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As UNOPS Wants New Posts, Hides
Procurement Audit and Mattsson's Disclosure
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
January 19 -- With the world and UN
in a financial crisis, an obscure operations arm of the UN, the Office
of
Project Services (UNOPS) has proposed new Assistant Secretary General
and
Director-level posts, drawing a rebuke and adverse recommendation by
the UN
Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Matters. Click here
for that.
But
apparently that
won't matter: sources say that UNOPS Executive Director Jan Mattsson
wants the
new posts to dole out to gain political favor, including perhaps the
top
position at the UN Development Program, being vacated by Kemal Dervis.
The fix
may be in with Ban Ki-moon as well. In preparation is a Secretary
General's
Bulletin which would give Mattsson even more autonomy on personnel
matters. It should be noted that Mattsson has not even followed
Ban's call to make basic public financial disclosure - click here
for Mattsson's refusal.
Monday at
the UN, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesperson Michele Montas if the
Secretariat thinks it's appropriate for UNOPS to create these new high
level
posts, and if so why. Montas did not directly answer, saying instead
that
"UNDP has its own governing board... They will discuss and reach
decisions." Video here,
from Minute 15:03.
But Ban is
at the top of the system, and said he would reform it. Instead, he has
allowed
and even encouraged wasteful fiefdoms. He claims he has no power, while
quietly
preparing a Bulletin to belatedly make that the fact.
UNOPS' Mattsson in Liberia, at right,
financial disclosure not shown
Internal
sources, beyond telling Inner City Press that "obviously, this
generosity
to all UNOPS directors are caused by the need for the ED and Deputy ED [Vitaly
Vanshelboim] to have many D2s reporting to them so that
they could justify the
upgrade of themselves" is "a slap in the face to the common UNOPS
staff who have borne cuts and dismissal for some time," tell of a
damning
audit of UNOPS performed as one of the final acts of the UN Procurement
Task
Force.
A source tells Inner City Press
that "a copy of the report was recently given to
Mattsson
- as I understood, that is the only current distribution. Member states
may
possibly be able to request a copy - eventually. The cost of the
investigation
was several $100 thousand (probably between $0.5 and 1 million) which
will be
charged to the troubled agency."
UNOPS has
already been embroiled in corruption scandals, including firing whistleblowers
at its Dubai hub and soliciting and spending a slush fund in
connection with
its shift of
jobs from New York to Copenhagen, along with irregularities in the
use of Daily Sustenance Allowance. Since Mattsson
refuses financial disclosure, would his Deputy Vitaly
Vanshelboim be expect to disclose, if given a promotion
to Assistant Secretary General?
Most
recently, reports from
Afghanistan indicate UNOPS involvement in a European-funded hospital
that never
in fact was built as described. UNOPS stonewalls the press. In fact,
its web
site does not include contact information for any spokesperson. The
UNOPS website brags that it has apppointed its own Ethics Office to
protect whistleblower from retailiation, but does not provide contact
information for or even the name of the supposed Ethics Officer.
Inner City
Press is told of, within UNOPS, a "scadalous violation of employee
rights,
which makes a mockery of the internal justice system." More on this
anon.
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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USA
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Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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