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Inner City Press Podcast --

UNDP's Ad Melkert Says He Will Finally Increase Transparency, Describes Fraud in Russia, Dodges Uganda

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN - 14th in a series Intro followed by 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th

UNITED NATIONS, December 15 -- "I'd like to bring our transparency in line with the UN procedure", the Associate Administrator of the UN Development Program, Ad Melkert, answered Inner City Press on Friday. This answer came after UNDP had refused to provide copies or even summaries of audits of its admittedly troubled Russian Federation office, and after Inner City Press pointed out that the UN Secretariat at least provides full copies to any of the 192 member states which make a request. Mr. Melkert added, "That should be normal... Talking about transparency, the best criteria for me is my own transparency.. I'm looking into that right now." Video here, from Minute 45:46.

Inner City Press inquired into a meeting Mr. Melkert held on December 1 with the staff of UNDP's Poverty Group, concerning steps taken to quickly bring Jeffrey Sachs' team from the UN Millennium Group onto the UNDP payroll. Having just referred to transparency, Mr. Melkert nevertheless began with the "hope you are not going to ask me about all the meeting that I've had." He continued that "for this exception case, yes, this First December meeting, I was... It was a managerial decision to merge, it's my responsibility, everybody can and should work with that. With respect to staff rules, we have tried to make the best out of that." While confirming much of what Inner City Press sources have said about the meeting, Mr. Melkert denied that he has told staff not to speak to the press. Time will tell.

Mr. Melkert claimed that UNDP never funded disarmament in Uganda, only "community development." Rather than naming Karamoja, the region in Eastern Uganda in which the program was funded, Mr. Melkert apparently confused it with the Lord's Resistance Army-impacted area he called "Northern Uganda," where he said it is "hard to distinguish from the situation of risk and potential conflict including the roles weapons play." Video here, from Minute 36:25. But William Orme, previously of UNDP's Communications Office, said earlier in the year there was a voluntary disarmament component, and UNDP in Uganda issued a press release announcing the suspension of funding. When the seeming dissembling spreads to the Number Two in the agency, the plot thickens. What will the often invisible Number One, Kemal Dervis, have to say? While his December 18 appearance has been cancelled, Inner City Press was again told on Friday that he will appear on December 21. He can be expected to be asked to spell out UNDP's plan for greater transparency, among other things.

UNDP's Klein in Uganda UNDP's Melkert in New York, 12/15/06

Perhaps as a forerunner of the increased transparency needed at UNDP, hopefully as a sample of the type of response that will come regarding other scandals and locales inquired into, the following was provided to Inner City Press in response to questions:

Subject: UNDP responses

From: cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org

To: Inner City Press

"On UNDP's Russia office: Three Resident Representatives have headed the UNDP Country Office (CO) in the Russian Federation since it began operations in 1997. Philippe Elghouayel served from August 1997 until January 2001. Frederick Lyons served from March 2001 until April 2003. Stefan Vassilev served as acting Resident Representative from April until June 2003, and then as Resident Representative from September 2003 until August 2005.

A full internal UNDP audit of the Russia Country Office was conducted in August 2001. This cited numerous shortcomings and gave the CO an overall rating of "deficient." A follow-up partial audit was conducted in September 2003. This noted improvement in many areas and issued a rating of "partially satisfactory."

The discovery of suspected fraudulent activity triggered an internal investigation in June 2005. This investigation concluded that one payment amounting to $190,000 was fraudulent. Additional payments that could be fraudulent were under investigation. Three former UNDP staff members, all locally employed Russian nationals, were implicated in the fraud. All three resigned from the Country Office before the investigation was launched.

When the extent of the fraud became evident, Mr. Vassilev was summoned to headquarters. He was removed from his post in August 2005 and subjected to disciplinary proceedings stemming from shortcomings in management performance and oversight. Mr. Vassilev is no longer employed by UNDP.

In September 2005, drawing on the evidence collected in the investigation, the UNDP Administrator made an official request to Russian law enforcement authorities to open a criminal investigation into the fraud. Such an investigation was opened by the Moscow Prosecutor and is currently under way, with UNDP's active cooperation.

UNDP informed its Executive Board of the fraud, as part of its regular reporting processes. In the wake of the special audit and rigorous internal reviews, UNDP has undertaken a painstaking restructuring of its finance operations and management structure, enacting the recommendations both of UNDP auditors and of a regular UN Board of Auditors audit conducted early in 2006. In addition, oversight roles and functions have been carefully reviewed at Headquarters, and fresh efforts have been devoted to ensuring that audit recommendations are heeded.

