As UN Speechifies, UNDP Audits Are Still Being Withheld, While War in Somalia and Sudan, Pronk Blogs On

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN - 9th in a series

UNITED NATIONS, December 8 at 6 pm, updated below -- With Kofi Annan's Special Representative Jan Pronk back in Sudan for what seems the final time, Annan's spokesman on Friday on noon continued deflecting and stonewalling requests for simple information about an ally of Mark Malloch Brown whom he had extensively defended the previous day. At five p.m. deadline UNDP informed Inner City Press by email that an audit of fraud in UNDP's Russia office, responsive to a December 1 request, would not be released. UNDP states that no such information, nor comments on allegations of violations of UN hiring practices rules, will be released.

    Less than an hour later, Inner City Press found at the UN Spokesman's Office document counter a press release by UNDP, apparently placed there much earlier in the day, which makes a number of claims. Click here to view. Ironically, UNDP did not email a copy to Inner City Press, nor ask any question for comment prior to its "publication."  UNDP tries to argue that individuals named in this series were not contacted prior to publication. In fact, Inner City Press called the direct lines of Brian Gleeson, Nora Lustig, Romesh Muttukumaru and others, as well as directly asking and attempting to ask questions of Kemal Dervis on Nov. 27 and Mark Malloch Brown on December 4.

   Mr. Dervis, the head of a $5 billion UN Program, has not held a press conference in 14 months. There is more that will be said, while not deviating from the substance of this series on UNDP. This is merely an update a half-an-hour after seeing strangely UNDP's blind side press release, just before the festive annual ball of the UN Correspondents Association.

        Earlier on Jan Pronk, the spokesman said he wasn't sure if he was actually in-country. If the Dutch press had it, one might think that the UN would know. The Number Two on story 38, however, is adverse or lacks knowledge about new media. He called workplace reporting about UNDP "irresponsible" and its purveyor a "jerk." Then his spokesman loyally sketched a scenario in which the "personal" material about Brian Gleeson would come down, and apology be offered. Click here for the transcript. The material came down, in the spirit of diplomacy, and the spokesman was so informed. Video here, at Minute 19:40. But the stonewalling continued.

            Question: if at the direction of Mark Malloch Brown the spokesman is so quick to trash a journalist with whom he purports to joke, in robust defense of a friend of Mr. Brown, how can the spokesman the next day refuse to answer any question about the Malloch friend? It is hard to comprehend. Or it is the way that power work, in the late Annan-Brown regime. Everything's genteel until the wrong toes are trodden on. Then the gloves come off. The effect is to stonewall reporting on one of the UN's largest programs. Despite its annual budget of $5 billion, UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis has been allowed to go 14 months without taking questions. Last week, after the UN ruled that even a ritual Memorandum of Understanding signing with the Islamic Development Bank couldn't be attended, an in-house photo came out.

Dervis with press kept at bay

            Today Mr. Dervis is in Vietnam, and so we continue our reporting, from a UNDP volunteer there, an on-the-record source since UNDP cannot retaliate, at least not directly. Pierre De Hanscutter was a computer / IT volunteer with UNDP in Vietnam. He states that while there, he attended a meeting in which UNDP proposed to buy computer equipment and services, from a company managed by the Vietnamese military, TECAPRO, at costs up to 35 times the going rate. Pierre De Hanscutter has provided a document, click here to view [which for now is blocked out by UNDP's Dec. 8 press release]. For example, he says, the purchase of a wireless router for $3500, when it normally priced at $120. His immediate boss Bui Khanh Huong made these arrangement, and Pierre De Hanscutter states that neither the top guy, Neil Reece nor the middleman Koen Van Acoleyn did anything to stop it. Mr. Reece said only that it would be good if it could be 10% cheaper.

            Pierre De Hanscutter's check of UNDP computer security found 15% of computers entirely unprotected, including that of the office's director. After raising the over-paying and other irregularities first to UNDP-Vietnam and then by letter to the UN in New York, Pierre De Hanscutter says he was told to no longer work in the office. Now outside the UNDP system, Pierre De Hanscutter has called for an investigation of UNDP in Vietnam, including its relation with TECAPRO. Is Kemal Dervis there to investigate? It doesn't sound like it. And so the questions mount, for his belated December 18 presser.

