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UNDP Admits Herfkens Broke Rules,
Dodges on Currency Exchange Losses
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, September 4 --
Poverty was the subject of a September 4 press conference at the UN,
featuring
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN Development Program Associate
Administrator
Ad Melkert. Ban left before any questions could be asked. When Inner
City Press
asked Melkert about the scandal of the UN Millennium Campaign director Eveline
Herfkens refusing to return any of the $280,000 she wrongfully took
from the
Dutch government while ostensibly working only for the UN, Ban's
Spokesperson
cut in and said that, first, other "substantive questions" would be
taken.
While the director of the UN's anti-poverty campaign taking money for
luxury housing in violation of UN rules seems substantive, Inner City
Press
also asked if the UN study being launched took into account aid and
barter
flows from non-Western countries. Not really, the study's author Robert
Vos answered.
He said that in the future the UN's Economic and Social Council will
better
coordinate review of these flows. Video here,
from Minute 12:10.
On another issue that UNDP has been delaying
answering on, the loss of
aid and development funds to government-dictated currency exchange
schemes as
exposed
and admitted
in Myanmar, Melkert said would be discussed at the upcoming
UNDP Executive Board meeting and, if the Board votes for UNDP to return
to
North Korea, will be a "point of departure for any further dialogue
with
North Korea." Video here,
from Minute 32:10.
Ban Ki-moon, Rob Vos and Ad Melkert, answers on
For-Ex not shown
UNDP left North Korea after a
whistleblower
who was its operations manager in the country complained of financial
irregularities. Recently, the UN Ethics Office recommended that UNDP
pay the
whistleblower back-salary for having violated his due process rights.
Inner
City Press asked Melkert if UNDP is going to follow the UN Ethics
Office's
recommendation. Melkert said, reading from notes, that the individual
has
initiated a proceeding with the UN's internal justice system and "we
are
waiting from that outcome to make a decision." Video here,
from Minute 31.
Inner City Press
asked, so the UN Ethics Office recommendation does not have to be followed, or even considered, until this other
process is finished? "No I don't think I said that," Melkert replied,
insisting he'd referred to "due UN process." But it is precisely a
violation of due process found by the UN Ethics Office that led to the
recommendation that back-salary be paid.
It is alleged by sources who've been close to UNDP's
North Korea
operation that UNDP is moving to reopen the office and program even
before the
Executive Board considers it. Inner City
Press asked UNDP Spokesman Stephane Dujarric about these allegation and
Mr.
Dujarric replied
"There
is absolutely no truth to the reports regarding Mr. Bhatia's presence
in the
DPRK or other purported UNDP activities in that country. Vineet Bhatia
has been
in New York since December 2007, and there are no plans for UNDP to
return to
the DPRK without an explicit green-light from our Executive Board."
There is circulating, however, a print out from
UNDP's computer system
of UNDP staff apparently already in North Korea. We'll have more on
this.
Finally, at the tail-end of the press conference,
Melkert purported to
respond about Eveline Herfkens, and whether her UNDP-accepted offer to
work for
one dollar a year -- plus UN Daily Subsistence Allowance of over $300 a
day --
makes up for not returning the $280,000 that she wrongfully took. Video
here,
from Minute 44:53.
While Melkert admitted that the payments "did not
comply with UN
rules," he called the violations "unwitting" and said that
whether she should return the money is between her and the Dutch
government. He
offered to translate for Inner City Press a letter from the Dutch
Minister of
Foreign Affairs, who has said that he didn't think a court case could
be won
against Ms. Herfkens. Inner City Press asked about a quote
from a
Liberal Member of Parliament that "the man in the street who gets too
much
subsidy has to pay back every cent with interest." Melkert declined to
comment on that. The press conference ended with another reporter
asking UNDP
doesn't have Ms. Herfkens repay the money to the poor. Melker
said, "I cannot speak on
that." Video here
from Minute 47:15.
Watch
this
site. And this (on
South Ossetia),
this, on
Russia-Georgia,
and
this --
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