UNDP
Does Not
Monitor Afghan
Police
Payments, 20
Hours, No
Comment
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive, 2d
in series
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 23 --
Even when give
at least 20
hours to
comment on
its own
internal
audits of its
scandal
plagued Law
and Order
Trust
Fund for
Afghanistan,
the UN
Development
Program
chooses to
attack
the Press
rather than
explain its
waste, fraud
and abuse.
Additional
internal
audit
documents
obtained and
exclusively
published
today by Inner
City Press
show the wider
nature and
longer term
knowledge of
the
problems.
As
noted in the
first
installment of
this series
LOTFA purports
to be about
training
and "building
capacity" of
Afghan police.
But it is
essentially a
money transfer
and payroll
service, with
a sideline as
a travel
agency.
But
even its
payroll
service is
mismanaged.
Sample "Observation
# 1"
says auditors
"observed
that
no or a
limited review
and monitoring
is being
carried out by
UNDP LOTFA
Project over
this process
from inception
to final
payment
to the police
force."
Under
the heading
"impact or
risk," the
auditors state
the obvious:
"Non-monitoring
of
Government
disbursement
may have the
following
impacts/risks...
Funds may be
utilized for
purposes/activities
other than the
project
objectives."
Ya
don't say.
And
what could
those other
activities be?
As exclusively
reported
yesterday,
Sample
"Observation #
8" which
is the first
of the LOTFA
documents
Inner City
Press is
exclusively
putting online
says auditors
"were not
provided
copies of bank
transfer
letters" for
"MoI Chartered
Flight Kabul -
Turkey,"
costing
$459,100.
As
well as
re-submitting
the first
round of
questions late
on June 22,
Inner City
Press
requested
comment on
this and two
other audits,
and asked UNDP
to state:
1)
WHY
Manoj Basnyat
is no longer
the country
director --
did this have
ANYTHING to do
with the LOTFA
irregularities?
2)
the
date on which
each of
Basnyet,
Sandeep Kumar
and Ubadallah
Sahibzada
became aware
of the
irregularities
and of the
attached
audits.
Thanks, on
deadline.
Twenty
hours later,
rather than
answer a
single
question or
comment on any
of the audits,
UNDP's
Abdel-Rahman
Ghandour
responded that
the first
round of
questions had
ended up in
UNDP's spam
folder. But
obviously the
questions
above hadn't.
And still
there have
been no
answers.
Since
this is a
series, UNDP
is invited to
provide
comment for
the next
installment.
There are many
audits, many
questions and
many problems.
So far Inner
City Press has
published two
audits, and
UNDP has no
commented on
or
explained
either. What
are UNDP's
responses to
audit
observations 3
and 7 on
double payment
of salaries?
Watch this
site.
, 