To support these corrective efforts, UNDP has assigned some of its most experienced staff to the Russia CO. Ercan Murat, a UNDP veteran who had served previously as Resident Representative in Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Afghanistan, came out of retirement to serve as acting Resident Representative in Russia from September 2005 until September 2006. Marco Borsotti, who currently serves as UNDP Resident Representative in Azerbaijan, has received clearance from the Russian Government and is expected to take up his post as the new Resident Representative in January 2007.

The effectiveness of UNDP's corrective measures was recently confirmed through an independent external review which judged the management practices of the Russia CO to be fundamentally sound and in line with UNDP regulations and standards."

There. Some of the things not yet addressed are the Brussels funding for the Moscow planetarium project, as well as the other requested audits concerning Honduras, Afghanistan and the Private Sector Unit of the Bureau of Resources and Strategic Partnerships. There is also the reference to "receiv[ing] clearance from the Russian Government," more on which anon.

In fairness, on Thursday evening UNDP sent Inner City Press among other things this denial:

---Original Message-----
Subject: UNDP responses

From: cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org

To: Inner City Press
Sent: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 7:00 PM

"Dear Matthew, regarding the allegations relating to the Bratislava Regional Centre... Ben Slay has not collected any improper daily sustenance allowance at any time. We find no suggestion that his predecessor did, either, but because his tenure ended some time ago, we are pulling additional records out of storage to confirm this. The Vienna office you appear to be making reference to opened before Ben Slay even arrived as Director of the Bratislava Centre. Ben Slay sometimes works from the Vienna office. He does not collect DSA for doing so. "

Sources in Bratislava indicate that the individual opened a small UNPD office in Vienna, then sought to recruit other UNDP officials in Slovakia to relocate to Vienna, "to make his move look less strange." When an investigation into UNDP-Bratislava and the antics of Kalman Mizsei began, the individual hurriedly moved back to Slovakia...

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.

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439

Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540

In UNDP's Book, Strong's Scandals Are Missing, While Workers Complain, MMB Schmoozes the Korean Mission

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN, 13th in a series Intro followed by 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th

UNITED NATIONS, December 14 -- On this day of Ban Ki-moon's ceremonial swearing-in, it's worth a glance at how the outgoing administration tried to deal with its scandals, through the prism of the UN Development Program. In his speech, Ban Ki-moon said he "will seek to set the highest moral standards... The Charter calls on staff to uphold the highest levels of efficiency, competence and integrity, and I will seek to ensure we building a solid reputation of living up to that standard... and restore trust in the Organization."

Since UNDP paid $567,000 to commission what it claims is an "independent" history, we'll start with "UNDP: A Better Way?" Tellingly, while this book mentions Maurice Strong half a dozen times, it nowhere mentions the scandals under which Mr. Strong left the UN System: concealed business ties to Tongsun Park of Oil-for-Food and buying-Congress fame, and for hiring his stepdaughter into the UN System. Both were known before the publication of the book. It's as if by paying for a official, some say Stalin-like, history, those who have run UNDP think they can control the future.

Mr. Strong with jaunty hat

At the December 12 noon briefing, a spiny correspondent said, "when he was in Beijing in May, the Secretary-General met Maurice Strong for a private meeting, not even a meeting but a walk-talk where they took a walk together." The spokesman declined to comment, saying Mr. Strong is out of the System.

One of the book's references to Maurice Strong is tied to a topic of the 12th installment in this series, Rwanda, and genocidaire UNDP staffer Callixte Mbarushimana. "A Better Way" gushes that UNDP

"helped set up refugee camps in neighboring Tanzania for those fleeing from the new Tutsi government and helped Rwandan refugees, some who had been in exile for more than thirty years, to return home."

The passage goes on to praise the Rwanda work of UNDP's Stephen Browne, who also arose in the 12th installment. There are, including within UNDP, quite different views of Browne's and UNDP's work in post-genocide Rwanda.

