At UN
in Beirut, Dueling Charges of Job-Trading and
Tax-Evasion, the Burden of
Mervat Tallawy, Retaliation from Below
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 19, edited 3:20 pm -- "Institutions are more
important than individuals, anyway."
This was
the first response Inner City Press received to a set of detailed questions about
job-trading and abuse of United Nations' funding at the top echelon of the UN's
Economic and Social Commission for Western
Asia. The questions, reproduced below, were sent Sunday to the executive secretary of ESCWA, Mrs. Mervat Tallawy, and also to Jan Beagle
of UN Headquarters human resources and to the chairman of the Economic and
Social Council, ECOSOC.
In
response, the chief of UN Regional Commissions, Kazi Afzalur Rahman, telephoned
Inner City Press and on Monday afternoon granted a 25-minute interview. He did not deny even one of
the detailed allegations. Rather he presented a two-page set of "Talking Points"
that he said Mrs. Tallaway had faxed to him in New York as a response to Inner
City Press' questions. "She is highly respected," Mr. Rahman said.
"Yes, but where are the answers to the
questions?"
"She is a very important figure," Mr.
Rahman said.
This, then, began as a story about
questions and lack of answers, or the presumption by some in the UN that no
answers are needed, or that not answering will make a story go away.
The story evolved when, on Tuesday afternoon, Mrs. Tallawy called Inner City
Press for another thirty minute interview in which she answered some twelve of
the questions, and made counter-charges against her staff. At Inner City Press,
we do not believe in sweeping things under the rug, about important public
institutions -- but we do believe in telling both sides of a story, and more.
As the administration of Kofi Annan and
Mark Malloch Brown winds down at the UN, information pours in about waste, fraud
and abuse, as well as favoritism, disfunction and corruption.
While some is due to a momentary decrease in fear of
retaliation, as those at the top no longer have power or focus to stop the
leaks, Mrs. Tallawy points out that vengeful staff take the transition as a time
to get even -- a sort of retaliation from below. (Mrs. Tallawy did not use this
line, we don't want to mischaracterize her defense, thus we'll accept credit for
the phrase.)
For more than two
weeks, Inner City Press has run a series about the UN Development Program, on
issues ranging from the theft of money for UNDP's
Moscow office to
sexual harassment in
New York and contracting fraud
in Vietnam. In
today's report we turn to another UN agency, the
Beirut-based Economic and Social Commission for
Western Asia which is known by the acronym ESCWA (pronounced ess-kwa or as some
say the lawyer's suffix) and its executive secretary, Ms.
Mervat Tallawy.
This story, we'll first let be told by sources in Beirut, followed by Mrs.
Tallawy's responses, where available, and counter-charges, where applicable.
This will be followed by some of what Mrs. Tallawy presents as her and her
office's positive work, in keeping with Kofi Annan's call, at his Dec. 19 press
conference and in response to a question from Inner City Press, for a rooting
out of bad apples combined with praise for what is right.
Subject:
Mervat Tallawy, Executive Secretary of ESCWA based in Beirut.
From: [Name
withheld due to stated fear of retaliation]
To: editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
Sent: December
2006
Mervat Tallawy (MT) is, you better
believe it, another abuser of authority among the upper management members,
[ask]
Jan Beagle:
- Mervat
Tallawy has recruited and kept for under two years
Faroug Idris (who was fired from FAO in Iraq where he worked under another
name), the nephew of Kamal Idris (another player), the Director General of WIPO.
And guess what, MT's daughter (who by the way works for the UN) Cherine Rahmy,
who could not get promoted to P-3 in UNOV, suddenly gets a P-4 in WIPO. Rahmy
stayed less then a year in WIPO when Mummy finally found a way to get her a P-4
in UNOV where she still is. Few months after Rahmy's return to Vienna, Mr.
Idris's contract was not renewed.
- Mervat
Tallawy uses a UN vehicle from private purposes with
no reimbursement (ever) to the UN. The car is driven by her, her daughter, her
driver, her bodyguard for private errands.
- Mervat
Tallawy was accused by OIOS that her management style
is colliding with most of UN principles, the investigation ended in her accusing
a D-1 auditor of lying.
- Mervat
Tallawy has three cases at the Administrative
Tribunal that will end up in over one million US dollar payments to the harassed
staff, but of course MT will be out of the system due to the speed of the
Administrative Tribunal. There are around five more cases in the Joint Appeals
Board.
-MT has heard
from no one else than Annan that Kuwait has recommended Miriam Awadhy the
then-Deputy to MT as a candidate for MT's post. This happened because rumors
were going on that MT will not be extended. Once KA extended MT's contract in
the last minute, MT came back to Beirut and started the deconstruction of Awadhy.
