By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, March 8 -- Corruption and nepotism have infected the UN's $300 million plus Enterprise Resource Planning computer project, sources and documents indicated.
After Paul van Essche came in as head of the ERP at the D-2 level, he immediately moved to bring in colleagues and friends from Geneva, doctoring their Personal History Profiles to do so.
Jon Solem had applied for a P-5 post in ERP, listing van Essche as his supervisor, but hadn't been selected. Aftr van Essche became the D-2 in charge, Solem applied for a D-1 post, one step down from Van Essche's D-2, but a step up from the P-5 he hadn't gotten.
Suddenly Solem's PHP was doctored to delete references to Van Essche as supervisor. Van Essche served on and chaired the selection panel, and selected his friend Solem, without leaving any paper trail.
The UN's ERP program is behind schedule and over budget. What has been the UN's response? To rename it Umoja, Swahili for "unity." More than a year ago on January 19, 2009, the UN announced
The UN has decided to award a contract for Enterprise Resource Planning software to a European software company called SAP. The awarding of the contract is subject to successful negotiations, which will start immediately and are projected to wrap up within three months. As of now, no contract has been awarded, and the value of any such contract is as yet undetermined.
More than a year later, the contract has still not been finalized. Related, Inner City Press has asked what is the status of the implementation of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards? Four years ago, in November 2005, the High Level Committee on Management recommended system-wide adoption of IPSAS by 2010, and in 2006 the GA passed a resolution (60/283) which set the 2010 deadline. But it now appears that the Secretariat is running four years late, and does not expect to implement IPSAS until December 2014.
Consultants from PriceWaterhouseCoopers are swarming, their meters running, while as one member of the UN's budget committee told Inner City Press, "nothing is being accomplished except high officials hiring their friends."
Sources paint this picture, on which both Mr. Van Essche and Mr. Solem were asked to comment prior to publication of this story, without response:
* In early 2008, several ERP-related Vacancy Announcements (VAs) were announced by the UN including: D2 Project Director, D1 Business Process Reengineering Coordinator and P5 Senior Change Management posts.
* Mr. Jon Solem applied to the P-5 Senior Change Management post and Mr. Paul van Essche applied to D2 Project Director post.
* Mr. van Essche was selected for D2 post and started in September 2008. In October 2008, he canceled the VA for the D1 Business Process Reengineering Coordinator, changed the title to Organizational Change Manager and re-advertised it.
* Mr. van Essche chaired the interview panel for the P-5 Senior Change Management Officer post. Mr. Solem was not selected. These are extracts from the PHP, in which he names Mr. van Essche as his previous supervisor. At the time, he was not sure if Mr. van Essche would be selected Project Director.
| Application for P5 (Mar-May 2008, VA 417551) | ||||
| Employer | Type of Business | Year | Supervisor | Location |
| UNHCR | Snr CM Officer | 05/2006-06/2008 | Colin Mitchell | Swiss |
| UNHCR | Snr Business Analyst | 02/2005-03/2006 | Colin Mitchell | Swiss |
| ILO | Snr.CM Officer | 05/2004-12/2004 | Paul van Essche | Swiss |
| UNHCR | Snr.CM Officer | 07/2003-05/2004 | Michael Malecha | Swiss |
| Public relations firm | Indp. Cnslt. | 08/2002-07/2003 | Illa Thompson | South Africa |
| LeftBrain | Consulting | 01/2002-08/2002 | Paul van Essche | Swiss |
| Health Online | Clinical Laboratory | 04/2000-12/2001 | Paul van Essche | Swiss |
| SGS | Testing & Quality | 08/1993-04/2000 | Robert Collier | Swiss |
Mr. van Essche also chaired the interview panel for the D1 Organizational Change Manager. The panel selected Mr. Solem, this time. Mr. Solem however doctored his PHP to conceal his relationship with Mr. van Essche.