UN 21 Awards

Mark Malloch Brown again bragged of UNDP at a ceremony Thursday in the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium, meant to honor outstanding staff initiatives within the Secretariat with "UN 21 Awards." The program was begun in 1996, Kofi Annan's first year as Secretary-General. Malloch Brown said, "Myself having been a consultant to private sector companies at one point in my life... When I was Administrator of UNDP, I thought we did it better over in UNDP." This certainly doesn't apply to press relations. On that, an award was given to the Secretariat's Department of Public Information's "News Monitoring Database" team of Alissar Khoury, Celso Rezaba, George Vengal, Daniel Sienra, Sharon Birch and Roxana R. Gadea.

While the other projects for which awards were given seem very laudable -- we would at this point link to a UN 21 Awards web site if we could find one -- the air of self-congratulation and paranoia in Malloch Brown's remarks was palpable, with his undefined reference to "all the difficulties we have all faced as UN staff in recent years." But the controversies swirls around those at the top, not the staff who were receiving awards on library Thursday. Present was outgoing Under Secretary General Ocampo, to whom a question about Guido Bertucci could well have been asked. But there were no questions, just staged photos and an us-versus-them pep talk by Mark Malloch Brown.

A difficulty with UNDP is getting answers. Last week UNDP declared to Inner City Press that it "will no longer be responding to unsubstantiated allegations about UNDP�s recruitment and personnel practices. We urge you to desist from publishing such allegations." It is a Catch-22: UNDP will not comment, but nothing is supposed to be published without their comment (and, in their view, consent).

In fact, the Staff Council has raised issues of employment law violations to both Administrator Kemal Dervis and Associate Administrator Ad Melkert. To Kemal Dervis, detailed statements were provided, including the UNDP's "current practice of displacing staff is not in conformity with the staff rules nor is it in the interest of the United Nations... and detrimental to the staff morale. We have raised this issue at all levels within UNDP. Since [then] we have not been given any indication that our concerns have been taken seriously."

Mr. Dervis' response was not favorably viewed. In a follow-up letter to Associate Administrator Ad Melkert, the Staff Council wrote that

"the proliferation of reprofiling / restructuring exercises without a clearly defined corporate vision or external changes have not only negatively affected the moral of staff but have also ultimately infringed on their rights and expectations as international civil servants. to our knowledge, reprofiling has been initiated in UNIFEM, BCPR, RBA, RBLAC, DOF and OAS. The two regional bureaux appear to follow very different approaches despite the fact that the High Level Panel on Systemwide Coherence has recommended in its final draft that the UN entities at the regional level should be reconfigured and co-located."

This letter was cc-ed to Brian Gleeson, was later in the month was suddenly re-assigned away from heading UNDP's Office of Human Resources. And still UNDP states that 77% of its employees are happy, and that it will not comment on seeming violations of its employment rules. And if you question them, the retaliation starts.. But so too, it is said, begin a new era.

Ban Ki-moon Reception, DPKO Get-Down

Thursday night there was a reception at the South Korean mission marking Ban Ki-moon's swearing in as Secretary General. Inside, along with the Ambassadors of France, Russia and Brazil, the top two in Peacekeeping, Messrs. Guehenno and Annabi, the head of the Peacebuilding Commission and several older, some scandal-plagued, ex-Secretariats was Mark Malloch Brown. He spoke on a small cell phone; he stood five feet from Inner City Press, ten days after his "jerk" comment, and didn't say a word. Just outside the mission, Inner City Press asked Under Secretary General Ocampo questions about Guido Bertucci - is he staying?

"How can I say?" Ocampo said, in Spanish.

"Who makes the decision?"

"You're right that I do. But so far I haven't seen any serious accusations," Ocampo said.

After mentioning some, Inner City Press asked Ocampo to comment on rumors that the Chinese want DESA. "There are many rumors about posts," Ocampo answered. One of the rumor, heard from a spiny source at the reception, is that Bertucci is in line for a promotion, and that some are still committed to this. We'll see.

[Note: After having announced that Kemal Dervis would appear for UNDP on December 18, that's now switched to Number Two Ad Melkert on December 15, followed by Dervis (it is said) on the 21st. Well see.]

Back in the Secretariat Building, in the third floor Ex-Press Bar, the holiday party of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations was just getting into the swing. Earlier Messrs. Guehenno and Annabi, along with Jane Holl Lute, had danced in a circle. As the evening wore on, the crowd got younger and the music more Latin. Disco lights played along the ceiling. "It's the best party of the year," a number of people said. Although Security and General Assembly Affairs both begged to differ. Tomorrow will tell.