MT did not recommend Awadhy's contract without proper justification. Jan
Beagle's predecessor came to a Solomonic solution, to send Awadhy 8 months to
New York, to DESA on daily allowance (additional cost in tens of thousands of
dollars) so that Mervat Tallawy does not come
eye to eye with her!
-Mervat
Tallawy is a cruel and paranoid but a part of the
blame goes to the SG's office, Iqbal Riza and Malloch Brown, Jan Beagle and her
predecessor. These people just cannot say no to Mervat Tallawy...
-MT has left,
abandoned her staff for 24 hours during the latest war in Lebanon, to driver her
grandchildren to Damascus, board them on a plane and only then came back. This
delay delayed the evacuation of the staff that had to be evacuated in the worst
buses due to the delay.
As Inner City Press
on Monday told Kazi Afzalur Rahman, the
chief of UN Regional Commissions who came to answer questions, the above is not
and was never taken at face value. However, due to the level of detail it gave rise to
questions, which were not sufficiently answered by Monday's repeated reference to that
Mervat Tallawy
is "a very important figure." Research found that Mrs. Tallawy's response
in-region to the critical OIOS report was to call the report purely technical
and to claim that only the UN General Assembly could discuss it.
While
ESCWA, like UNDP and other some agencies, has until recently escaped much
scrutiny,
WIPO's name has come up in previous UN
investigations. The questions,
or whether they were worth formally posing, were first run by a range of UN
sources, many of them reflexively pro-UN. Even these indicated they'd heard of
problems within ESCWA; some used a striking phrase with regard to Ms. Tallawy,
"She's been out of control." This from people with no discernable axe
to grind with Mrs. Tallawy or ESCWA.
Photo
from Beirut, circulated in NY, then sign gone
Inner City Press sent questions based on
the above on December 17 to tallawy [at] un.org, to UN Human Resources' Jan Beagle, and to the
Tunisian chairman of ECOSOC, which oversees ESCWA. Only last week, the ECOSOC
chairman told Inner City Press, on camera, that he had received a previous
request for information, about lobbying by the official U.S. candidate to head
the World Food Program, but had not responded because, after days or weeks or
delay, it was "too late." And by the afternoon of December 19, there
has been no response, or even confirmation of receipt, from ECOSOC.
Inner City Press re-sent the questions,
into which Mrs. Tallawy's response, in a telephone conversation on December 19,
are noted in italics:
Hello. The
questions below were sent yesterday to tallawy [at] un.org, and now to you in
spokesperson capacity. We are sending to you at deadline, need answers asap concerning
the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and its executive
secretary Mervat Tallawy (MT)
Q: Are you
aware if Mervat Tallawy uses a UN vehicle from private purposes with
insufficient reimbursement to the UN?
Response: Mrs. Tallawy
states that while she used the UN vehicle to drive family members to the border
of Syria, "three days into the war" this past summer. Other than that, she
states that she only uses the UN vehicle to drive from home to work and back
again.
--Did MT
recruit and keep employed for over a year one Faroug Idris?
Response: Mrs. Tallawy
says that the answer is yes.
Is Faroug Idris the nephew of Kamal Idris,
Director General of
WIPO?
Response: Mrs.
Tallawy does not deny this -- but states that it was not Kamal Idris but rather
Jacques Diouf of the Food and Agriculture Organization who requested that she
hire Faroug Idris.
Was Cherine Rahmy, MT's daughter, hired
as a P-4 at
WIPO?
Response: Mrs.
Tallawy does not say this is false. She says that such hiring is normal.
Did Cherine
Rahmy then get a P-4 with the UN in Vienna and, a few months later, was Idris's
contract not renewed?
Response:
Mrs. Tallawy
does not deny this, but again,
states that it was not
Kamal Idris but rather Jacques Diouf of the Food and Agriculture Organization
who requested that she hire Faroug Idris.
Was Faroug
Idris fired from FAO in Iraq when he worked under another name?
Response: Mrs.
Tallawy's response on December 19 was, "I don't know anything about another
name."
Has MT
promoted three staff from G to P category against the rules using loops in the
rules; was one of them her daughter's boyfriend from UNOV, Ahmad Dik.
Response: Mrs. Tallawy
acknowledges the promotions from G to P, stating that the Gs had to resign and
reapply as Ps, which was successful. Yes, she says, Ahmad Dik was one of the
three and yes, he was in Vienna at the same time as her daughter. Mrs. Tallawy
points out that her daugther is now married and has children.