  Along with two questions posed with a five o'clock deadline (to be further reported out and with the responses to follow in full), and December 6 questions not even responded to, here was a question posed, and the response:

"responsive to earlier still-unanswered question, please provide the investigative report on UNDP's Russian Federation office referred to in the paragraph below, which is in the most recent audit of UNDP, A/61/5/Add.1, at page 22:

"Potential fraud had been detected at the Russian Federation office and reported to it for further investigation. The Office of Audit and Performance Review performed an investigation and released its report on 6 December, 2005. This report concluded that one payment amounting to $190,000 was fraudulent.  Additional payments that could be fraudulent were under further investigation. Two former UNDP staff members were implicated in the perpetration of those transactions (the former Assistant Resident Representative for Operations, who resigned on 20 April, 2005, and a former Project Administrator who resigned on 1 November, 2004). These cases were also reported by the Administrator of UNDP to the authorities of the Russian Federation on 15 September, 2005 for further action."

  How convenient, this non-release of "the reports of [UNDP] internal audits and investigations." We'll have more on this shortly, including once at least some of the December 6 UNDP questions are answered.

Update of 7:25 p.m. -- More than six hours after UNDP published its naming-names press release, UNDP finally sent Inner City Press a copy, along with a reiteration of the above with a new promise to be even less transparent:

            By contrast, fast answers were provided Friday on Sudan and Somalia -- the sides should talk, always a fine thing to say -- and a speech made up on the Congo. Video here, from Minute 14:20.  On Somalia, the spokesman said he hadn't seen reporters of increased shelling by Ethiopia (click here for one) and of Uganda chomping at the bit to send troops against the Islamic Courts Union. "The S-G would call on those who send troops to reach out to all Somalis," the spokesman speechified. Great. Meanwhile what has the UN's envoy Francois Lonseny Fall been doing? He's been to Mogadishu once. And the requested list of the UN's partners in Mogadishu? It has still not been provided, nor a simple list that was promised days ago. This regime is just playing out the string. And the gangsters, in the tent and out, seem to sense it...

Update of 7 p.m. -- Less than an hour after this article was published, and less than two after the emailed response above, Inner City Press found at the UN Spokesman's Office document counter a press release by UNDP, apparently placed there much earlier in the day, which makes a number of claims. Ironically, UNDP did not email a copy to Inner City Press, nor ask any question for comment prior to its "publication."  UNDP tries to argue that individuals named in this series were not contacted prior to publication. In fact, Inner City Press called the direct lines of Brian Gleeson, Nora Lustig, Romesh Muttukumaru and others, as well as directly asking and attempting to ask questions of Kemal Dervis on Nov. 27 and Mark Malloch Brown on December 4.

   Mr. Dervis, the head of a $5 billion UN Program, has not held a press conference in UN Headquarters in 14 months. There is more that will be said, while not deviating from the substance of this series on UNDP. This is merely an update a half-an-hour after seeing strangely UNDP's blind side press release, just before the festive annual ball of the UN Correspondents Association.

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Waste, Fraud and Abuse at UNDP in Vietnam, While UN Secretariat Urges Censorship

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN - 8th in a series

UNITED NATIONS, December 7 --  As information continues flowing in following the increasingly mysterious job-shift of the UN Development Program's head of Human Resources Brian Gleeson on November 29, the picture of UNDP is become more detailed, in this interim installment with the on-the-record account of a Belgian volunteer with UNDP in Vietnam. Kemal Dervis, the UNDP Administrator who has not held a press conference in New York in 14 months, is right now in Vietnam speaking of "One UN," triggering this story.

   Monday, Inner City Press covered the plea of a local staffer in UNDP Vietnam, who expressed fear at being retaliated against. Today's correspondent does not have this concern. The picture he paints is below. If UNDP or its ex-Administrator have any response, it too would be published in full. As evidenced at Thursday's UN noon briefing by the Secretariat's spokesman's lengthy lecture about alleged (Inner City) Press defamation of high UN officials, some thing or things in the first seven installments of this series appear to have hit a nerve. As noted in Inner City Press' non-UNDP article today, click here to view, such despots as in Congo - Brazzaville charge their critics with defamation. One might have thought the UN was different. But as the old saw has it, power can corrupt.