At 10:45 p.m., Inner City Press ran into Jean-Marie Guehenno, who graciously answered a few questions. As to whether he might stay on as head of Peacekeeping, he said, "Ask Ban Ki-moon." Later a staffer noted that DPKO is more complicated, and has more personnel, than nearly any other agency. A precipitous change would not serve the war zone. Others opine that France may have been the mysterious "no opinion" vote during the straw polls, to indicate this is a post they want to keep. Mr. Guehenno candidly confirmed the substance of another story on which Inner City Press is working. Watch this site.

At UNDP, Flighty Rhetoric Founders in Mismanagement, MMB's Net, a Genocidaire and Whither ECOSOC

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN, 12th in a series Intro followed by 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th

UNITED NATIONS, December 13 -- As the Annan-to-Ban transition picks up stream, it may be useful to examine the UN Development Program as an example of the UN's actions not living up to its flighty rhetoric, something Ban Ki-moon has said as his time grows closer.

For the vanity press version of the dream of UNDP under Mark Malloch Brown and now Kemal Dervis, we'll turn to the book on which Mr. Malloch Brown spent $567,000 of UNDP's money, meant to serve the poor. "UNDP: A Better Way?" contains lines like, "it is hard to overstress the commitment to democratic change found at all levels within UNDP." So far this series has consciously tilted toward telling the stories of non-high officials, of employees harassed by heads of departments, of Resident Representatives fired by the head of UNDP's Office of Human Resources, whose own sudden re-assignment on November 29 launched this narrative thread. In today's twelfth installment we'll examine how even at relatively high-level lateral hiring, UNDP misrepresents the situations recruited for, and wastes well-meaning executives' talents.

UNDP's $567,000 production, "A Better Way?" states, at 320, that

"In mid-2001 Malloch Brown made the case for the centrality of ICT [Information and Communications Technology] to UNDP's work, arguing that democracy could only be sustained with 'strong, accountable institutions, a culture of participation and democratic respect and openness.' He pointed to the Internet's promise 'from being a platform for a new investigative media to increasing direct participation,'" citing an over 500-page work entitled "Mark Malloch Brown at the United Nations Development Programme," at 254.

Forget for a moment the irony of these statements about openness and accountability (when UNDP lags even other UN agencies in these) and about "new investigative media," most recently called "irresponsible" by Mr. Malloch Brown. Ignore if you can the Gore-like jargon of Internet invention and innovation, and the self-commissioned histories. Rather, beneath the above-quoted hagiography, consider a different telling of the tale, from inside the unit UNDP established to purportedly carry out this grand vision.

Since UNDP refuses to provide copies of already-completed investigative audits and has told Inner City Press that it "will no longer be responding to unsubstantiated allegations about UNDP's recruitment and personnel practices," Inner City Press has drilled deeper into the Malloch Brown-era practice of Information and Communications Technology for Development practice area -- and has been told, by those who'd know, that the director was a drunk. A replacement was recruited, but then after moving to New York was told to share an office with the drunk man she replaced. He was finally seconded to the International Telegraphic Union, ITU. His replacement was assigned a mentor, Stephen Browne, who decided not to be a mentor but rather to be the boss. Then in this account, UNDP-er and now big man in the Secretariat Carlos Lopes washed his hands of the problem, as did then-head of Human Resources Brian Gleeson, who has since, quite suddenly, been re-assigned from his previous job as head of the Office of Human Resources.

The so-called ICT practice lurched on, under Raul Zambrano, bumbling into such projects as open source software for Uzbekistan's Karimov regime, which in fact blocks access to most independent journalism sites. Others in the UN System have concluded that Karimov's government is engaged in systemic torture. UNDP provides the software to keep track of it up. And so the BDP unit has become known as Beyond a Disfunctional Place.

Not paid $567,000 - UN book signing by James Traub, see below

The recruited but by-now-misused person next told the Secretariat's Office of the Spokesman that she'd like to be involved in UN reform. He said he'd call Brian Gleeson. Which he did, but Brian Gleeson talked trash, saying she was not one-of-us, not right for the project. As in the case of Eritrean Omar Bakhet (see 11th installment, of December 12, for more), Mr. Gleeson provided far less due process than his allies and protectors, including the current Deputy Secretary General, are demanding for him now.

