UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) to clean up their servers in lieu of the new investigation on Syria

UN Development Program No-Bid Contracts for Computer Clean Up on Eve of Accountability Seminar
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press:Interim News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, November 19 -- On the eve of a UN event on "accountability," the UN Development Program has hired on a non-bid basis a contractor to clean up its computer systems to remove, rather than promote, accountability, according to UNDP insiders.

On Tuesday UNDP's Darshak Shah, who oversaw the agency's since disbanded program in North Korea but still remains controller, will discuss accountability with, among others, the UN Ethics Officer Robert Benson, on whose watch UNDP whistleblowers have been left unprotected.

On Monday in New York, two contractors from Indentix, Jim Yang and Paul Bedi, paid $7000 per 40 hours worked, began on UNDP's servers the "Reconciliation of several Identity Stores." Among the goals is it "protect the identity and privacy of UNDP users as they work and collaborate with colleagues and partners outside UNDP."

The justification for "sole source," no-bid contracting is stated as follows:

- "There is no competitive market-place for the requirement, such as where a monopoly exists, where prices are fixed by legislation or government regulation, or where the requirement involves a proprietary product or service... ICT Security and Governance Unit seeking a waiver of competitive bidding for this submission, based on following criteria: Velo is unique open-source implementation of User Provisioning system on the market; Identyx Inc. is the only commercial company that is subject matter expert in Velo product allowing us to perform integration tasks quickly."

But if UNDP's reason for choosing Velo software was that it's open source, how can there be only one contractor expert in it? Insiders say the choice was made by UNDP's Stephen G. Fridakis. The no-bid contract was approved by Ali Al-Za'tari, until recently UNDP's resident representative in Syria.

The timing of this computer clean up has caught of the eye of government authorities looking into UNDP's irregularities, and the matter is expected to be raised to the independent expert chosen by Administrator Kemal Dervis, Miklos Nemeth.

Meanwhile in the void opened by the blocking of the UN Ethics Office's whistleblower inquiry, UNDP has rushed to appointed its own ethics officer, 30-year UNDP insider Karunesh Bhalla. It's "One UN," it seems, except when it comes to Ethics. At Tuesday seminar hosted by UN University -- which has its own issues -- maybe some answers will be given. Developing.