-- Are you
aware if MT was reviewed by OIOS that her management style is colliding with
certain UN principles? Did the investigation end in her accusing a D-1 auditor
of lying?
Response: Mrs. Tallawy
reiterates her characterization of the OIOS review as routine, something done
every two years, and states that the report was discussed in "an open debate" of
the Fifth Committee during this Fall's General Assembly, which took note of OIOS'
findings. Further documents have been promised to Inner City Press.
Does MT have
three cases at the Administrative Tribunal (please describe the case of Miriam
Awadhy), and around five cases at the Join Appeals Board? Please provide all
available information about the "Mehdi" case.
Response: Mrs. Tallawy
states that that Mehdi matter has been settled. "He was a good economist but a
first-time manager, he didn't listen to rules and had problems with his
subordinates. When his contract finished, he was not renewed. There was appeals
and now it has been settled."
Did MT hear
from S-G Kofi Annan that Kuwait recommended Miriam Awadhy, the then-Deputy to
MT, as a candidate for MT's post? Please confirm or deny that once the S-G
extended MT's contract at the last minute, MT did not recommend Awadhy's
contract. Has Awadhy been sent for 8 months to NY, to DESA on daily allowance /
DSA? How much does that cost?
Response: Of Miriam
Awadhy, Mrs. Tallawy states that Ms. Awadhy "is not qualified," but that the
decision was the Secretary-General's, "when he saw the report he took her to New
York to finish her contract."
Has MT filled
middle and higher level professional posts disproportionately with Egyptians?
Has she fired three Chiefs of Administration to now bring an Egyptian who was to
retire on 31 Dec 2006 but was extended six months beyond?
Response: Mrs. Tallawy
states that Jan Beagle of UN Headquarters has spoken to her about geographical
distribution. She has not "fired three Chiefs of Administration" -- the first
"lady took a golden parachute." The second, one Kolov, is now in Geneva, having
gotten a promotion during the evacuation from Lebanon. After that, Mrs. Tallawy
says she "asked Jan Beagle" for a fast hire, who, yes, is Egyptian, but served
in Congo and elsewhere.
Finally, for
now, did MT leave her staff for 24 hours during the latest war in Lebanon, to
drive her grandchildren to Damascus, board them on a plane and only then came
back?
Mrs. Tallawy states
that she used the UN vehicle to drive her two grandsons to the border of Syria,
"three days into the war" this past summer, that it was a four-hour drive, not
the 24 hour figure cited.
The above italicized twelve responses were provided by telephone on Tuesday
afternoon by Mrs. Tallawy. The first response is described below.
On Monday, Inner City Press called Jan
Beagle, and left a detailed message with her secretary, about the questions that
had been emailed and that a response was being requested. The same was
reiterated to UN spokespeople in Beirut and New York.
Monday Inner City Press received a phone
message from Kazi Rahman. Inner City Press returned the call, but was told that
Mr. Rahman was in a meeting. After four p.m., Mr. Rahman called back and offered
to come meet Inner City Press at the Security Council stakeout, where reporters
were waiting to question Serge Brammertz about his investigation into Hariri's
and others' murders in Lebanon. Upon his arrival, Inner City Press accompanied
Mr. Rahman to the UN Delegates' Lounge. Over 25 minutes, Mr. Rahman spoke about
ESCWA without denying a single one of the questions. He veered from flattering
Inner City Press ("you are operating at the global level") to indirectly
warning, "She is a very important figure." He said, "Each Commission reflects
its region, including the state of unity or divisiveness... Not every region has
the same character."
He acknowledged that his response, such
as it was, was to the questions sent to Ms. Tallawy and said, "I got feedback
from Human Resources here" in New York. Inner City Press reminded me of the
recent New York story about politician Alan Hevesi, who misused his governmental
car. When the question was asked, he had an answer, and a reason; to say, "I
have accomplished a lot for New York" would not have been enough.
Mr. Rahman had with him a green folder.
Midway through the interview announced that Mrs. Tallawy "has raised ten to
twelve million dollars for Iraq, eight million of it from UNDP," the UN
Development Program. When Inner City Press asked for further specifics, Mr.
Rahman opened the green file and pulled out a three page document. He tore off
the cover page and handed Inner City Press two pages, headed "Talking Points -
The Achievements of ESCA (2002-present)."
"She faxed me these," Mr. Rahman said.
"Instead of going over them, I will just give them to you."
The fax line read "18-DEC '06 (MON)
18:24 UN ESCWA." Within the talking points, no Iraq project is mentioned.
