UNDP Afghanistan Scandal: Payments made not supported by Bank Statements nor Bank Transfers (InnercityPress Exclusive)

Corruption @UNDP under Helen Clark 

is a billion dollar enterprise !

Click here to read full Observation 8 @ InnercityPress Exclusive

UNDP Does Not Monitor Afghan Police Payments, 20 Hours, No Comment

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, 2d in series

@InnercityPress.com

UNITED NATIONS, June 23 -- Even when give at least 20 hours to comment on its own internal audits of its scandal plagued Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan, the UN Development Program chooses to attack the Press rather than explain its waste, fraud and abuse.

  Additional internal audit documents obtained and exclusively published today by Inner City Press show the wider nature and longer term knowledge of the problems.

  As noted in the first installment of this series LOTFA purports to be about training and "building capacity" of Afghan police. But it is essentially a money transfer and payroll service, with a sideline as a travel agency.

  But even its payroll service is mismanaged. Sample "Observation # 1" says auditors

"observed that no or a limited review and monitoring is being carried out by UNDP LOTFA Project over this process from inception to final payment to the police force."

Under the heading "impact or risk," the auditors state the obvious:

"Non-monitoring of Government disbursement may have the following impacts/risks... Funds may be utilized for purposes/activities other than the project objectives."

Ya don't say. And what could those other activities be?

  As exclusively reported yesterday, Sample "Observation # 8" which is the first of the LOTFA documents Inner City Press is exclusively putting online says auditors "were not provided copies of bank transfer letters" for "MoI Chartered Flight Kabul - Turkey," costing $459,100.

   As well as re-submitting the first round of questions late on June 22, Inner City Press requested comment on this and two other audits, and asked UNDP to state:

1) WHY Manoj Basnyat is no longer the country director -- did this have ANYTHING to do with the LOTFA irregularities?

2) the date on which each of Basnyet, Sandeep Kumar and Ubadallah Sahibzada became aware of the irregularities and of the attached audits. Thanks, on deadline.

Twenty hours later, rather than answer a single question or comment on any of the audits, UNDP's Abdel-Rahman Ghandour responded that the first round of questions had ended up in UNDP's spam folder. But obviously the questions above hadn't. And still there have been no answers.

Since this is a series, UNDP is invited to provide comment for the next installment. There are many audits, many questions and many problems. So far Inner City Press has published two audits, and UNDP has no commented on or explained either. 

What are UNDP's responses to audit observations 3 and 7 on double payment of salaries? Watch this site.http://www.innercitypress.com/undp2lotfa062312.html

The Guardian: UN journalists threaten to expel reporter

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An extraordinary row has broken out among journalists who cover the United Nations at its New York headquarters. A reporter who works for a small investigative news site, Inner City Press, is in danger of being ejected from the UN correspondents association (UNCA) at the behest of journalistic colleagues.

According to an article in the National Review, Matthew Lee is being investigated for alleged unethical and unprofessional behaviour by a so-called "board of examination" set up by UNCA.
The Review's writer, Brett Schaefer, says: "Journalists both inside and outside the UNCA say the situation is one in which personal animosity has overridden professional judgment."....

Click to read full story on The Guardian

From Rio - Helen Clark says: "Western societies don't need anymore TV's"

Tyrannical Despots, Environmental Crybabies Lock Arms, Sing Kumbaya in Rio

 Click here to read full story on FORBES.COM

As you sit in front of your energy-guzzling computer, emitting untold amounts of planet-killing carbon dioxide reading this column, never lose sight of the fact that every minute of every day you are committing ecocide against Mother Earth. The United Nations says so.


As United Nations Development Program Administrator Helen Clark told the AFP French News Agency  this week, “The issue is how to get human development that will see it continue to rise for the world’s poorest people and people in developing countries. Because frankly human development in the West – we don’t need more cars, more TV, whatever.”


Thinking about buying a new car this year? Why, you evil Westerner! You don’t need that. You are demanding your new car off the sweat, toil, and exploitation of the world’s poorest people in developing countries. If only somebody would have caught the ear of President Obama before Cash for Clunkers!