The issue of UNDP and due process, for a genocidaire in Rwanda, came up at the Secretary-General's spokesman's noon briefing, both Tuesday and Wednesday. From the transcript:

"And lastly, I think, Matthew, it was you yesterday that asked me about the case of Callixte Mbarushimana, who you may recall is the former UN staffer whose contract had not been renewed in 2001 following allegations relating to activities undertaken during the Rwandan genocide. In July of this year, the UN Administrative Tribunal upheld its original decision in favor of Mr Mbarushimana's demand for compensation, resulting from the non-extension of his contract with UNMIK... the Secretariat has no choice but to pay Mr. Mbarushimana the one-year salary he had requested. The Secretary-General had withheld compensation pending this very unusual appeal and was also pending any possible legal action for alleged crimes against humanity being taken against Mr. Mbarushimana by either the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, or judicial authorities in France, where he currently resides. The Secretary-General has now been forced by our justice system to make this very unfortunate settlement."

American Public Radio has reported that while

"Mbarushimana recounts braving militia barricades to help deliver food, water and money to his colleagues at United Nations Development Program (UNDP) who were trapped by the violence....Survivors and former U.N. colleagues also say Mbarushimana offered army officers and militia leaders technical assistance that made the killing even more efficient: U.N. vehicles, satellite phones and personnel files of some U.N. workers suspected of sympathizing with Tutsis... They also say the U.N.'s failure to promptly pursue allegations against Mbarushimana allowed him to keep working off-and-on for the organization for nearly ten years after the genocide."

Wednesday the spokesman expressed the Secretariat's heavy heart in paying out this money. Inner City Press asked, "But what could UNDP have done to take action sooner on Callixte Mburushimana, or to make sure this doesn't happen again?"

"There is nothing much more I can say at this point," the spokesman answered. He has seven briefing to go, he has said. He has asked that UNDP questions not be raised, other than at the time Kemal Dervis has been promised, December 18. Perhaps the new Secretary-General can better answer for the UNDP part of the UN System.

Inner City Press on Wednesday asked James Traub, author of the recent book about Kofi Annan, "The Best of Intentions," for reaction to UNDP paying $567,000 for a book about itself. "What?" Mr. Traub asked. "They couldn't have paid that. That makes no sense." Even after the costs were put in the light most favorable to UNDP, Mr. Traub said that clearly, "it's not a commercial project," adding that while he was given access, the UN didn't pay him and thus had no control. So is the cost differential between S-G and DSG a full half a million dollars? And if the S-G takes questions on December 19 before he leaves, when will the DSG take questions?

Earlier on Wednesday Ambassador Ali Hachani of Tunisia, the president of the UN's Economic and Social Council, was asked if ECOSOC plays in any role in reviewing the hiring of personnel of the UN Millennium Project into the UN Development Program, which UNDP staff say is happening in violation of UN and UNDP rules. Video here, from Minute 12:15. A long answer was given, replete to reference to more action and less talk, but it still appears that no one is overseeing this UNDP process. Ban Ki-moon gets pre-sworn in on Thursday morning...

The UN Development Program Is Important For The Poor, It Therefore Must Be Made Transparent

Tenth Installment in Inner City Press' Ongoing UNDP Series, Reported by Matthew Russell Lee: Intro followed by second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth

UNITED NATIONS, December 10 -- The UN Development Program, a $5 billion agency whose Administrator Kemal Dervis has not held a press conference in UN Headquarters for over 14 months, on December 8 issued a press release attacking Inner City Press by name. The same day, UNDP informed Inner City Press that it would no longer respond to any requests for comments about seeming violations of UN recruitment, hiring and promotion rules, and that it does not disclose to the press or to the public its internal audits.

Given that it appears, at least for the short term, that UNDP will not be providing even this basic information, despite its status as an international agency funded by the publics of member states, Inner City Press has decided to recapitulate the reasons that it began this series about UNDP on November 29, and why it will continue. This brief overview inevitably may mention UNDP's press release. But since UNDP did not contact Inner City Press for comment before distributing its press release, and only provided the subject of its statement with a copy six hours after it was released.

UNDP's Kemal Dervis, at left - holding secret audits?

UNDP has an important role, including enabling development to benefit poor people. It is therefore important that UNDP be transparent, both in its finances and its hiring and promotion practices. UNDP often preaches to the governments of developing countries that they must become more transparent. For example, only last week Neil Buhne, UNPD's representative in Bulgaria and previously Belarus, preached in Sofia on the topic of transparent administrative services, saying that a lack of transparency can intensity existing inequalities. But this preaching must be applied all the more to UNDP itself. It is particularly inappropriate for UNDP to now say that it will not release its audits of its spending, nor comment on seeming violations of its own stated rules against cronyism and sham competition in hiring and promotion.