Rather, there are generalizations such as:
"Through the
efficient management of the programme, and decisive, yet sensitive, human
resource management practices, ESCWA's image within the UN system and with its
stakeholders improved tremendously. Today, ESCWA and its staff comment the
respect of sister UN agencies, and its services are highly sought by member
states... ESCWA has successfully coordinated the activities of the Regional
Coordination Group (RCG), particularly in the monitoring of the MDGs... ESCWA
also received a commendation form the high level panel of the UN 21 Awards for
excellence."
Last week Inner City Press
covered the UN 21 Awards ceremony and Mark Malloch Brown's speech at the
ceremony. But what does it say about the UN that detailed questions are
responded to with a sidestepping set of talking points, and that this has been
allowed to go on for so long? To be fair to ESCWA, its work is
self-described on its Web site.
To be fair to Mr. Rahman, he was previously a diplomatic from Bangladesh, who
served on the
Executive Board of the UN Development
Program. To be fair to Mrs.
Mervat Tallawy, as she told Inner City Press on Tuesday, she has worked in
public affairs for forty years. "Read what the Washington Post wrote about me in
1995," she said, referencing both Beijing and population conferences.
As to her work at ESCWA, Mrs. Tallawy emphasizes that for the staff she has
established a nursery, a gym, and changed the location of the cafeteria. She
focuses on a particular staffer whom she says tried to import a second car into
Lebanon without paying taxes, along with providing false or front ownership for
the car, an issue that still resonates, even in its silence, at UN Headquarters.
Mrs. Tallaway points to leveraging funds from UNAMI in Iraq. For her involvement
in evacuation from Lebanon she received two cables of praise from Kofi Annan. In
terms of fundraising from member states, Mrs. Tallaway cites $4 million she says
she raised from Canada to study the causes of sectarianism in the Middle East.
Also on the academic front, she says that she "with Cisco updated the computer
systems at four universities in Iraq." More information about these Cisco - UN
partnerships has been promised.
Also concerning the UN in Lebanon, the question has still not be answered,
how much Germany and others are trying to charge UNIFIL for the use of ships,
click here for one
of Inner City Press' previously stories.
Again, because a number of Inner City Press' UN
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 report by saluting the
stated goals of the UN, its agencies and affiliates and many of their staff and
employees. 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, including but not limited to withheld internal audits, 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
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.
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, including but not limited to withheld internal audits, flowing.
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
UNDP's Ad
Melkert Says He Will Finally Increase Transparency, Describes Fraud in
Russia, Dodges Uganda
In Eastern
Congo, Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made a Colonel, Clooney And Now
Guehenno Might Stay
At the UN,
Ocampo 1 Says Kony To Jail and Ocampo 2 Sees No Serious Bertucci
Charges, Dueling Parties
In UNDP's Book,
Strong's Scandals Are Missing, While Workers Complain, MMB Schmoozes the
Korean Mission
At UNDP, Flighty
Rhetoric Founders in Mismanagement, MMB's Net, a Genocidaire and Whither
ECOSOC
At the UN,
Disabled Are Freed from a Footnote, Murky Answers from Gbagbo to Kosovo
to a Genocidaire
Countering UN's
Vanity Press, UNDP Histories from Below, Brussels and Two Views of Omar
Bakhet
At the UN,
Indigenous Indignation, Revolving Door Mysteries and Peace Pipe
Belatedly Smoked
At the UN,
Questions of Congo Mass Graves and Kazana, Mugabe and Forests and Rich
German Ships
UNDP Is
Important For The Poor, and Therefore Must Be Made Transparent
As UN
Speechifies, UNDP Audits Are Still Being Withheld, While War in Somalia
and Sudan, Pronk Blogs On
Waste, Fraud and
Abuse at UNDP in Vietnam, While UN Secretariat Urges Censorship
At the UN,
