Cyprus Scandal: UNDP spends $4 Million for restoring a church - instead the site is leased to a private company ! (Was UNDP/USAID aware of this?)

USAID - American Funds go wasted under UNDP in Cyprus

UNDP restorers dismayed by plans for historic Armenian church

Click here to read this in full @ Cyprus Mail: http://www.cyprus-mail.com/armenian-church/undp-restorers-dismayed-plans-historic-armenian-church/20121106


AN ORGANISATION for religious foundations in the north has leased an historic and beautifully restored Armenian site through an unfair and opaque tender procedure, the United Nations Development Program-Action for Cooperation and Trust (UNDP-ACT) program have said.

EVKAF, that oversees religious foundations in the north, leased in August the 14th century Armenian Church of Sourp Asdvadzadzin and Monastery complex (AMD) in the Arabahmet area of northern Nicosia that was renovated with UNDP-ACT funds as part of reconciliation efforts.

Turkish Cypriot press reports named the Near East University as the winner of a ten-year tender to turn the monastery into a cultural centre.

According to Vartkes Mahdessian, the Armenian representative in parliament, such a move goes against the project’s original intention.

“The objective was to have a multi-communal area where communities could come together and for the church to be used as a place of worship by the Armenian community,” he said yesterday.
UNDP-ACT echoed Mahdessian’s concerns in a news release yesterday.

Stakeholders worked “to restore the site to international standards so that it could encourage peace and reconciliation between all of the communities in Cyprus,” said the statement from UNDP-ACT and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Although UNDP-ACT and USAID did not name the tender winner, they recently said that they learned that “the site had been leased by EVKAF through a tender process that was neither fair nor transparent.”

“We have expressed our serious concerns to EVKAF about this unacceptable result,” the news release said.

The Cyprus Mail was unable to speak to the UNDP-ACT to clarify the news release.

USAID and UNDP-ACT put €3.5 million into what they have called a “visionary endeavour” and a “unique confidence building measure” referring to efforts to build trust among the island’s communities.

“UNDP and USAID look forward to a speedy resolution of this issue so that we can continue to support all communities in Cyprus on cultural heritage initiatives,” the news release said.

Mahdessian said that the news release “enforces our efforts” adding that they have been meeting with diplomats and representations “and we are waiting for an outcome whereby justice will be restored”.
As a first step, the tender procedure must be annulled, Mahdessian said.

According to the UNDP and USAID, the Turkish Cypriot leadership agreed to investigate the outcome and take action “as appropriate”.

The AMD includes historic buildings partially surrounded by a tall masonry wall and including a Gothic masonry church and part of a monastery complex. It was in poor condition when the decision to fix it was taken.

Mahdessian yesterday praised the restoration work, now completed.

Click here to read this in full @ Cyprus Mail: http://www.cyprus-mail.com/armenian-church/undp-restorers-dismayed-plans-historic-armenian-church/20121106

Does UNDP assistance in Cyprus makes sense? Academics from UK say : " NO" !

Academics question point of EU funding for peace

Click here for this in full @ Cyprus Mail:  http://www.cyprus-mail.com/features/academics-question-point-eu-funding-peace/20121028

 

Most Cypriots have crossed the buffer zone no more than once or twice if at all

 

IN THE midst of the financial squeeze, is the EU getting its money’s worth for the host of Cyprus reconciliation and development programmes it is funding?

The findings of a project titled ‘Reconciliation and Peace Economics in Cyprus’, funded by EuropeAid,  would suggest not.

The project’s aim was to promote “a conducive environment for the further development of trust, dialogue, cooperation and closer relationship between the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities...”

But “From the start of the project, it was apparent that there was little hope for a settlement and the project concluded as the UN-sponsored talks again failed,” concluded British-based academics, Dr Kate Flynn and Dr Tony King.

They had been contracted by the EU’s EuropeAid organisation to run a two-year project exploring “reconciliation and peace economics” on Cyprus.

After extensive study, the researchers found that given fundamental disagreements between the two communities on the root cause of the Cyprus problem, it is “highly problematic from the outset to effectively apply reconciliation initiatives”.

Their findings were out-and-out depressing. Some highlights: “The two communities do not agree on what the Cyprus problem is and there is little agreement about arrangements for a post-solution state.  There is marked reluctance to recognise the other side, as well as interact even with the checkpoints open. Most Cypriots do not cross the Green Line or have only done so once or twice, so bi-communal contact is limited to a small percentage of the population. There is notable societal mistrust both within as well as between communities. There is suspicion about political leadership and the direction of the talks.”

No doubt the report stands out for it no-nonsense take on efforts to bring the two communities closer in a bid to help reunification efforts.

Click here for this in full @ Cyprus Mail:  http://www.cyprus-mail.com/features/academics-question-point-eu-funding-peace/20121028

From Cyprus, Benon Sevan Weighs In

By Claudia Rosett

Yes, you read that right. None other than former UN Oil-for-Food chief Benon Sevan is at least virtually back in action, piping up online even though he’s still living as a fugitive from U.S. law, on Cyprus. Writing in the Yerevan-based Armenian AZG Daily, Sevan (an Armenian Cypriot) has tossed his hat back into the public ring — scolding UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon for ending the tenure on Cyprus of UN Special Representative Michael Moller. Here’s a link to Sevan’s article, and just in case that vanishes from the web, here’s a saved copy.

You remember Benon Sevan. A longtime UN staffer, he was hand-picked by Kofi Annan in 1997 to head the UN Oil-for-Food program, which he did until it ended in 2003. Before the conclusion of the ensuing UN investigation, while Annan’s office was assuring the press that Sevan was cooperating, he quietly slipped out of New York and returned to his native Cyprus, beyond reach of U.S. extradition. In January, 2007, Sevan was indicted in the Southern District of New York on charges of bribery and conspiracy to defraud the UN Oil-for-Food program, with U.S. federal prosecutors alleging Sevan had received about $160,000 in illicit commissions on UN-overseen Iraqi oil deals channeled via a Panamanian company of an alleged co-conspirator based in Switzerland (who happened to be an in-law of former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali). From Cyprus, Sevan has denied any wrong-doing. I last saw him when I paid a surprise call on him in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 2006 — which I wrote up for the Wall Street Journal. Sevan insisted, “I am not running away.” But he doesn’t seem to have done much traveling off Cyprus either.

Why would Sevan now choose to weigh in on the departure from Cyprus of Kofi Annan-appointee and UN special rep, Michael Moller? Maybe, as Sevan insisted when I spoke with him two years ago on Cyprus, he just has the best interests of the UN at heart. But there has been a certain amount of scuttlebut over the past few years from sources afraid to be named — but enough separate sources by now so that I credit this as broadly accurate — that Moller and Sevan, old buddies from Sevan’s UN days, have spent a certain amount of time together — dining out at the Nicosia Hilton, and generally keeping in touch. Is it possible there’s been a certain amount of UN hand-holding that Sevan might now miss?

For now, I’ll leave it with a few more questions: Does Ban Ki-Moon think it’s a good idea for UN staff to go on rubbing elbows with Benon Sevan on Cyprus? If Benon Sevan is so eager to be heard, why not come back to New York, and face the charges? And why have both Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-Moon appeared so profoundly indifferent to whether he does or not?

P.S. - While we’re on the subject, when might the UN deign to tell us whether Sevan’s costs of moving back to Cyprus in 2005 — airfare and household freight — were paid, during the UN investigations, out of the UN budget?