conceal his relationship with Mr. van Essche.

Application for D1 (Oct-Dec. 2008, VA 419603)
Employer Type of Business Year Supervisor Location
Michael O'Neill Change Consulting 06/2008-11/2008 Michael O'Neill Swiss
UNHCR Snr CM Officer 05/2006-06/2008 Colin Mitchell Swiss
UNHCR Snr Business Analyst 02/2005-03/2006 Colin Mitchell Swiss
ILO Snr.CM Officer 05/2004-12/2004 Steven Townley Swiss
UNHCR Snr.CM Officer 07/2003-05/2004 Michael Malecha Swiss
Public relations firm Indp. Cnslt. 08/2002-07/2003 Illa Thompson South Africa
LeftBrain Consulting 01/2002-08/2002 Richard King Swiss
Health Online Clinical Laboratory 04/2000-12/2001 Miguel Payrot Swiss
SGS Testing & Quality 08/1993-04/2000 Robert Collier Swiss

* The questions are why did Mr. Solem doctor his PHP? Did OHRM conduct a background check? Why did Mr. van Essche cancel the previous VA and allowed to rename the post. The GA approved the post as D1 BPR Coordinator.

* Mr. Solem was a P-4 at UNHCR and became a D1 with Umoja.

* A review of Mr. van Essche’s PHP show that he and Jon worked for SGS (Switzerland) at around the same time.

We will have more on this.


An Umoja ERP team on a "World Tour" -- van Essche video here --  friends hiring friends not shown

    On March 8, when the UN took no non-Iraq or non-Police questions at its noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about hiring irregularities at the UN, in this case the foreign minister of Sri Lanka asking a high UN official to give his son a job. Mr. Ban said that the UN is transparent. From the UN's transcript of the Q & A:

Inner City Press:  the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, also over the weekend, confirmed that he sought a job for his son with the UN. I wonder if you think that is appropriate, and is such a job going to be given?... Do you think that it’s appropriate for the Foreign Minister of a country with which you are dealing with on possible war crimes to be seeking a job for his son with the UN?

SG: First of all, I am not aware of that particular case of job application of the Foreign Minister’s son. As a matter of fact, any recruitment process will have to be dealt with in a most transparent and objective manner by the selection committee members. That is what the United Nations has been [using] as a principle.

   Has the UN been using transparency in recruitment and assessment as a policy? Again, we will have more on this.

* * *

UN Court Rules Egyptian Official "Not Concerned With Truth," May Pay $20,000

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 2 -- In a little noticed proceeding in the basement of the UN's near empty headquarters building, the Under Secretary General in charge of General Assembly and Conference Management, Egypt's Shaaban Shaaban, is being lambasted by a UN Dispute Tribunal Judge.

  At a hearing last week at which Inner City Press was the only media present, UN Judge Adams demanded to know which UN lawyer was communicating with Shaaban Shaaban. A new hearing was set for this coming week.

  Later in the hallway, Inner City Press asked Shaaban Shaaban about the case. He smiled and said, as his chief of staff earlier had, that it is still in the UN court, still "sub judice."

But the findings and statements in Judge Adams written decision -- which Inner City Press is putting online here -- are scathing, including for example that

I do not go so far, I should say in fairness, as to conclude that he [USG Shaaban] was actively dishonest...I am left with the powerful impression that he was not concerned to tell the the truth…”, “…the proper performance by Mr. Shaaban of his duties was adversely affected by affronted self-importance”, or “Incompetence is an alternative explanation, but I saw no evidence of this”

  The decision, which should have been but was not as of late January put on the UN's website, contemplates a referral to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for discipline.


UN's Ban and Shaaban Shaaban, accountability not yet shown

  It orders a review on whether Shaaban should be held personally accountable for the financial damages: whether Shaaban's paycheck gets docked for the $20,000 being awarded. Shaaban Shaaban is the highest ranking Egyptian in the UN system. A cynic asked Inner City Press, how will they make this one go away? Watch this site.

 Click here for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.

Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate

Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate

Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate

Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56

Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza

Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate

Click here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger

Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards

Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics

and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.

* * *

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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