Kim Jong-Il to reinstall ATM machines in Pyongyang

The UN’s own personal ATM for Kim Jong-il is returning to North Korea:

The U.N. Development Program (UNDP) will likely resume stalled operations in North Korea in March.

The executive board of the UNDP held its first regular session this year on Friday in which it approved the resumption of UNDP operations in North Korea.

The program’s presence in the North has been suspended since March 2007, when its staff was withdrawn following U.S. allegations of funds embezzlement by Pyongyang.

The executive boards said the final approval came after Pyongyang successfully met the four preconditions for resumption set by the program, including third-party audits.

An official at the South Korean mission to the United Nations said that if the UNDP resumes its operations in North Korea, the program will be in charge of the activities of the other UN agencies there.  [KBS Global]

For those not familiar with this scandal basically the UN staffers in Pyongyang were giving millions of dollars to North Korea for “developmental projects” in the country.  However, for whatever reason the UN staffers were allowing North Korea to deposit the money in a North Korean bank and were allowed no oversight of the bank records.  Additionally the UN staffers were not allowed to inspect the status of the “developmental projects”.  So basically this UN crew in Pyongyang was Kim Jong-il’s own personal ATM.

A US Senate probe would later find out that much of the UNDP’s money was linked to arms sales by the North Koreans.    The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon vowed to get to the bottom of the scandal and of course as far as I can tell no one has ever been held accountable for the fraud and the ATM is about to open for business again in North Korea.

The aftermath of this fraud was so bad that the Wall Street Journal declared this incident Ban’s first cover up.  With all his practice covering up for the North Koreans while he served under the Roh Moo-hyun adminstration in South Korea is it any surprise?

PAKISTAN SCANDAL: UNDP involved in channeling CASH to military and para-military groups in fake "reconstruction payments"

By Muhammad Bilal

ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday informed the National Assembly that the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) hired 54 consultants including retired military personnel during the last five years, and they were paid Rs 99.615 million.

Law Minister Farooq Naik told the House that 54 consultants and associate consultants were hired from July 2003 to June 2008 by the NRB and were paid by the government and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Brig (r) Muhammad Saleem, the focal adviser on the local government system, was the highest beneficiary receiving emoluments worth Rs 10.941 million from the UNDP.

Raja Asad of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz called the NRB a white elephant and demanded the government hold the consultants accountable.

Speaker Fehmida Mirza disputed the figures provided by the Prime Minister’s Secretariat regarding the disbursement of Rs 14 billion meant for the rehabilitation of the flood affectees of Sindh and Balochistan.

Mirza said the flood-affected people of Sindh, especially those in her constituency, were still awaiting the government’s help. She referred the issue to the standing committee.

Finance Minister Naveed Qamar informed the NA that the government could not increase the subsidy on electricity. He said the NEPRA had recommended a 63 percent increase in electricity tariff but the government would not raise the tariff by that much. However, he said the increase in tariff was imminent.

Qamar said the government would provide relief to consumers once petroleum prices in the international market came down further.

Parliamentary Secretary on Interior Mujtaba Ahmed Kharal told the House that no proposal was under consideration to withdraw the Rangers deployed in Karachi.

He said 1,573 Rangers were deployed in Karachi, adding that an amount of Rs 9,232,511 was being paid to the troops per month as part of the internal security duty allowance besides usual pay and allowances.

‘UNDP, IUCN have failed to protect environment in Pakistan’

Pakistan is first country in world allowing housing schemes in areas reserved for forests

Anwer Abbas

ISLAMABAD: Very few people in Pakistan are aware of 'environmental justice' which is not an ignorable issue in the global environmental scenario. It is functional in the European Union, Scandinavian countries and the rest of the West.

It is very unfortunate that Pakistan does not enjoy the concept of environmental justice and it is unfamiliar here. "The need of the hour is to introduce the said concept in the country which might contribute a lot to maintaining the ecological balance and curbing the anti-environment issues," said Munir Ahmed, a renowned environmentalist and senior communication expert, EU Visibility Study and Communication Strategy, in an exclusive interview with The Post.

His achievements include an advocacy campaign on Nullah Leh, anti-tree cutting campaign, and several stakeholders' roundtables on environmental and development issues in Islamabad. Munir said, "Under this concept one should pay as per one's consummations and pay all taxis and fines. It would help prevent a waste of natural resources." Criticising the national and foreign environmental organisations, Munir said all the investments being made by UNDP, IUCN and other international organisations and donors were being wasted and the goals and targets remained unachieved.

Citing the Shell Foundation project, the environmentalist said that the foundation launched a mega project in the area of Gulliyaat for forest conservation, installation of bio-gas plants and energy conservation in collaboration with UNDP. The project was closed after some time because the NGO failed to deliver, he maintained. "These kinds of projects waste precious money and time," Munir added.