Thinking about replacing that aging, hulking, cathode ray tube television set with an HD LCD TV? How dare you?! Not only do you not need more TV, but your demand for an HD picture is killing the planet!.....

 Click here to read full story on FORBES.COM

UNDP CORRUPTION: Staff Suspended in Afghan Fraud Probe

BY DION NISSENBAUM

KABUL—The United Nations Development Program on Sunday placed its assistant Afghanistan country director and the head of its $1.4 billion Afghan police trust fund on administrative leave amid an investigation into suspected fraud, according to Western and U.N. officials in Kabul.

These decisions represent the highest-level action against U.N. staff at the center of an internal examination of possible irregularities at the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan, or Lotfa, the body that pays the salaries of Afghanistan's 150,000-member police force. The $1.4 billion project is primarily funded by the U.S., the European Union and Japan.

Mushtaq Rahim, the ...

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Good Journalism at the U.N.? It might become harder to find.

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ON NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE

By Brett D. Schaefer

June 18, 2012 12:00 P.M.

With all the corruption at the United Nations, you might think that the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) would have better things to do than pick a fight with a single reporter. But you would be wrong.

Matthew Lee is the only reporter for Inner City Press, a Bronx-based nonprofit group known mainly for investigations of financial institutions and advocacy for the poor. Lee has broken a number of stories about the U.N., but now he himself is the story. In fact, he could become the first journalist ever expelled from UNCA.
Last week, UNCA announced that it would investigate Lee for unethical and unprofessional behavior. Few reporters with knowledge of the situation wish to comment on the record, but journalists both inside and outside the UNCA say the situation is one in which personal animosity has overridden professional judgment.
Regarded as abrasive by some of his colleagues, Lee has had volatile arguments with other UNCA reporters, and has frequently complained about other journalists’ failing to credit him for breaking news. He has also written stories accusing the UNCA president, Giampaolo Pioli, of a conflict of interest involving Sri Lanka. These personal disputes lie at the heart of the UNCA investigation.
UNCA is a self-governing body. Thus, whether Lee remains a member is entirely up to the organization. UNCA membership is not a prerequisite for obtaining U.N. press credentials, which are granted by the U.N. Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit (MALU) — so Lee’s expulsion would not automatically deprive him of U.N. access. According to the Guidelines on Media Access at United Nations Headquarters:

The United Nations Department of Public Information as well as the Safety & Security Service reserve the right to deny or withdraw accreditation of journalists from media organizations whose activities run counter to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations or who abuse the privileges so extended or put the accreditation to improper use or act in a way not consistent with the principles of the Organization or established journalism ethics and standards.