            That said, in order to keep the focus on the subject of this series, UNDP, Inner City Press has made modifications to earlier installments in this series, removing details that the Secretariat's spokesman on December 7 said had been the basis for the December 4 comments of the Deputy Secretary-General, ex-Administrator of UNDP. Inner City Press went so far as to excise a paragraph which it reported after the Deputy Secretary General's comments, to avoid further obfuscation. Additionally, because it was requested, Inner City Press has re-inserted into earlier articles the spokesman's November 30 statement that "Mr. Mark Malloch Brown played no role in Mr. Gleason’s transfer from one job to another," and a UNDP denial of favoritism in hiring at UNDP-Vietnam, appended to our first Vietnam story, click here to view.

            First this bit of reporting, which like the below does not require pre-publication vetting by UNDP: on Thursday morning Inner City Press interviewed Joakim Stymne, who has been Sweden's State Secretary for International Development Cooperation for only six weeks now.  Inner City Press asked Joakim Stymne for Sweden's thinking on the UNDP Program having funded disarmament in Karamoja, which programs veered into attacks upon civilians, and having spent over $500,000 in core funds to publish the laudatory book, "UNDP: A Better Way?"  Mr. Stymne opined that such expenditures should be closely examined, to see if they are within the strategy and within the budget. Afterwards one of Mr. Stymne staffers said it was good that the UNDP vanity press issue had been raised. Outside, 46 stories down and across the shining East River, the tenements streets of Central Brooklyn were gleaming.

            For those interested in numbers -- and we are, as you'll soon see -- the Swedish mission disclosed that at an exchange rate of seven kroner to the dollar, Sweden annually gives UNDP 1.3 billion kroner, 800 million of which constitute core funding. UNDP takes over one-quarter of Sweden's total funding to the UN System. How such funding is used is a question for another day, quite soon.

Vietnam: compare and contrast

            We turn now to Vietnam, and present as we will continue to do a voice from the field, one that this time can speak freely, without fear of retaliation:

Subject: UNDP Vietnam

From: Pierre De Hanscutter
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Sent: Thu, 7 Dec 2006 1:44 PM
Dear Mr. Matthew Russell Lee,

I read with a lot of interest your article about UNDP Vietnam. I was working there during two years with UN Volunteers (until July 2006), and I hear and saw many stories like those that you published. When I was in UNDP Vietnam I discovered a case of corruption (the IT manager, [   ], senior manager under the direct supervision of Mr. Neill Reece-Evans), I wrote a report to Neil Reece-Evans and spoke about this problem many time to my UNV supervisor Mr. Koen Van Acoleyen.... The only answer that I got was that I don't understand the "global politics," "it is not my business" and "you can do nothing against UN"... It was quite
funny to hear that from people who want to promote a better citizenship and to fight against corruption... From this report saying that I believe that corruption, even internal, is not acceptable,  I got only troubles and everything has been done to push me out during two years. At the end, they even cut my telephone line, internet connection and my office... I am sure that if I didn't give a copy of this report to my embassy, I was immediately out of UNDP without any explanation.

When I came back I decided to send a report to New York with a copy of the document that I had. They took it seriously and they decided to organize an audit inside UNDP. At the beginning, I had contacts with the person responsible for this audit who called me few times. One day he told me that he found that more or less 100 % of Microsoft software installed at UNDP were illegal copies (but UNDP has no problem advising the Vietnamese authorities that they should fight against illegal software copies)  and few days after that, the information became "confidential". I never got any result about this audit.... I joined UNDP because I believed in the "official" goals of this organization... Big illusion.... Very often, I think that I did a mistake by writing this report. The right attitude in UNDP is to meet the guy that you accuse and to ask a percentage...

I will give you a copy of this report that I sent to New York, it is in French. But you can easily understand the problem with the document that I got one day during a working meeting  [Note: both to be re-purposed by Inner City Press, watch this site.]

Beside this corruption problem, each year the UNDP staff goes to "retreat" for "team building" on the beach for few days. The years where I was there, each time it was in very luxurious hostel (4 stars) so far from Hanoi that all the staff had to take plane (a few planes had to be booked!). And because these "holiday-retreats" were so far from the normal working place, each employee has to receive pocket (to have good time). In few days, UNDP spends more that one month of their average salary...

Another day, to inaugurate a new balcony on the roof UNDP buildings, UNDP organized a private fashion show inside the office. Until now, I am wondering what was doing these young models and this fashion show in the office of a development organization....