Munir said the projects launched by UNDP had failed to yield fruitful results, adding such internationally reputed organisations were focusing on clerical jobs instead of practically implementing their projects.

Likewise, another project was introduced in Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir, for the construction of an international hotel that made the densely forested area deserted by cutting the forests.

Munir Ahmed lamented international institutions were wasting the money of taxpayers of the European Union and the United States. People and their respective governments should ask them why their money is being wasted, he said.

Severely criticising the government and the Ministry of Environment officials, the senior communication expert said retired and incompetent government officials who were unable to perform their duties any more and unaware of the environmental issues had been engaged for the environmental protection efforts in Pakistan.

Munir claimed the government and the Ministry of Environment were non-serious in protecting the environment, adding Pakistan was the first country across the globe where the government had allowed housing schemes in the areas reserved for forests. He added the government had introduced housing schemes in Loe Bhair, New Murree and Patriata. He said in the Balochistan province, the wealthiest province on account of its natural resources, coal, oil, Sui-gas and other fuel reserves, the people were being compelled to use the costly sandal wood as a fuel because the government hadn't provided them with the basic necessities such as electricity and gas. "Unfortunately, decades-old densely forested sandal forests had shrunk due to their improper utilisation, which speaks volumes for the government and the Ministry of Environment's failure to protecting the environment," he added.

Munir Ahmed, a postgraduate in Mass Communication, is a fellow of LEAD-Pakistan, an environmental organisation. He is also the founding chairman of DEVCOM-Pakistan (Development Communications Network). He has written extensively on environment and development for mainstream publications.

Keeping them accountable: In Pakistan, UNDP Awards No-Bid Contract For Disputed Election

The Pakistan election has been all over media lately. All of us have seen the unconstitutional way Musharraf used and managed to stay on as President. The rampant corruption in the current government has led to a major - throughout the country unrest - requesting Musharraf and his fellow governors to step down.

In all this mess - UNDP wouldn't stay away. How could UNDP ? We are there to "support our client" as Kemal Dervis always say.

Therefore now we will be looking at a fantastic way to dispose money to friends in a messy situation.

Today's Submission is : ACP-RBAP/07/0004
Total Amount: $ 915,636.00
Status: Approved from Akiko Yuge

(FROM INNERCITY PRESS) Even in Pakistan, a country beset by electoral disputes as well as terrorism, the UN Development Program bends its own rules, on issues as important as the provision of technical assistance to elections, as shown by an internal waiver of competition memo obtained by Inner City Press and placed online here.

Earlier this year, after General Pervez Musharraf announced elections, UNDP according to the memo decided it would "engage a recuritment [sic] agency to undertake hiring and provision of training coordinators for organizing training of polling officials workshops under Support to National Election Project (SNEP)." One part of the amorphous mandate claimed by UNDP is to preach transparency including in procurement: the solicitation and weighing of competitive bids before funds are spent. But in this case, on a project involving national elections, UNDP decided internally to waive its procurement rules, and award the $916,000 contract directly to Anjum Asim Shahid Associates (AASA). The scope of the contract, set forth in the memo, filled with typographical errors, includes

- Development of Recruitment [sic] plan and identification of coordinators [sic] through placing advertisement in the newspapers;

• - Short listing of candidates and development of selection cirteria [sic]
• - Conducting interviws [sic] in the field at major towns;
• - Final selection and contract signing (between the firm and the sucessful [sic] candidates).

(Above from Innercity Press)

But why this ? Why spend all this money to train - those who have already broken the rule and unconstitutionally have changed the laws and protected an unconstitutional President ?

Well we think this award has nothing to do with Pakistan. This is a one time payment from UNDP to the Regime of Musharraf to accept back the outgoing Hafiz Pasha. UNDP can no longer continue to keep him around, specially with the latest failures on North Korea, Burma, Indonesia and Nepal.

But in a move that is typical only on hostile take-overs in private sector, the High Priests at UNDP have decided that Pasha should go, and at whatever price. Therefore let's give this money to whomever the Pakistani Government want to. Let the Pakistani's come out with the scheme, and UNDP would disburse on-time so Pasha's departure is secure.

Well yest again the Highest priests have forgotten that the UNDP's money is not their money. Is our money - is public tax-payers money. They have no right to dispose what millions of tax-payers have bestowed on us to invest on the poor - not in dictators.

UNDP money is not a slash fund where the High Priests put their hands whenever they need.

Kemal Dervis your leadership is destroying what is left to UNDP. Your decisions and those who surround you, are destroying our credibility in the world.

Stop it now !!!

p.s.: we would like to thank Innercity Press for their investigatory work on the above. We used portion of thier work. To read more on InnercityPress - please go at (http://innercitypress.com/)