Questions of Humanitarian Aid and Congo Body Count, Despots' Crackdown
on Dissent
In UNDP,
Questions of Money Wasted, Neutrality Trampled, Russian Office Audits
Withheld and Sachs Expenses
From Baidoa
to the UN, Denials on Ethiopian Troops Being in Somalia, Resolution Is
Passed
Retaliation
Found at UNDP, While Dervis Is Focused on Turkey, In Two Weeks Will Take
Questions
Annan's
Spokesman Silent on 150 Dead in Congo, War in Somalia - But in Loud
Defense of UNDP's $567,000 Book
At the UN,
Interlopers into Somalia Are Discussed, With Chadian Pull-Back,
Peacekeepers and Uganda's Karamoja
UNDP Spent
$567,000 on Book to Praise Itself, While the Well-Placed Feed Off UNDP's
Core Budget and Prime Postings
As UNDP Questions
Mount, Mark Malloch Brown Calls Them Irresponsible, Answers Only in
Vanity Press
In UNDP Series,
Questions of Jeffrey Sachs and Associates Payments, From $1 to $75,000
From Sleaze in
Vietnam to Fights in DC-1, UNDP Appears Out of Control at the Top
On Somalia,
Past Arms Embargo Violations Forgiven in Zeal to Contain Islamic Courts
In UNDP, Drunken
Mis-Managers on the Make Praised and Protected, Meet UNDP's Kalman
Mizsei
From Violent
Disarmament in Uganda to the National Bank of Serbia, UNDP Leaves Others
to Answer for It
UNDP Sources Say
Dervis Fires Malloch Brown-linked Officials, Then Offers Hush-Up Jobs
On Somalia, Fiji
and Oil-for-Food, UN Ambiguity Leads to Hypocrisy and Corruption
At the UN,
Indigenous Rights Get Deferred, As U.S. Abstains, Deftly or Deceptively
At the UN,
Threat and Possible Statement on Fiji Spotlights Selection and Payment
of UN Peacekeepers
At the UN, China
and Islamic Dev't Bank Oppose Soros and World Bank On How to Fight
Poverty
At the UN,
Misdirection on Somalia and Myanmar, No Answers from UNDP's Kemal Dervis
UNDP Dodges
Questions of Disarmament Abuse in Uganda and of Loss of Togo AIDS Grant,
Dhaka Snafu
At the UN, The
Swan Song of Jan Egeland and the Third Committee Loop, Somalia Echoes
Congo
UN Silent As
Protesters Tear Gassed in Ivory Coast, As UNMOVIC Plods On and War
Spreads in Somalia
In the UN,
Uzbekistan Gets a Pass on Human Rights As Opposition to U.S. Grows and
War's On in Somalia
At the UN,
Cluster Bombs Unremembered, Uighurs Disappeared and Jay-Z Returns with
Water -- for Life
From the UN,
Silence on War Crimes Enforcement and Conflicts of Interest on Complaint
from Bahrain
En Route to
Deutsche Bank, the UN's Door Revolves, While Ban Ki-moon Arrives and
Moldova Spins
As Two UN
Peacekeepers Are Killed, UN Says Haiti's Improving, Ban Ki-moon on
Zimbabwe?
Nagorno-Karabakh President Disputes Fires and Numbers, Oil and UN, in
Exclusive Interview with Inner City Press
Inside the UN,
Blaming Uganda's Victims, Excusing Annan on Mugabe, and U.S. Blocked
Darfur Trip
U.S. Blocked
Council's Trip to Darfur Meeting, Brazzaville Envoy Explains After U.S.
Casts a Veto
At the UN,
Council Works Overtime To Cancel Its Trip About Darfur, While DC Muses
on John Bolton
UN Panel's
"Coherence" Plan Urges More Power to UNDP, Despite Its Silence on Human
Rights
On Water, UNDP
Talks Human Rights, While Enabling Violations in Africa and Asia, With
Shell and Coca-Cola
Will UN's
Revolving Door Keep Human Rights Lost, Like Bush's Call and WFP
Confirmation Questions?
On Somalia,
We Are All Ill-Informed, Says the UN, Same on Uganda, Lurching Toward
UNDP Power Grab
On WFP, Annan and
Ban Ki-Moon Hear and See No Evil, While Resume of Josette Sheeran Shiner
Is Edited
Would Moon
Followers Trail Josette Sheeran Shiner into WFP, As to U.S. State Dep't?
At the UN,
Positions Are Up For the Grabbing, Sun's Silence on Censorship, Advisor
Grabs for Gun
In WFP Race,
Josette Sheeran Shiner Praises Mega Corporations from Cornfield While
State Spins
At the UN,
Housing Subsidy Spin, Puntland Mysteries of UNDP and the Panama Solution
In Campaign to
Head UN WFP, A Race to Precedents' Depths, A Murky Lame Duck Appointment
At the UN,
Gbagbo and his Gbaggage, Toxic Waste and Congolese Sanctions
WFP Brochure-Gate? John Bolton Has Not Seen Brochure
of "Official" U.S. Candidate to Head World Food Program
Ivory Coast
Stand-Off Shows Security Council Fault Lines: News Analysis
At the UN,
It's Groundhog's Day on Western Sahara, Despite Fishing Deals and
Flaunting of the Law
"Official" U.S.