It could be also interesting for you to study the difference of salary between local and international staffs. In my case my salary was around 2000 euro / month but for a Vietnamese (speaking Vietnamese and knowing his county) doing the same job and with the same qualification it is around 350$. Why so big difference? You can easily imagine the atmosphere in the office at lunch time: Vietnamese staff eating in front of their computers and the internationals going to restaurants (it is 'so cheap' only 5 $).... One day, I asked why there is a so big difference between the local and international staff and someone told that it is because "everything is more expensive when you are foreigner".... Maybe the first months.... But when I asked if when the Vietnamese people go to work in New York or Geneva, if they also receive a salary six times bigger that the local people (they are foreigners, everything is also more expensive for them...), the answer was "it is not the same"....
UNDP complains about companies moving to developing countries only to get cheap and flexible workers... but they do the same....The salary are done for Occidental people and to have cheap local employees doing the real work....

When I had these problems, I suddenly realize that you can do nothing.... only to smile and to accept your situation... If not, they will destroy you... - Pierre De Hanscutter

            On the topic of audits never provided, on Thursday Inner City Press against asked, this time the General Assembly spokeswoman, for UNDP's report on fraud in the UNDP Russian Federation Office, which the most recent audit of UNDP refers to. We have much (more) to report about this Office, but will await receiving the documents and comments on incidents in this office, which have been requested from UNDP. Developing.

 Again, because a number of Inner City Press' UNDP 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 UNDP and many of its staff. As they used to say on TV game shows, 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.

In UNDP, Questions of Money Wasted, Neutrality Trampled, Russian Office Audits Withheld and Sachs Expenses

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN - 7th in a series

UNITED NATIONS, December 6 --  As information continues flowing in following the Roshomon-like demotion of the UN Development Program's head of Human Resources Brian Gleeson on November 29, a picture of UNDP is emerging in which the agency makes recruitment and hiring decisions to placate or in a quid-pro-quo with donor nations. UNDP shows staff tables by nationality to the donors, and makes sure to promote to D and upper P rank those from donor nations.

            A snapshot from the Mark Malloch Brown era offered by staff involves expenditure of millions on a "re-branding" campaign, with a new logo and statement and even web site templates. Within months the campaign and templates were forgotten. One staff complained of the waste of "money meant for addressing poverty issues on the ground." Well said.

            It was not possible to ask Mark Malloch Brown, not yet at least, about these UNDP staff members' concerns. On Monday, Mr. Malloch Brown responded to a question from Inner City Press about the re-assignment of Brian Gleeson and other matters by saying, "You are a jerk. You are the most irresponsible journalist I have ever seen," and walking away.  This matter came up at Wednesday's noon briefing, and it appears will be addressed on Thursday. Until it is addressed, it is difficult to understand how to ask questions of Mr. Malloch Brown, who in any event remained Wednesday in Washington. Another question that has arisen concerning the purpose and specifics of his recent trip to not one but two political parties' conventions in England. Some have predicted that Mr. Malloch Brown aims to return to London for a lordship and to be a minister of the government under Gordon Brown. Some allude to a sort of private UNDP, probably to be funded by George Soros and others. A request has been made to UNDP for documents regarding assistance provided by UNDP to the various Soros initiatives, particularly in Central Asia.

            Some in UNDP question the propriety and relevance, for example, of UNDP's joint venture with Mr. Soros for the "provision of salary supplements to a high-profile group of Georgian civil servants," as described UNDP's Bratislava Center's "Governance Reform Program for Georgia 2004 - 2006." Even this document acknowledges that "normally UNDP does not engage in supplementing salaries for government officials," but goes on to say such is allowed in this case due to "the added value of UNDP's neutrality and its significant accountability record."

            On neutrality, Inner City Press has now asked UNDP for information regarding, for example, its funding during the campaigns in Liberia leading to the election of ex-UNDP staffer Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. While many in the UN System, not without basis, applaud her election, given UNDP's required claims of neutrality, it is imperative that candidates be treated equally, a sentiment reportedly not shared by Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf's soccer playing opponent. When UNDP provides its responses, they will be published on this site.