There are many, many serious and well-meaning people within UNDP. Some of them clearly see a need for improvements in how UNDP is run, and feel the threat of retaliation if they make their views known in a way in which their supervisors and other high UNDP officials could identify them. For this reason, Inner City Press has been willing where necessary to use anonymous sources in the course of this series. Inner City Press follows accepted rules of journalism, explaining the reasons for which a source has requested anonymity. As one employee said, "You will not get any on the record sources on this story. But everyone in this workplace knows this is true."

This last quote was concerned widely-alleged sexual harassment by an individual whom UNDP selected to head up its entire Europe and CIS States operation. It is time, then, to explain why Inner City Press in this series has at time mentioned sexual harassment. While this has provided a pretext for UNDP's Communications Office, and also former UNDP Administrator, to try to portray the entire series as salacious and as a violation of privacy, this aspect of harassment is integral to the story. First, the incidents took place in the workplace. But also, the fact that the incidents were allow to go on for so long, due to connections to high officials of the UN and rich UN supporters, shows inappropriate favoritism and lawlessness within this organization which so impacts the world's poor.

A UN source generally respected by Inner City Press has explained that the UN is "like a village," leading to upset at overly-personal investigative reporting. This village analogy seems apt, not only among the press corps and members of Security Council members' missions, but among the UN staff as a whole, for example in the Headquarters cafeteria, or during this past summer's World Cup. There is another aspect, though: some of the UN, particularly UNDP, is like a *feudal* village, in which a small group and some courtiers who feel they are protected are left outside of otherwise-applicable rules, and bristle if this is ever reported.

To do such reporting, one must be in the village, but not entirely of it. UNDP has asked Inner City Press, "Who is telling you these things?" But Inner City Press will not sell out its sources. UNDP has demanded to speak with editors or, it would seem, corporate owners amenable to pressure. It is a dynamic well sketched by one of the paragon American journalists, I.F. Stone, and it is not a demand to which Inner City Press will acquiesce.

UNDP, even after declaring that is will not respond to questions about seeming violations of applicable rules on hiring and promotion, has sent Inner City Press a ludicrous list of supposedly required corrections. These include demands that a headline, "UNDP Spent $567,000 on a Book to Praise Itself," be modified since it is UNDP's position that despite the payments, the book is a work of independent scholarship. Perhaps UNDP deserves this repetition of the argument. But reasonable minds can and do disagree with UNDP.

We have waited to the near-end of this column to sketch the history and motives of Inner City Press. First, Inner City Press has long reported on and been immersed in community development efforts. Among other things, Inner City Press has investigated and reported on redlining by banks: their failure to lend fairly to low income people. In connection with this reporting, Inner City Press vindicated the rights to information of the wider press corps, for example in a Freedom of Information Act win in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, reported in the New York Times earlier this year. Click here for a more detailed write-up by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Inner City Press' investigative series on Citigroup, which like this series included reporting on the nitty-gritty of employment practices, resulted in Citigroup being held accountable to its overseer, the Federal Reserve Board, which imposed a fine of $75 million and required detailed reforms. But where are the overseers of UNDP?

In its UN reporting, Inner City Press most often focuses on human rights. In fact, Inner City Press' first stories on UNDP involved the agency's funding of disarmament programs in Uganda, where civilians have ended up killed in the name of disarmament, as now confirmed by the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights. UNDP's Communications Office repeatedly misstated and tried to downplay UNDP's enabling of the Ugandan People's Defense Forces' disarmament programs, and despite having quietly announced a suspension of funding in June, has most recently reverted to entire denial. The issue will continue to be pursued so that it is not repeated.

To avoid any misunderstanding, which some have tried to cause, that Inner City Press is part of the so-called vast right wing conspiracy, we simply state that Inner City Press has most often be placed in the public record on the left wing side of the equation. That does not mean that lack of transparency and lack of accountability in programs to benefit to the poor should be excused -- in fact, quite the contrary, in fact. That is the motive and justification for this ongoing series.

