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UN Puts Convicted Korean Businessman on Global
Compact Board, Dismisses Complaints
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
April 8 -- As the UN Global Compact
hits its tenth anniversary, questions are mounting about its complaint
resolution mechanism, its seeming pro-business slant, even its board of
directors. On March 11, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named as one of
six new
board members a South Korean businessman, Chey Tae-won of the SK Group,
who was
convicted of fraud in 2003.
Inner City
Press on April 8 asked the director of the Global Compact, Georg Kell,
why in
the world of CEOs one convicted for fraud would be selected for the
board of an
entity ostensibly espousing integrity. Kell acknowledged the criminal
conviction but said that the Compact is "not a white knight," that one
can "learn from mistakes," and that Chey Tae-won's inclusion by Ban
Ki-moon onto the board of the Global Compact is "very fitting." Video
here,
from Minute 49:47.
In 2003
Chey Tae-won, whose SK Group is involved not only in electronics but
also oil
refining, was sentenced to three years in prison after he was "convicted
of inflating the 2001 profit of the conglomerate's trading arm, SK
Global, by
1.5 trillion won ($1.25 billion)." He only served seven
months in jail;
his wife is the daughter of former South Korean president Roh Tae-Woo.
Chey
Tae-won held a Korea
Night event which Ban Ki-moon attended at the most recent
World Economic Forum in Davos. Now
his rehabilitation extends to being named to the UN's
Global Compact board, and being called "a change agent" by its
director. While noting that the the UN's
Compact with business was started under previous Secretary General Kofi
Annan,
the current S-G Ban Ki-moon has embraced the Compact, although he has
yet to
apply his philosophy of mobility -- no more than five years in any one
position
-- to it.
UN's Kell, Ban Ki-moon and advisor Dervis, Chey Tae-won not shown
At
Wednesday's
press conference, Inner City Press asked Kell why the Compact's annual
report
says nothing about the 56 complaints against member companies the
Compact has
acknowledged receiving. Kell replied that most complaints are "by
disgruntled employees" and "we
are not an arbitrage organization." Video here,
from Minute 53:10.
Inner City Press asked
about the
complaint against the activities in Sudan of PetroChina, which the
Compact has
dismissed and on which Kell replied that there is no news, and against
Deutsche
Bank. Kell said that concerned some "investment in a Central Asian
country" but "we don't know the background." Well, Deutsche Bank
among other things held over $3 billion in natural gas revenues for
Turkmenbashi, the dictator of Turkmenistan. No white knight, indeed.
Who's next for the Global Compact board, asked one wag, Bernie Madoff? To be described as a
change agent learning from mistakes?
Issues
surround the
UN's and Global Compact's involvement in the CEO Water Mandate arose,
but will
be covered in more depth in coming days, as information about the
session in
Istanbul continues to arrive.
Click here
for a new YouTube video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian
deaths
in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
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
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
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[at] innercitypress.com
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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