Candidate to Head WFP Circulates Brochure With Pulitzer Claim, UN Staff
Rules Ignored
Senegal's
President Claims Peace in Casamance and Habre Trial to Come, A Tale of
Two Lamines
A Tale of Two
Americans Vying to Head the World Food Program, Banbury and Sheeran
Shiner
At the UN, the Unrepentant Blogger Pronk, a Wink
on 14 North Korean Days and Silence on Somalia
At the UN,
Literacy Losses in Chad, Blogless Pronk and Toothless Iran Resolution,
How Our World Turns
Sudan Pans Pronk
While Praising Natsios, UN Silent on Haiti and WFP, Ivorian Fingers
Crossed
UN Shy on North
Korea, Effusive on Bird Flu and Torture, UNDP Cyprus Runaround, Pronk is
Summoned Home
At the UN,
Silence from UNDP on Cyprus, from France on the Chad-Bomb, Jan Pronk's
Sudan Blog
Russia's Vostok
Battalion in Lebanon Despite Resolution 1701, Assembly Stays Deadlocked
and UNDP Stays Missing
As
Turkmenistan Cracks Down on Journalists, Hospitals and Romance, UNDP Works
With the Niyazov Regime
At the UN,
Darfur Discussed, Annan Eulogized and Oil For Food Confined to a
Documentary Footnote
With All Eyes
on Council Seat, UN is Distracted from Myanmar Absolution and Congo
Conflagration
As Venezuela and
Guatemala Square Off, Dominicans In Default and F.C. Barcelona De-Listed
At the UN, North
Korea Sanctions Agreed On, Naval Searches and Murky Weapons Sales
At the UN,
Georgia Speaks of Ethnic Cleansing While Russia Complains of Visas
Denied by the U.S.
At the UN,
Deference to the Congo's Kabila and Tank-Sales to North Korea, of
Slippery Eels and Sun Microsystems
At the UN,
Annan's Africa Advisor Welcome Chinese Investment, Dodges Zimbabwe, Nods
to Darfur
At the UN,
Richard Goldstone Presses Enforcement on Joseph Kony, Reflecting Back on
Karadzic
UN Defers on
Anti-Terror Safeguards to Member States, Even in Pakistan and Somalia
Afghanistan
as Black Hole for Info and Torture Tales, Photos and Talk Mogadishu, the
UN Afterhours
Amid UN's Korean
Uproar, Russia Silent on Murder of Anna Politkovskaya, Chechnya Exposer
UN Envoy Makes
Excuses for Gambian Strongman, Whitewashing Fraud- and Threat-Filled
Election
Sudan's UN
Envoy Admits Right to Intervene in Rwanda, UNICEF Response on Terrorist
Groups in Pakistan
At the UN, As
Next S-G is Chosen, Annan Claims Power to Make 5-Year Appointments,
Quiet Filing and Ivory Coast Concessions
Chaos in UN's
Somalia Policy, Working With Islamists Under Sanctions While Meeting
with Private Military Contractors
U.S. Candidate
for UN's World Food Program May Get Lame Duck Appointment, Despite
Korean Issues
At the
UN, U.S. Versus Axis of Airport, While Serge Brammertz Measures
Non-Lebanese Teeth
Exclusion from
Water Is Called Progress, of Straw Polls and WFP Succession
William Swing
Sings Songs of Congo's Crisis, No Safeguards on Coltan Says Chairman of
Intel
Warlord in the
Waldorf and Other Congo Questions Dodged by the UN in the Time Between
Elections
In Some New
Orleans, Questions Echo from the South Bronx and South Lebanon
In New Orleans,
While Bone Is Thrown in Superdome, Parishes Still In Distress
At the UN, Tales
of Media Muzzled in Yemen, Penned in at the Waldorf on Darfur, While
Copters Grounded
US's Frazer
Accuses Al-Bashir of Sabotage, Arab League of Stinginess, Chavez of
Buying Leaders -
Click
here for
video file by Inner City Press.
Third Day of UN
General Debate Gets Surreal, Canapes and Killings, Questions on Iran and
Montenegro and Still Somalia
On Darfur, Hugo
Chavez Asks for More Time to Study, While Planning West Africa Oil
Refinery
At the UN, Ivory
Coast Discussed Without Decision on Toxic Politics, the Silence of
Somalia
Evo Morales
Blames Strike on Mobbed-Up Parasites, Sings Praise of Coca Leaf and Jabs
at Coca-Cola
Musharraf Says
Unrest in Baluchistan Is Waning, While Dodging Question on Restoring
Civilian Rule
At the UN, Cyprus
Confirms 'Paramilitary' Investigation, Denies Connection to Def Min
Resignation, CBTB Update
A Tale
of Three Leaders, Liberia Comes to Praise and Iran and Sudan to Bury the UN
UN Round-up:
Poland's President Says Iraq Is Ever-More Tense While Amb. Bolton Talks
Burmese Drugs, Spin on Ivory Coast
As UN's Annan
Now Says He Will Disclose, When and Whether It Will Be to the Public and
Why It Took So Long Go Unasked
At the UN,
Stonewalling Continues on Financial Disclosure and Letter(s) U.S.
