InnerCityPress: LOTFA Audit - Human Resources - Copies of Recruitment letter, Education certificates and Tazkira not in personnel files

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InnerCityPress: LOTFA Audit - Human Resources - Lack of and/or incomplete personal files of Project Staff

Click here for this @InnerCityPress Exclusive

UN Corruption: At UN, Friends Give Friends High Posts by Doctoring C.V.s, In $300 Million Delayed Umoja ERP

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.

DAWN: "UNDP's hiring process is flawed and with no integrity"

Women activists criticize U.N. appointment

By Patrick Worsnip

UNITED NATIONS, April 8 (Reuters) - An international women's network voiced dismay on Tuesday at the naming of a Spaniard to head the main U.N. women's organization, saying the U.N. had bypassed the most well-qualified candidate in response to funding concerns and pressure from Spain.

The United Nations said the selection process for the new executive director of the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) had been "comprehensive and extensive". A spokeswoman said there was "no direct connection" with funding issues.

The criticism came from Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), a group that had backed the candidacy of one of its founders.

The U.N. Development Program (UNDP) announced on Monday that Ines Alberdi, a sociologist and former member of the Madrid regional assembly representing the ruling Socialist Party, had been given the job.

She succeeds Noeleen Heyzer of Singapore, appointed last year to head the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

Earlier last year, Spain signed an agreement with Heyzer to give 3 million euros, at the time worth $3.9 million, to a UNIFEM-managed trust fund to combat violence against women.

In a statement, DAWN, a network of researchers on gender issues based in Africa, Asia and the Americas, expressed dismay at the choice.

"We feel the selection process has been deeply flawed and its integrity violated," it said.

DAWN said it understood that the interview panel looking at six shortlisted candidates had identified Indian academic Gita Sen, a founder of DAWN, as the best.

"However, because of the U.N.'s concerns over funding and significant and open political pressure from the government of Spain, other names from the shortlist were brought back into consideration," it said.

"This is a tragedy for the U.N. in terms of its ability to to draw competent candidates, transparency and fairness, and its credibility with women's movements and development organizations."

In its announcement, UNDP said, "The selection process was comprehensive and extensive." It said Alberdi, who has also worked as an expert in the European Union's equal opportunities unit, brought 25 years of relevant experience to the job.

U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas, asked whether the appointment had been linked to funding, said, "There is no direct connection."

"I can tell you that there is a constant concern to have geographical distribution within the system," Montas told a regular news briefing.

Last month, 10 U.S.-based non-governmental organizations wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressing concern that the UNIFEM post had been vacant so long and urging him to appoint the "one strongly qualified candidate" -- an apparent reference to Sen.

Officials at Spain's U.N. mission could not immediately be reached for comment.