UNDP Waves Poverty Czar's Net Contract Online Then Does Not Answer Questions

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

UNITED NATIONS, February 26 -- Following the exposure of UN Development Program poverty czar Eveline Herfkens for having improperly taken $7000 a month in rent from the Dutch government, UNDP has spent time and political capital defending her. On-camera, Administrator Kemal Dervis called Herfkens a good person who made a mistake. Since Associate Administrator Ad Melkert has eschewed questions and answers with the press for some time, his defense of Herfkens has been off-camera. Online, UNDP on January 9 said it "deeply appreciates the leadership and performance of Eveline Herfkens;" on February 25 it said that "Press reports continue to circulate that Eveline Herfkens, Executive Coordinator of the Millennium Campaign, was paid $225,000 per year by the UN for part-time work. 

    In fact, Ms. Herfken' signed a contract in November 2002 for a net annual salary of $134,331." UN system officials receive so-called "post adjustments" of an additional 61%. Click here for the most recent UN circular on the topic. So "net" in this context may be misleading.

Ad Melkert: What next? Post adjustment not shown

 Inner City Press on Tuesday put this and other questions to UNDP, but like Monday's questions, none were answered. We'll have more on this. For now we simply note as we have to UNDP, that Melkert can hardly be viewed as a paragon of transparency when he came out against the minimal public financial disclosure urged by Ban Ki-moon. He was right on one thing -- we ain't seen nothing yet.

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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

Because a number of Inner City Press' UN sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to conclude this installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals of the UN agencies and many of their staff. Keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we apologize for any phone tag, but please continue trying, and keep the information flowing.

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Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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