Mission Has, While Zimbabwe Goes Ignored
At the UN,
Financial Disclosure Are Withheld While Freedom of Information Is
Promised, Of Hollywood and Dictators' Gift Shops
UN's Annan Says
Dig Into Toxic Dumping, While Declining to Discuss Financial Disclosure
A Still-Unnamed
Senior UN Official in NY Takes Free Housing from His Government,
Contrary to UN Staff Regulations
UN Admits To
Errors in its Report on Destruction of Congolese Village of Kazana,
Safeguards Not In Place
As UN Checks
Toxins in Abidjan, the Dumper Trafigura Figured in Oil for Food Scandal,
Funded by RBS and BNP Paribas
Targeting of
African Americans For High Cost Mortgages Grew Worse in 2005, While Fed
Downplays Its Own Findings
The UN and
Nagorno-Karabakh: Flurries of Activity Leave Frozen Conflicts Unchanged;
Updates on Gaza, Gavels and Gbagbo
The UN Cries
Poor on Lawless Somalia, While Its Ex-Security Chief Does Business
Through Ruleless Revolving Door
At the UN,
Micro-States Simmer Under the Assembly's Surface, While Incoming Council
President Dodges Most Questions
"Horror Struck"
is How UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments Would Leave
U.S., Referral on Burma But Not Uzbekistan
Security Council
President Condemns UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments,
While UK "Doesn't Do It Any More"
At the UN,
Incomplete Reforms Allow for Gifts of Free Housing to UN Officials by
Member States
Rare UN Sunshine
From If Not In Chad While Blind on Somalia and Zimbabwe, UNDP With Shell
in its Ear on Nigeria
Annan Family
Ties With Purchaser from Compass, Embroiled in UN Scandal, Raise
Unanswered Ethical Questions
At the UN, from
Casamance to Transdniestria, Kosovars to Lezgines, Micro-States as
Powerful's Playthings
Inquiry Into
Housing Subsidies Contrary to UN Charter Goes Ignored for 8 Weeks, As
Head UN Peacekeeper Does Not Respond
On the UN -
Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost
Stop Bank
Branch Closings and Monopolies in the Katrina Zone, Group Says,
Challenging Regions- AmSouth Merger
Ship-Breakers
Missed by UN's Budget for Travel and Consultants in Bangladesh, Largest
UNIFIL Troop Donor
With Somalia on
the Brink of Horn-Wide War, UN Avoids Question of Ethiopian Invasion
In UN's Lebanon
Frenzy, Darfur Is Ignored As Are the Disabled, "If You Crave UNIFIL,
Can't You Make Do With MONUC?"
UN Decries
Uzbekistan's Use of Torture, While Helping It To Tax and Rule; Updates
on UNIFIL and UNMIS Off-Message
On Lebanon,
Russian Gambit Focuses Franco-American Minds, Short Term Resolution Goes
Blue Amid Flashes of Lightening
Africa Can Solve
Its Own Problems, Ghanaian Minister Tells Inner City Press, On LRA Peace
Talks and Kofi Annan's Views
At the UN, Jay-Z
Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka
Kilcher in the Basement
In the UN
Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a
Shebaa Farms Solution?