            UNDP has delayed in providing any information about investigations and audits of its Russia office, in which multiple sources have described to Inner City Press a range of improprieties, from phony billing to strong-arming to get UNDP to sign up for the EU-funded planetarium project to, it is reported, misuse of country office funds by the ubiquitous Kalman Mizsei. Given UNDP's delay in providing any information about the investigation and audits of the Russia office, even prior to today's questions being delivered to UNDP, it is reported here that knowledgeable UNDP sources describe irregularities and audits among others the Honduras office and in the Private Sector Unit of the Bureau of Resources and Strategic Partnerships (which plays a role in the Trust Fund for Iraq), involving credit card fraud. Inner City Press has now formally requested these and other audits.

            Inner City Press has also asked:

Please describe the sequence and basis for promotion(s) given to Casper Sonesson and Lena Sinha (who sources say was recruited under Mark Malloch Brown and has reportedly jumped from P3 in 2002 to D1 status in 2005 with, some of her peers complain, no country office experience).

UNDP: Telling Tales

            In terms of the responses that UNDP has provided, the request to publish their messages in full has been supplemented with a request to also "integrate them into your stories." It seems clear: one or the other. For today, UNDP's December 6 response is provided online in full here, and the response on the Millennium Project-related hiring and compensation questions is also hereby, then analyzed and supplemented with documentary evidence obtained by Inner City Press:

From: cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 6:27 PM
Subject: RE: Additional Qs re UNDP, response to your Q re deadlines, thank you in advance

Dear Matthew,

Thank you for posting the full text of our note to you of 5 December. We would encourage you to integrate our points into your stories as well, as we believe doing so would present a more balanced picture of UNDP.

We hope the below addresses some of your outstanding concerns. On the Millennium Project:

The Millennium Project was set up in 2002 as an independent advisory body to the Secretary-General, charged with proposing the best strategies for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It is funded by donors on a voluntary basis and administered by UNDP (contracts, human resources policies, etc.). It has been led since the outset by Professor Jeffrey Sachs. Guido Schmidt-Traub is its Associate Director.

The Millennium Project was designed from the beginning as a time-bound exercise. Its mandate expires at the end of 2006. In order to bolster progress towards the Goals, we have decided to merge the work of the Millennium Project into UNDP. To this end, UNDP has set up a new sub-unit in our poverty group, which will consist of some 20 positions.

To complete the integration by the end of the year, UNDP management is using an expedited competitive recruiting process for five lead positions. These five positions have been advertised and are in the process of being filled.

Five other positions do not require a competitive process under UNDP recruitment procedures and will be filled with people currently working for the Millennium Project.

All other positions will be recruited according to standard UNDP recruitment procedures, and this process is on-going.

For the record, Jeffrey Sachs will continue to be involved with the UN’s effort on the Millennium Development Goals. As of 1 January, he will serve as Special Adviser to UNDP on the Millennium Development Goals. His salary will continue to be $75,000 per year.

            Working backwards through this 250-word statement, it must be noted that beyond the surprise of some UNDP staff members that "Dollar-a-Year" Jeff is in fact charging $75,000, this figure does not include travel and other expenses, called Daily Subsistence Allowance. While Inner City Press has now asked for the more complete numbers, it has obtained a document entitled "The MDG Support  Project for MDG-Based National Development Strategies," initially dated October 20, 2006, and revised November 9. Therein, the budget for Senior Advisors is $224,000. The total budget is presented as $6,059,000, with $2,889,000 coming from UNDP's core budget and $3,170,000 called "non-core."  It says that

"The integration of the UN Millennium Project staff into UNDP including the continuation of the country MDGS coordinators and the contributions to the Nairobi and Bamako-based teams are funded through corporate resources. RBA is contributing $350,000 out of its allocation from unused WSSD Trust Fund resources...The unspent balance (about $3.50 million) of the World Summit on Social Development (WSSD) Trust Fund has been and will be used to kick-start the roll-out of the initiative in compliance with the signed WSSD Trust Fund Agreement."

   Inner City Press has requested a number of Trust Fund Agreements from UNDP. The above-quoted document is signed and will ostensibly be directed by Selim Jahan, described as the deputy to the UNDP Poverty Group's Nora Lustig. On Ms. Lustig, while UNDP on December 5 stated that "Ms. Lustig was hired in April 2006 to Head UNDP’s Poverty Group following a transparent and competitive recruitment process.  All staff hired into the Poverty Group since Ms. Lustig’s arrival have been recruited via UNDP’s standard procedures."

