At UNDP, Staff and G-77 Turn On Melkert, A "Ruud Lubbers With His Pants Up"

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

UNITED NATIONS, JULY 24 -- Those concerned with the lack of transparency at the top of the UN Development Program are not limited to Americans, nor to those who lean to the right. Within the coalition of developing world nations, the Group of 77 and China, complaints about UNDP are growing. So too among UNDP own work force and staff union.

            Because he is in the firing line -- and his hanging-around has become one of the obstacles complained of -- we focus in this report on Associate Administrator Ad Melkert, as does the Dutch press.

            One reporter who called Inner City Press from Holland about Melkert said that the Dutch seem to have some problem with the UN. But it is worth making the comparison:

            While Melkert wants to analogize himself to Jan Pronk, who was thrown out of  Sudan by president al-Bashir, the other analogy is Ruud Lubbers, who was chased out of UNHCR for sexual harassment. In this case, Melkert's predilection is retaliation, bluster and cover-up.  But at least two of these three can constitute harassment. Melkert, then, is described by a UN source also concerned about retaliation as "a Ruud Lubbers with his pants up."

            Recently the UNDP staff union met with Melkert about the trouble into which he has put the agency, and is not managing it out of. While Inner City Press' main focus is on those supposed to be served by the UN and UNDP, the mis-management of the Development Program also hurts its own staff. In fact, it is hurting the reputation of Ban Ki-moon United Nations. It is summer, and things are adrift. But how much longer can it last?

            Also reportedly present from the management side and subject to criticism were Messrs. Tegegnework Gettu, and Douglas Keh. Soon beyond these we will turn to Darshak Shaw, Bruce Jenks and the like, and up to Kemal Dervis. Mr. Dervis seems intent on saving his job. While Melkert's meeting with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad was cancelled, Dervis has reported met recently with Amb. Khalilzad. Dervis may not get the job of Turkey's negotiator for accession to the European Union, but he's sure active in promoting his own accession, or survival inside the UN.

Ruud Lubbers, 2005 -- Ad Melkert analogy?

            Here's from the Dutch press release for Freke Vuijst's article, 'Ad Melkert and the whistleblower,' in the Vrij Nederland:

"Whistleblower Tony Shkurtaj tells Vrij Nederland in an interview, how UNDP, the development agency of the United Nations where Ad Melkert is second in command, has tried to shut him up. 'All of a sudden I was a dangerous person who was not permitted to enter the UN-building.' Shkurtaj was head of operations of the UNDP-office in North-Korea. He experienced how millions of euros in aid-money went to the North Korean regime without UNDP having oversight of how the money was spent. When he warned his higher-ups, among them Ad Melkert, that UNDP in North-Korea systematically violated its own rules, his contract was not renewed... He holds Ad Melkert personally responsible. Melkert 'terrorizes the place,' says Shkurtaj. 'Whoever doesn't follow the party line, is terminated. The staff in New York lives in fear now that they see what has happened to me.'

 The American criticism of Melkert is separate from the role that Melkert played in the Wolfowitz-affair, says Shkurtaj. 'In the Netherlands he hides behind the story that he is being attacked by the mean conservative Bush government'...  The whistleblower says that Melkert hurts the Netherlands' reputation. 'He should be fired.'"

            Hear, hear. And look out both for some Dutch television coverage soon, and for UNDP's tip-lipped North Korea resident coordinator Timo Pakkala, now reportedly back in New York, still without the promised paperwork, still presumably referring all questions to an increasingly out-gunned UNDP press department, at whose silence and stonewalling Dutch media recently express wonder.  But the thinking seems to be, when you have $3.5 billion in the Bank, as UNDP does, who needs to answer 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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