UN Knew of Child
Soldier Use by Two Warlords Whose Entry into Congo Army the UN
Facilitated
Impunity's in
the Air, at the UN in Kinshasa and NY, for Kony and Karim and MONUC for
Kazana
UN Still Silent
on Somalia, Despite Reported Invasion, In Lead-Up to More Congo Spin
UN's Guehenno
Says Congo Warlord Just Needs Training, and Kazana Probe Continues
With Congo
Elections Approaching, UN Issues Hasty Self-Exoneration as Annan Is
Distracted
In DR Congo, UN
Applauds Entry into Army of Child-Soldier Commander Along with Kidnapper
Spinning the
Congo, UN Admits Hostage Deal with Warlord That Put Him in Congolese
Army
At the UN, Dow
Chemical's Invited In, While Teaming Up With Microsoft is Defended
Kofi Annan
Questioned about Congolese Colonel Who Kidnapped Seven UN Soldiers
UN Silent As
Congolese Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made An Army Colonel: News
Analysis
UN's Guehenno
Speaks of "Political Overstretch" Undermining Peacekeeping in Lower
Profile Zones
In Gaza Power
Station, the Role of Enron and the U.S. Government's OPIC Revealed by UN
Sources
UN's Corporate
Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and
UNDP Continues
BTC Briefing,
Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations
Conflicts of
Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts
UN Grapples with
Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without
Explanation
UN Gives Mugabe
Time with His Friendly Mediator, Refugees Abandoned
At the UN,
Friday Night's Alright for Fighting; Annan Meets Mugabe
UN Acknowledges
Abuse in Uganda, But What Did Donors Know and When? Kazakh Questions
In Uganda, UNDP
to Make Belated Announcement of Program Halt, But Questions Remain (and
see
The New Vision,
offsite).
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Leads UN Agency to Suspend Its Work and Spending
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Blamed on UNDP, Still Silent on Finance
Alleged Abuse in
Disarmament in Uganda Known by UNDP, But Dollar Figures Still Not Given:
What Did UN Know and When?
Strong Arm on
Small Arms: Rift Within UN About Uganda's Involuntary Disarmament of
Karamojong Villages
UN's Selective
Vision on Somalia and Wishful Thinking on Uighurs
UN Habitat
Predicts The World Is a Ghetto, But Will Finance Be Addressed at
Vancouver World Urban Forum?
UN's Annan
Concerned About Use of Terror's T-Word to Repress, Wants
Freedom of Information
UN Waffles on
Human Rights in Central Asia and China; ICC on Kony and a Hero from
Algiers
UN & US,
Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty
and Senator Tom Coburn
Human Rights
Forgotten in UN's War of Words, Bolton versus Mark Malloch Brown: News
Analysis
In Praise of
Migration, UN Misses the Net and Bangalore While Going Soft on Financial
Exclusion
UN Sees Somalia
Through a Glass, Darkly, While Chomsky Speaks on Corporations and
Everything But Congo
Corporate Spin on
AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence
The Silence of
the Congo and Naomi Watts; Between Bolivia and the World Bank
Human Rights
Council Has Its Own Hanging Chads; Cocky U.S. State Department Spins
from SUVs
Child Labor and
Cargill and Nestle; Iran, Darfur and WHO's on First with Bird Flu
Press Freedom?
Editor Arrested by Congo-Brazzaville, As It Presides Over Security
Council
The
Place of the Cost-Cut UN in Europe's Torn-Up Heart;
Deafness to Consumers, Even by the Greens
Background Checks
at the UN, But Not the Global Compact; Teaching Statistics from
Turkmenbashi's Single Book
Ripped Off Worse
in the Big Apple, by Citigroup and Chase: High Cost Mortgages Spread in
Outer Boroughs in 2005, Study Finds
Burundi: Chaos at
Camp for Congolese Refugees, Silence from UNHCR, While Reform's Debated
by Forty Until 4 AM
The Chadian
Mirage: Beyond French Bombs, Is Exxon In the Cast? Asylum and the
Uzbeks, Shadows of Stories to Come
Through the UN's
One-Way Mirror, Sustainable Development To Be Discussed by Corporations,
Even Nuclear Areva
Racial
Disparities Grew Worse in 2005 at Citigroup, HSBC and Other Large Banks
Mine Your Own
Business: Explosive Remnants of War and the Great Powers, Amid the
Paparazzi
Human Rights Are
Lost in the Mail: DR Congo Got the Letter, But the Process is Still
Murky
Iraq's Oil to be
Metered by Shell, While Basrah Project Remains Less than Clear
Kofi, Kony,
Kagame and Coltan: This Moment in the Congo and Kampala
As Operation
Swarmer Begins, UN's Qazi Denies It's Civil War and Has No Answers if
Iraq's Oil is Being Metered
Cash Crop: In
Nepal, Bhutanese Refugees Prohibited from Income Generation Even in
their Camps
The Shorted and
Shorting in Humanitarian Aid: From Davos to Darfur, the Numbers Don't
Add Up
UN Reform:
Transparency Later, Not Now -- At Least Not for AXA - WFP Insurance
Contract
In the Sudanese
Crisis, Oil Revenue Goes Missing, UN Says
Empty Words on
Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN and Georgia
What is the Sound
of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War
at UN
Kosovo: Of
Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of
Ferronikeli Mines
Abkhazia:
Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia
Post-Tsunami
Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
Copyright 2006 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com - phone: (718) 716-3540
