At UNDP, Tales of Data Corruption, 'Whirling' Dervis and Whistleblower's Warnings about N. Korea

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

UNITED NATIONS, June 12 -- Behind the scenes of the scandal surrounding the UN Development Program and its activities in North Korea, there is fighting in UNDP and among the U.S. representatives who have alternately leaked memoranda, withheld exhibits, and paradoxically praised UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis.

            On June 6, Mr. Dervis met with Amb. Zalmay Khalilzad and Mark Wallace of the U.S. Mission to the UN, concerning among other things the transfer of UN funds to purchase real estate in London, Paris and Canada, and to purchase mass spectrometers and dual-use goods from affiliates of companies on the U.S. sanctions list.

            Both Amb. Khalilzad and his spokesman have since been quoted as being satisfied with Dervis' reaction and cooperation. But a June 8 letter to Wallace from Dervis' Number Two Ad Melkert, obtained Tuesday by Inner City Press, tells a different story.

     Melkert wrote that UNDP's "reasonable cooperation" is "strictly voluntary" and is "without prejudice to the privileges and immunities accorded to the United Nations, including UNDP, pursuant to the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations."

            Apparently contesting the "application of United States export controls laws to the United Nations, including UNDP," Mr.Melkert wrote that he was consulting with top UN lawyer Nicolas Michel. Melkert contests that UNDP deviated from any of its rules in North Korea, and  requests to be provided with "copies of all UNDP documentation and any other information that may have been provided to the United States Government by a former UNDP consultant."

Kemal Dervis: "Look Ma, no hands" (and no fingerprints, see below)

            On June 11, along with asking when UNDP's local staff in North Korea had finally lost access to the computer system, which UNDP's David Morrison mentioned may have been corrupted or compromised, Inner City Press asked Mr. Morrison about his statement that no retaliation has taken place at UNDP, including in light of a complaint that was filed last week on June 5 with the UN Secretariat's Ethics Office. Mr. Morrison spoke of "an individual on a short term contract" which was "simply not renewed." 

            Inner City Press asked Mr. Morrison to confirm that the individual in question was, in fact, the head of operations of the UN in North Korea for some time. Holding to the line that the individual in question is a mere "short term" contractor, Mr. Morrison declined to answer. Meanwhile, three days before, UNDP's Ad Melkert had sought all documentation that "may have been provided to the United States Government by a former UNDP consultant."

            Significantly, the head of operations of the UN in North Korea had written to Kemal Dervis on January 31, 2007, among other things alerting him to the need to bar local staff from UNDP's computer system:

"For years UNDP staff in DPRK have raised the issue to UNDP headquarters of our LAN and other IT functions being managed by agents of the DPRK government. This has impacted the operations of UN/UNDP in North Korea  to the extent that we have been obliged to use secondary or unofficial channels of communication for sensitive matters.  International staff operate in DPRK in complete absence of communication standards and security that are appropriate for an international organization.

Within 24 hours, the RC/RR and DRR should change the passwords for LAN access and management and no longer allow the DPRK national staff to manipulate and download and corrupt data in the network."

            While UNDP has still not answered the question of when its local staff in North Korea finally lost access to the computer system, Inner City Press is told that this did not happened until May 2, and that those who had access included:

Ms. Li Kum Sun, Finance Officer

Ms. Li Yung Sun, Registry

Ms. Im Kum Ran, Secretary to RC Timo Pakkala; and

Mr.  Dong Gum, operations assistant

            All of these individuals were seconded from the Kim Jong Il government. The question of why they were allowed access to UNDP's computer systems for so long has yet to be answered. Also lacking explanation is why, despite Kemal Dervis having been at UNDP for nearly two years now, longer than Ad Melkert, and having received but not acted on the warming quote above, the U.S. mission or some in it are singling out Dervis for praise.

            Some UNDP insiders, who have taken to calling Melkert "the man-eater," predict a showdown between the agile (whirling, they call him) politician Dervis, fresh back from conferring at the Bilderberg conference, and Ad Melkert, who unlike Dervis has held a number of press conferences to take questions about the UNDP scandals in North  Korea, Zimbabwe, Myanmar and elsewhere.

   These UNDP insiders ask what is the message sent by the U.S.'s paradoxical praise of Dervis -- that if you are hands-off and hide from the press, you can ride out a corruption storm and even see your Number Two and rival swept overboard?  We shall see.

Click here for Inner City Press' June 1 story on other UNDP questions.

    Again, 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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