  UNDP's above-quoted December 6 response speaks of "an expedited competitive recruiting process" -- only dubiously "UNDP's standard procedures." Staff at the Poverty Group answer the question if Guido Schmidt-Traub is already working there with one word: "Yes." So why hold a competition if the job has already been awarded?

            As to Ms. Lustig, Inner City Press has now asked when her position was advertised, whether Ms. Lustig was a candidate, and whether she was "on the short list." Inner City Press has been told that Ms. Lustig was "head-hunted" by Kemal Dervis *after* the selection group had held a process, and contrary to the panel's recommendation. Is *this* UNDP's standard procedure? Similar questions have been asked regarding job(s) awarded to one Ligia Elizondo. And some of the other questions asked:

Re "UNDP: A Better Way?" please state the source of funds expended in connection with the book, core or other, whether any fundraising was done for the book (and if so, who made the fundraising outreach, to whom, and with what results). When copies of the book are sold, what happens with the money? And to what specific multilateral institutions and books were referred to in the statement that UNDP's expenses are in line with other multilateral institutions?

From the book, including because UNDP is the copyright holder, please answer these [ ] initial questions:

Page 336 of the book recounts some of the actions of "UNDP's east European bureau chief, Kalman Mizsei." Please provide a complete copy of and background to any 2002-03 letter by Mr. Kalman Mizsei praising UNDP's Russia office for its "resource mobilization" and please provide all information about and background to Mr. Mizsei leaving UNDP earlier this year.

Given that page 303 of the book refers to Mark Malloch Brown "turn[ing] to Brian Gleeson," please provide information on [the] events of November 29 with regard to Mr. Gleeson.

Please explain and document the report at the top of page 304 (of the softbound edition) that "In one country, 'there was a guy running a sex Internet business from his office' but his Res Rep defended him, "'Come on, he's been here sixteen years and has children, I can't get rid of him." Within a few months... both he and the Res Rep were gone."

Please state as quickly as possible the background for [ ] being sent from New York  to UNDP Uganda, and separately whether any complaints were filed against [ ] while Resident Representative in Uganda.

            And so the questions continue, and the series will go on.

Other Inner City Press reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on www.InnerCityPress.com --

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Chaos in UN's Somalia Policy, Working With Islamists Under Sanctions While Meeting with Private Military Contractors

U.S. Candidate for UN's World Food Program May Get Lame Duck Appointment, Despite Korean Issues

At the UN, U.S. Versus Axis of Airport, While Serge Brammertz Measures Non-Lebanese Teeth

Exclusion from Water Is Called Progress, of Straw Polls and WFP Succession

William Swing Sings Songs of Congo's Crisis, No Safeguards on Coltan Says Chairman of Intel

Warlord in the Waldorf and Other Congo Questions Dodged by the UN in the Time Between Elections

In Some New Orleans, Questions Echo from the South Bronx and South Lebanon

In New Orleans, While Bone Is Thrown in Superdome, Parishes Still In Distress

At the UN, Tales of Media Muzzled in Yemen, Penned in at the Waldorf on Darfur, While Copters Grounded

US's Frazer Accuses Al-Bashir of Sabotage, Arab League of Stinginess, Chavez of Buying Leaders - Click here for video file by Inner City Press.

Third Day of UN General Debate Gets Surreal, Canapes and Killings, Questions on Iran and Montenegro and Still Somalia

On Darfur, Hugo Chavez Asks for More Time to Study, While Planning West Africa Oil Refinery

At the UN, Ivory Coast Discussed Without Decision on Toxic Politics, the Silence of Somalia

Evo Morales Blames Strike on Mobbed-Up Parasites, Sings Praise of Coca Leaf and Jabs at Coca-Cola

Musharraf Says Unrest in Baluchistan Is Waning, While Dodging Question on Restoring Civilian Rule

At the UN, Cyprus Confirms 'Paramilitary' Investigation, Denies Connection to Def Min Resignation, CBTB Update

A Tale of Three Leaders, Liberia Comes to Praise and Iran and Sudan to Bury the UN

UN Round-up: Poland's President Says Iraq Is Ever-More Tense While Amb. Bolton Talks Burmese Drugs, Spin on Ivory Coast

