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At UN, Ted Turner Calls for Cut in Funds to "Rat Hole" States like Zimbabwe, Transparency Questioned

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

UNITED NATIONS, April 1 -- "Zimbabwe has a history of very poor government," Ted Turner told Inner City Press on Tuesday. "I didn't realize the UN was not paying them. But according to Paul [The Bottom Billion] Collier and Jeffrey [Common Wealth] Sachs, they would think that's probably a good idea, you can't just pour money down a rat hole." Video here, from Minute 54:58.

            Turner was at the UN to announce a $200 million pledge by two religious denominations to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, whose executive director Michel Kazatchkine has confirmed that "Zimbabwe's proposals to the Global Fund in the last two funding rounds have not been approved. Inner City Press asked UN General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim and this, and asked Turner whether his UN Foundation favors increased transparency such a public financial disclosure by officials, and the UN Development Program making its audits available at least to member states. "We don't get involved in the details of how the UN functions," Turner said.

            Afterwards, Inner City Press sought confirmation from the UN Foundation official who spoke during the press conference, Elizabeth McKee Gore. "The UN Foundation supports the role of the UN, we don't manage it," she said. Asked if the UN Foundation has a view on the availability of audits or on public disclosure of possible conflicts of interest, she said "We do not, we support our focus areas."

Ted Turner, "details of how the UN functions" not shown

            Srgjan Kerim, who appeared frustrated as the press conference veered away from the Millennium Development Goals -- which one journalists called the "MSGs," leading to a series of whispered jokes about Chinese food -- and into Turner's views on the U.S. defense budget and on religion, concluded by saying that MDGs are best served in countries with good governance.

            While we continue to await answers to written follow-up questions about the funding of President Kerim's Office, we note that the Government of Macedonia's web site, which reportedly began Kerim's term with a disclosure of payments to his office, now limits itself to a statement about "the necessary financial means for the 2007 and 2008 budget needed for the realization of the candidacy of the Republic of Macedonia for President of the 62nd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations." But since President Kerim himself acknowledged, to his credit, that those who give funds ask favors, the week-old questions is "how much, and from what sources"?  In the spirit of reform, to be continued.

Footnote: At the cusp of the UN Development Program's opacity and the MDGs, it is noted that the chief of staff of the panel UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis named to address irregularities and the prima facie retaliation found by the UN Ethics Office was previously the assistant to Jeffrey Sachs, who placed much of his team within UNDP but now declines to answer questions about that or about the UN Development Program -- or, seemingly the UN Development Group -- at all. While Ted Turner on Tuesday said that Jeffrey Sachs agrees with him about not "throwing money down a rat hole," that remains to be seen.

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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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