By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 11 -- When whistleblower Ismael Ahmed complained of irregularities in and then retaliation by the UN Development Program in Somalia, UNDP's own ethics machinery rejected his claims. But on appeal, as reflected in a 16 page decision Inner City Pressobtained and is putting online here, Mr. Ahmed prevailed.
But there's more. The first retaliator against Ahmed, Eric Overvest, was promoted to the UNDP in Haiti. After the earthquake, he was quoted that the situation was "an opportunity" -- rather the way he saw Somalia.
Inner City Press is informed that Overvest also retaliated against Dr. Edwina Thompson, an Australia national, who was hired to evaluate the remittance program.
Overvest demanded that she should approve a report from a second consultant that he had hied in Nairobi. In response to this she wrote to him on 5 November 2007 saying that “I would love to comply with your request to endorse Jamasai's report, if for no other reason than to expedite payment for my fee. I hope however that you'll appreciate as a matter of principle that I am unable to do that”. However, Overvest went ahead and issued the report claiming that it was a consolidated report jointly produced by the two consultants.
On 23 November Edwina wrote to Eric and said: “As I said previously, I cannot agree with all the findings in Jamasai's report because some of them are neither factual, nor based on adequate investigations. Moreover, I am certainly not happy that Jamasai will take portions of my report and reference me as an acknowledgement. May I remind you that we did not agree that a 'consolidated' report would be produced. The revised TOR was to produce two reports, and then discuss what should happen once your team reviewed the quality. I have not been consulted in your process, even despite my comprehensive email correspondence with yourself since the original submission of my report - which is indeed almost 2 months ago. This is entirely unprofessional, and I am convinced will not stand up if the UNDP Evaluation Office were to review what has unfolded”.
UNDP's Helen Clark @ WEF, musical chairs to Haiti not shown
On 29 November Edwina responded to Eric again and said: “At the teleconference meeting you agreed that we would submit individual reports - I was given the extra task of assessing risk issues, while Jamasai was tasked to focus on the Central Bank. We did not agree that there would be a consolidated report. I have not approved any ensuing consolidation by Jamasai. Regardless of this, I understand that you had already distributed your consolidated report with my name on it before asking for my feedback by COB on 23 November. Perhaps you could explain this. On the issue of payment; no, I have not received it. I understand from your finance and admin staff that you have been blocking that payment. If you will now approve it again, I would be grateful”.
Edwina faced retaliation for producing an independent report. Almost six months after she submitted her report, her consultancy fees were still being blocked by Eric. Although in earlier emails Eric argued that her payment was ready, after this email he confirmed that her payment would not be processed until she complied with his demands.
And now Eric Overvest has been replaced by his former boss, Bruno Lemarquis, also responsible for the retalation. We aim to have more on this.
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