As UN's Annan Now Says He Will Disclose, When and Whether It Will Be to the Public and Why It Took So Long Go Unasked

At the UN, Stonewalling Continues on Financial Disclosure and Letter(s) U.S. Mission Has, While Zimbabwe Goes Ignored

At the UN, Financial Disclosure Are Withheld While Freedom of Information Is Promised, Of Hollywood and Dictators' Gift Shops

UN's Annan Says Dig Into Toxic Dumping, While Declining to Discuss Financial Disclosure

A Still-Unnamed Senior UN Official in NY Takes Free Housing from His Government, Contrary to UN Staff Regulations

UN Admits To Errors in its Report on Destruction of Congolese Village of Kazana, Safeguards Not In Place

As UN Checks Toxins in Abidjan, the Dumper Trafigura Figured in Oil for Food Scandal, Funded by RBS and BNP Paribas

Targeting of African Americans For High Cost Mortgages Grew Worse in 2005, While Fed Downplays Its Own Findings

The UN and Nagorno-Karabakh: Flurries of Activity Leave Frozen Conflicts Unchanged; Updates on Gaza, Gavels and Gbagbo

The UN Cries Poor on Lawless Somalia, While Its Ex-Security Chief Does Business Through Ruleless Revolving Door

At the UN, Micro-States Simmer Under the Assembly's Surface, While Incoming Council President Dodges Most Questions

"Horror Struck" is How UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments Would Leave U.S., Referral on Burma But Not Uzbekistan

Security Council President Condemns UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments, While UK "Doesn't Do It Any More"

At the UN, Incomplete Reforms Allow for Gifts of Free Housing to UN Officials by Member States

Rare UN Sunshine From If Not In Chad While Blind on Somalia and Zimbabwe, UNDP With Shell in its Ear on Nigeria

Annan Family Ties With Purchaser from Compass, Embroiled in UN Scandal, Raise Unanswered Ethical Questions

At the UN, from Casamance to Transdniestria, Kosovars to Lezgines, Micro-States as Powerful's Playthings

Inquiry Into Housing Subsidies Contrary to UN Charter Goes Ignored for 8 Weeks, As Head UN Peacekeeper Does Not Respond

On the UN - Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost

Stop Bank Branch Closings and Monopolies in the Katrina Zone, Group Says, Challenging Regions- AmSouth Merger

Ship-Breakers Missed by UN's Budget for Travel and Consultants in Bangladesh, Largest UNIFIL Troop Donor

With Somalia on the Brink of Horn-Wide War, UN Avoids Question of Ethiopian Invasion

In UN's Lebanon Frenzy, Darfur Is Ignored As Are the Disabled, "If You Crave UNIFIL, Can't You Make Do With MONUC?"

UN Decries Uzbekistan's Use of Torture, While Helping It To Tax and Rule; Updates on UNIFIL and UNMIS Off-Message

On Lebanon, Russian Gambit Focuses Franco-American Minds, Short Term Resolution Goes Blue Amid Flashes of Lightening

Africa Can Solve Its Own Problems, Ghanaian Minister Tells Inner City Press, On LRA Peace Talks and Kofi Annan's Views

At the UN, Jay-Z Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka Kilcher in the Basement

In the UN Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a Shebaa Farms Solution?

UN Knew of Child Soldier Use by Two Warlords Whose Entry into Congo Army the UN Facilitated

Impunity's in the Air, at the UN in Kinshasa and NY, for Kony and Karim and MONUC for Kazana

UN Still Silent on Somalia, Despite Reported Invasion, In Lead-Up to More Congo Spin

UN's Guehenno Says Congo Warlord Just Needs Training, and Kazana Probe Continues

With Congo Elections Approaching, UN Issues Hasty Self-Exoneration as Annan Is Distracted

In DR Congo, UN Applauds Entry into Army of Child-Soldier Commander Along with Kidnapper

Spinning the Congo, UN Admits Hostage Deal with Warlord That Put Him in Congolese Army

At the UN, Dow Chemical's Invited In, While Teaming Up With Microsoft is Defended

Kofi Annan Questioned about Congolese Colonel Who Kidnapped Seven UN Soldiers

UN Silent As Congolese Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made An Army Colonel: News Analysis

UN's Guehenno Speaks of "Political Overstretch" Undermining Peacekeeping in Lower Profile Zones

