At UNDP, Melkert Accused of Threatening Retaliation Against Member States, Amb. Khalilzad's Plea to Dervis

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

UNITED NATIONS, June 14 -- Requests have been made to the UN Development Program for information about its spending in North Korea. With few exception, the requests have been denied or evaded.

     Thursday portions of the UN press corps buzzed with word of most recent interplay between the Associate Administrator of the UN Development Program, Ad Melkert, and the U.S. Mission to the UN.

            Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN, has complained of Mr. Melkert's behavior in a letter to the boss of UNDP, Kemal Dervis, writing that in a meeting between Melkert and U.S. Ambassador Mark Wallace,

"Mr. Melkert suggested to Ambassador Wallace that UNDP viewed United States inquiry relating to such new information [about UNDP's North Korea spending] as justifying some kind of 'retaliation' against the Government of the United States."

            While UNDP reportedly characterizes as "private" Amb. Khalilzad's letter, Mr. Melkert has already requested, in writing, any documents provided to the U.S. Mission one whistleblower. Now, sources say, Melkert has started demanding information about additional whistleblowers. This raises the question of retaliation; Melkert, it seems, stands ready to retaliate against whole countries.

   A UN Security Council diplomat told Inner City Press, referring to Melkert's most recent post and gambit, "He may think this was acceptable at the World Bank, but here it should be the kiss of death."

            But where is Ban Ki-moon on this? Having promised transparency, how can Ban accept a UN agency refusing to provide information, and threatening to retaliate in response to even a request for information? The transparency and accountability-to-member-state ethos seems to militate for action against Mr. Melkert.

            On the other hand, in as most read the leaked UN Department of Political Affairs memo as favoring UNDP' re-entry into North Korea as a positive for the Secretary-General, Mr. Ban would not have an interest in further stirring up of Kim Jong Il's hornet's nest. On Thursday, Inner City Press asked DPA chief Lynn Pascoe, an American, about the memo and where the UN Secretariat is going, on North Korea.  Mr. Pascoe responded that "I'm not going to make any comment on a leaked document about the internal discussions of the UN, I don't think that would be appropriate." Video here, from Minute 10:03.

Lynn Pascoe on June 14

            Amb. Khalilzad's letter to Kemal Dervis began,

"As you will recall, in our meetings with you and Mr. Melkert last week, we discussed new information that we provided regarding UNDP operations in DPRK. I was surprised and concerned to learn that in a subsequently meeting between Ambassador Wallace and Mr. Melkert, Mr. Melkert suggested to Ambassador Wallace that UNDP viewed United States inquiry relating to such new information as justifying some kind of 'retaliation' against the Government of the United States.

"Please understand that by these inquiries we simply seek clarification on issues that we consider important, both to my Government and, we hope, to UNDP. We hope that UNDP agrees and that UNDP will treat this matter in such a light and will avoid comments and actions that are confrontational in nature."

            "Shakespeare it ain't," as one of the letter's readers put it. Sharper but lower profiled was Thursday testimony by U.S. Ambassador Richard T. Miller, among other things that what Melkert

"did not note was that the auditors found that in each of these areas UNDP had acted in violation of its own rules.  Let me read from the report directly.

'In respect of local staff hiring, personnel were hired by UNDP... through a government agency of DPRK, contrary to relevant instructions and procedures.'   (Para 17(a))

'In respect of foreign currency transactions, local payments made in foreign currencies were without requisite authority...'  (Para 17(b)).... The Board noted that the control over the project access exercised by the DPRK authorities, was not in line with Article X of the Standard basic Agreement entered into between UNDP and the Government of DPRK...'  (Para 88). The Board noted a previous audit finding 'that in three out of five projects selected, there were no field visit reports from 1994-1998.  This was not in adherence to the requirement of at least one project visit per year'  (Para 90)... on the availability of internal audits.  Mr. Melkert states that UNDP has 'considered to make the findings of future internal audits available to Member States.' This seems to be a little vague."

            A little vague? As Inner City Press reported on Wednesday, it is a conscious turning-back from Melkert's statement of one week earlier, that UNDP -- actually, "The Administrator and I, that is, including Mr. Dervis -- was "committed" to providing "internal audits," with no mention of limiting this to future audits.

            In light of Amb. Khalilzad's and his spokesman's on the record praise of Kemal Dervis, the head of UNDP, one wonders: are they saying that these evasions don't reflect on Dervis as well as Melkert?  Are they saying that soon, Ban Ki-moon too will have to answer for these evasions and provocations?

   Ban's UN explained the censoring, for example, of a film about the Hmung at the request of Vietnam as being required because the UN must serve its member states. How does Melkert's reported statement jibe with this? And don't those above Melkert -- Dervis and ultimately Ban Ki-moon -- bear some responsibility as well? We shall see.

    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.

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

Search WWW Search innercitypress.com

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service.

            Copyright 2006-07 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com -