| Application for D1 (Oct-Dec. 2008, VA 419603) | ||||
| Employer | Type of Business | Year | Supervisor | Location |
| Michael O'Neill | Change Consulting | 06/2008-11/2008 | Michael O'Neill | Swiss |
| UNHCR | Snr CM Officer | 05/2006-06/2008 | Colin Mitchell | Swiss |
| UNHCR | Snr Business Analyst | 02/2005-03/2006 | Colin Mitchell | Swiss |
| ILO | Snr.CM Officer | 05/2004-12/2004 | Steven Townley | Swiss |
| UNHCR | Snr.CM Officer | 07/2003-05/2004 | Michael Malecha | Swiss |
| Public relations firm | Indp. Cnslt. | 08/2002-07/2003 | Illa Thompson | South Africa |
| LeftBrain | Consulting | 01/2002-08/2002 | Richard King | Swiss |
| Health Online | Clinical Laboratory | 04/2000-12/2001 | Miguel Payrot | Swiss |
| SGS | Testing & Quality | 08/1993-04/2000 | Robert Collier | Swiss |
* The questions are why did Mr. Solem doctor his PHP? Did OHRM conduct a background check? Why did Mr. van Essche cancel the previous VA and allowed to rename the post. The GA approved the post as D1 BPR Coordinator.
* Mr. Solem was a P-4 at UNHCR and became a D1 with Umoja.
* A review of Mr. van Essche’s PHP show that he and Jon worked for SGS (Switzerland) at around the same time.
We will have more on this.
An Umoja ERP team on a "World Tour" -- van Essche video here -- friends hiring friends not shown
On March 8, when the UN took no non-Iraq or non-Police questions at its noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about hiring irregularities at the UN, in this case the foreign minister of Sri Lanka asking a high UN official to give his son a job. Mr. Ban said that the UN is transparent. From the UN's transcript of the Q & A:
Inner City Press: the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, also over the weekend, confirmed that he sought a job for his son with the UN. I wonder if you think that is appropriate, and is such a job going to be given?... Do you think that it’s appropriate for the Foreign Minister of a country with which you are dealing with on possible war crimes to be seeking a job for his son with the UN?
SG: First of all, I am not aware of that particular case of job application of the Foreign Minister’s son. As a matter of fact, any recruitment process will have to be dealt with in a most transparent and objective manner by the selection committee members. That is what the United Nations has been [using] as a principle.
Has the UN been using transparency in recruitment and assessment as a policy? Again, we will have more on this.
4 comments:
Why don't you investigate the hiring of Haile Menkorios by Kofi Annan and his rise to power at the UN in such a short time...He was Eritrea's Ambassador to the UN when he was hired at the height of the Eritrea-Ethiopia border conflict. UN has refused to enforce the Eritrea Ethiopia Border Commissions final and binding delimitation and demarcation decisions of 13 April 2002 and 30 November 2007 respectively.
This is good investigative journalism and I commend you for it. My experience with the UN system is that there is significant corruption and hypocracy. So keep up the good work in uncovering the issues.
That said, I also want to mention that not only did Jon Solem work for me, but earlier I worked on a large ERP change management project with Jon as my superior. Jon's grade during that project was P5.
Having no knowledge of the selection process for the D1 post that your article references, I could not oomment on whether the process was a fair one or not. However I can say absolutely that Jon is a highly intelligent and capable change management expert and if I ever get a chance to work with him again I would be delighted to do so. Michael O'Neil (Metairie, LA and Geneva, Switzerland)
If Mr. Solem is a "highly intelligent and capable change management expert", one wonders why he resorts to doctoring his CV in order to get in through the back-door.
..... and where on earth did Mr. Solem learn his Change Management trade ? Night school ?
Picks up his habits from Van Essche. Solem gives De Groots name as a reference on his CV, and, hell, before you know it, De Groot is on board at Umoja.
Worst managers I ever had. Good luck to those trying to get rid of these fakers.
Post a Comment