In Gaza Power Station, the Role of Enron and the U.S. Government's OPIC Revealed by UN Sources

UN's Corporate Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and UNDP Continues

BTC Briefing, Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations

Conflicts of Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts

UN Grapples with Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without Explanation

UN Gives Mugabe Time with His Friendly Mediator, Refugees Abandoned

At the UN, Friday Night's Alright for Fighting; Annan Meets Mugabe

UN Acknowledges Abuse in Uganda, But What Did Donors Know and When? Kazakh Questions

In Uganda, UNDP to Make Belated Announcement of Program Halt, But Questions Remain (and see The New Vision, offsite).

Disarmament Abuse in Uganda Leads UN Agency to Suspend Its Work and Spending

Disarmament Abuse in Uganda Blamed on UNDP, Still Silent on Finance

Alleged Abuse in Disarmament in Uganda Known by UNDP, But Dollar Figures Still Not Given: What Did UN Know and When?

Strong Arm on Small Arms: Rift Within UN About Uganda's Involuntary Disarmament of Karamojong Villages

UN's Selective Vision on Somalia and Wishful Thinking on Uighurs

UN Habitat Predicts The World Is a Ghetto, But Will Finance Be Addressed at Vancouver World Urban Forum?

UN's Annan Concerned About Use of Terror's T-Word to Repress, Wants Freedom of Information

UN  Waffles on Human Rights in Central Asia and China; ICC on Kony and a Hero from Algiers

UN & US, Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty and Senator Tom Coburn

Human Rights Forgotten in UN's War of Words, Bolton versus Mark Malloch Brown: News Analysis

In Praise of Migration, UN Misses the Net and Bangalore While Going Soft on Financial Exclusion

UN Sees Somalia Through a Glass, Darkly, While Chomsky Speaks on Corporations and Everything But Congo

Corporate Spin on AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence

The Silence of the Congo and Naomi Watts; Between Bolivia and the World Bank

Human Rights Council Has Its Own Hanging Chads; Cocky U.S. State Department Spins from SUVs

Child Labor and Cargill and Nestle; Iran, Darfur and WHO's on First with Bird Flu

Press Freedom? Editor Arrested by Congo-Brazzaville, As It Presides Over Security Council

The Place of the Cost-Cut UN in Europe's Torn-Up Heart;
Deafness to Consumers, Even by the Greens

Background Checks at the UN, But Not the Global Compact; Teaching Statistics from Turkmenbashi's Single Book

Ripped Off Worse in the Big Apple, by Citigroup and Chase: High Cost Mortgages Spread in Outer Boroughs in 2005, Study Finds

Burundi: Chaos at Camp for Congolese Refugees, Silence from UNHCR, While Reform's Debated by Forty Until 4 AM

The Chadian Mirage: Beyond French Bombs, Is Exxon In the Cast? Asylum and the Uzbeks, Shadows of Stories to Come

Through the UN's One-Way Mirror, Sustainable Development To Be Discussed by Corporations, Even Nuclear Areva

Racial Disparities Grew Worse in 2005 at Citigroup, HSBC and Other Large Banks

Mine Your Own Business: Explosive Remnants of War and the Great Powers, Amid the Paparazzi

Human Rights Are Lost in the Mail: DR Congo Got the Letter, But the Process is Still Murky

Iraq's Oil to be Metered by Shell, While Basrah Project Remains Less than Clear

Kofi, Kony, Kagame and Coltan: This Moment in the Congo and Kampala

As Operation Swarmer Begins, UN's Qazi Denies It's Civil War and Has No Answers if Iraq's Oil is Being Metered

Cash Crop: In Nepal, Bhutanese Refugees Prohibited from Income Generation Even in their Camps

The Shorted and Shorting in Humanitarian Aid: From Davos to Darfur, the Numbers Don't Add Up

UN Reform: Transparency Later, Not Now -- At Least Not for AXA - WFP Insurance Contract

In the Sudanese Crisis, Oil Revenue Goes Missing, UN Says

Empty Words on Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN and Georgia

What is the Sound of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War at UN

Kosovo: Of Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of Ferronikeli Mines

Abkhazia: Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia

Post-Tsunami Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives

Citigroup Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference

Other Inner City Press reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on www.InnerCityPress.com --

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