| UN Corruption Detailed at
UNOPS in Report Leaked to
Banned Inner City Press by Staff
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
UN
GATE, June 3
–
How corrupt is today's UN
under Antonio Guterres? Well,
even those few UN officials
bounced for corruption are
simply re-hired, and no one
answers why.
Inner City Press
today publishes this, from
UNOPS whistleblowers:
Dear Matthew
Russell Lee and Inner City
Press Editorial Team,
The UNOPS
Personnel Collective Seeking
Accountability—a group of
employees at the United
Nations Office for Project
Services (UNOPS)—would like to
share with you exposing yet
another case of corruption and
mismanagement coinciding with
the Executive Board Annual
Session (2–5 June 2025).
The staff
denounces the irregular hiring
and re-hiring of retired
personnel through opaque
procurement mechanisms
designed to circumvent binding
United Nations
regulations.
Specifically, it reveals how
high-ranking UNOPS officials
used external vendors—most
notably Deployable
UN-experienced Development
Experts (DUNDEX)—as well as
companies created by UN
retirees, to contract former
UNOPS staff and circumvent
restrictions in recruitment
processes. This practice
directly violated UN General
Assembly resolution 51/408
from the year 1996, which
limits retirees’ earnings to
USD 22,000 per year and
restricts contracts to six
months. DUNDEX became a tool
for discretionary, opaque
hiring driven by favoritism,
cronyism, and
nepotism—diverting public
resources and undermining the
organization’s
credibility
We identify USD
1,118,934.71 in DUNDEX-related
contracts alone in the period
from 2016 to 2021. These
violations were facilitated
with the full knowledge of the
offices processing these
procurements and in some
cases involved re-engaging the
same retirees through
companies they had established
themselves. Although
some of these issues were
flagged by the Internal Audit
and Investigation Group
(IAIG), similar practices have
persisted. The systematic
omission and minimization of
these issues by multiple UNOPS
bodies—including procurement,
legal, HR functions, and
internal audit itself—points
to a structural failure in
oversight. These practices not
only breach UN regulations but
also risk triggering
pension-related sanctions for
the retirees involved.
The report highlights serious
misconduct, including fraud,
conflicts of interest, and
influence peddling. Despite
the millions invested in
governance reforms following
the 2022 S3i scandal, the
evidence demonstrates that
irregular practices continue
to persist at all levels of
UNOPS. In your capacity
as a key media outlet—and
given the crucial role Inner
City Press has played in
exposing corruption within the
UN—we trust that you will help
hold UNOPS accountable for its
serious mismanagement and
corruption cases.
Keep it coming.
Earlier letter on
Inner City Press'
DocumentCloud here
No
explanation, from Guterres,
Courtenay Rattray, nor Melissa
Fleming, neither of whom have
answered letters from pro bono
law firms about applying free
press principles (including
Article 19) to the UN, and
readmitting Inner City Press.
We'll have more on this.
***
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