Some have asked, why UNDP and not (yet) other UN agencies. Only a few months ago, Inner City Press inquired closely into the process for selecting Josette Sheeran Shiner as the new head of the World Food Program. But the range of issues at UNDP, from a lack of oversight on disarmament programs it funded in Uganda, to allowing its head of European and CIS states to run wild (to choose only two examples), may indicate that UNDP's amorphous mandate combined with a lack of transparency and of independent press coverage have resulted a fiefdom whose only response to questions is to attack the questioner. How UNDP's December 8 press release comports with the UN System's exhortations for journalistic freedom, or with UNDP's own purported attempts to encourage governments in the developing world to allow for media independence, remains to be seen.

Since we cannot resist further reporting, we feel that the following UNDP staff email, the identity of whose sender we will protect due to fear of retaliation, may show why we use anonymous sources and why UNDP's arbitrary employment practices are a legitimate journalistic subject. This extended quote precisely illustrated the reality of UNDP conduct in connection with the Millennium Development Goals project.

Dear Matthew, thanks for your recent coverage of UNDP HR policies. I would like to reconfirm your information regarding the integration of the Millennium Project (MP) in UNDP Bureau for Development Policy Poverty Group, directed by Nora Lustig.

The evidence gathered in the adopted project document regarding Dr. Sachs' remuneration shows that over 200,000 US Dollars are supposed to cover his services. I believe you already have this document in your possession.

The problems associated with the Millennium Project's integration go far beyond Dr. Sachs' charity fees. Ms. Chandrika Bahadur and M. Guido Schmidt-Traub, who have been working for the MP over the last years have benefited from the different breaches of procedures during the merger. Their "new" positions with UNDP have only been advertised for a week on a limited basis. There has not been a formal panel interview process but a mere "desk review" of the different candidates. Following that fast-track process, MM. Melkert and Gleeson recommended the appointment of Ms. Bahadur and M. Schmidt-Traub as policy advisors and, for the latter, head of the MDG support team. While both candidates show limited professional and managerial experience, they have furthermore benefited from promotions that are not linked with their background. Ms. Bahadur has been hired as P4 though she does not have the minimum professional required for that level (7 years). M Schmidt Traub has been appointed as P5 and head of MDG support team though he has very limited managerial experience (this position involves managing a team of 25 professional staff) no background in economics or development (M. Schmidt Traub has a degree in Chemistry).... At the junior level, some Research Associate staff do not even have master's degrees, which is mandatory to be considered even for an internship.

Following growing tensions among UNDP staff, M. Melkert, UNDP Associate Administrator, met the extended Poverty group team on December 1. He took full responsibility for the decisions made regarding the merger between the MP and the Poverty Group, including HR management decisions. The Associate Administrator considers that it is the role of UNDP's top management to make strategic decisions, including breaking UNDP HR policies in the name of necessity and higher interests. This approach is not acceptable within an international organization accountable to member countries and publicly funded.

Hopefully member states will take the opportunity of UNDP Executive Board meeting to ask UNDP Senior management for clarification on these matters."

We share that final hope, and trust that this series will play some small role in cleaning up UNDP, for the benefit of the poor. And so this series will continue.

Here is / was UNDP's position on the above-described:

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,

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.... 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.

and then

In a message dated 12/8/2006 7:14:39 PM Eastern Standard Time, cassandra.waldon@undp.org writes:

Dear Matthew,

UNDP is working to address the numerous questions you have asked us. As many of your concerns touch upon similar kinds of issues we thought it might be helpful if we were to state, for the record:

--That we will no longer be responding to unsubstantiated allegations about UNDP�s recruitment and personnel practices. We urge you to desist from publishing such allegations...

--That we do not release the reports of our internal audits and investigations. The results of these reports are communicated on an annual basis to the UNDP Executive Board in the form of an annual Administrator�s report on Internal Audit and Oversight...

In this, UNDP lags behind even the rest of the UN System. Compare to Secretariat's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), under General Assembly Resolution 59/272 of December 23, 2004:

-- OIOS provides a summary of all of its reports to all member states as well as the general public in its annual reports; whereas UNDP only provides a summary of its reports to the limited membership of its executive board (with not even summaries provided to the general public).

-- OIOS makes some reports available as public documents; UNDP makes no reports available to the general public.

-- OIOS makes all non-public reports available to all member states at their request; UNDP makes only summaries (and not the full text of reports) available to only 36 out of 192 member states.

This is not to say that the UN Secretariat is transparent enough -- rather, that UNDP is even less transparency, despite its $5 billion a year budget. Developing.

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

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