A MALU spokesperson acknowledged that the U.N. has rescinded press credentials in the past, but she added that UNCA’s investigation of Lee would not directly influence MALU.
Lee’s grammar and style are often unusual, and he sometimes fails to observe journalistic niceties. Although these traits are not uncommon among small media outlets, some journalists have expressed concern that they — along with an unfavorable UNCA decision — could allow the U.N. to deny Lee’s reapplication for press credentials on the basis that his actions are inconsistent with “established journalism ethics and standards.” His current credentials expire in August.
It would not be first time that Lee has been targeted. Inner City Press was scrubbed from Google News in 2008, allegedly at the behest of the U.N. At the time, UNCA came to Lee’s defense. But that was before his recent clashes with that organization and its members.
And Turtle Bay officialdom could be receptive to their new opinion of him. Lee is probably the U.N. Department of Public Information’s least-favorite journalist because he is persistent, is willing to ask uncomfortable questions, and has cultivated an impressive network of sources within the U.N. In short, he’s a pain in their neck at every press briefing.
Lee is also unusual in that he focuses on the inner workings of the U.N. — stories that are off the radar of larger news outlets. For instance, Lee broke the story about the discovery of 40 pounds of cocaine in a diplomatic pouch in the U.N. mailroom. He reported that Ibrahim Gambari, a special representative for Darfur of the African Union and the U.N., had greeted Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir at a wedding even as Bashir stood indicted on charges of genocide, and he wrote of the opulent home Gambari built in Darfur at U.N. expense. He has exposed irregularities with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in North Korea, and his coverage of a UNDP-funded program of forced disarmament in Uganda led to that program’s suspension.
Other reporters readily admit that Lee’s reporting is valuable. “He may not always get it right, but Matthew covers the U.N. like no one else, often scooping much larger news organizations,” the New York Post’s Benny Avni says. “Matthew digs into how it works — and often into how it doesn’t.”
Claudia Rosett, journalist-in-residence at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, notes: “Matthew Russell Lee has broken a series of important stories over the years — stories that without his efforts might have gone unnoticed.” Off the record, other reporters shared similar views with me.
Inner City Press has been a member of UNCA for five years, and all that time Lee’s U.N. press credentials have routinely been renewed. Thus, both UNCA and MALU have repeatedly affirmed Inner City Press’s status as a legitimate member of the media. I spoke with UNCA journalists who expressed the view that, regardless of what UNCA decides, Lee should retain his press credentials.
The U.S. mission to the U.N. has a role to play in this imbroglio. It should not intervene in internal UNCA deliberations, but it absolutely should stand firm in protecting the principle of freedom of the press. Media coverage of the U.N. is too shallow as it is. It would suffer more if reporters like Matthew Lee were denied access. The U.S. government should make clear to the U.N. that it supports Lee and other controversial journalists trying to retain their press credentials.
— Brett D. Schaefer is the Jay Kingham Fellow in International Regulatory Affairs at the Heritage Foundation. 

UNDP SCANDAL: UNDP Fires Officials at Its Afghan Fund

CLICK HERE FOR THIS STORY ON WALL STREET JOURNAL

BY DION NISSENBAUM

KABUL—The United Nations fired three officials running its $1.4 billion Afghanistan police trust fund as the first step in what is expected to be a broader shake-up at the program currently facing an internal investigation of mismanagement, according to U.N. and Western officials.

The dismissals mark the first substantive steps in the United Nations Development Program investigation of misconduct—and a possible coverup—at the fund that pays the salaries for the 150,000-member police force that is a cornerstone of America's exit strategy in Afghanistan.

Among those removed from their posts, Western ...

$$$ Millions of UNICEF money unaccounted for

Click here for the story on Nyasa Times (Malawi)

http://www.nyasatimes.com/malawi/2012/06/11/millions-of-unicef-money-unaccounted-for/

Voters Convene in Washington to Advocate a for Strong Relationship with the United Nations

Click here to read this on Yahoo News/PRWEB

UNA-USA 2012 Annual Meeting gathers members from more than 62 Chapters across the country.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) June 11, 2012

Members of the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA) will come together from across the United States to share their collective voice on Capitol Hill to raise awareness of the United Nations, and the critical role that the UN plays in advancing American national security and foreign policy goals. This convening at the UNA-USA Annual Meeting in Washington is further proof of U.S. support for the United Nations.

“Members attending the UNA-USA Annual Meeting represent Chapters across America that are bring together citizens who want to actively engage in the important work of the United Nations. Americans overwhelmingly support an active U.S. role in the UN, and this week, UNA-USA members will tell elected officials how important the UN is in protecting global peace and security, health, and human rights,” said UNA-USA Executive Director Patrick Madden.

Recent polling conducted on behalf of UNA-USA’s sister organizations, the United Nations Foundation and the Better World Campaign, found that more than eight in 10 Americans think it is important the U.S. maintain an active role in the UN. The vast majority of voters also said they support the payment of U.S. dues to the UN and UN peacekeeping operations, on time and in full.
More than 150 participants during the UNA-USA Annual Meeting will join in discussions on topics such as human rights, energy and climate, reproductive health, and advocacy, prior to heading to Capitol Hill on Tuesday. Featured speakers at this year’s meeting will include: Rodney Bent, Director, UN Information Center in Washington, DC; Esther Brimmer, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations; and Timothy E. Wirth, President, United Nations Foundation.
###
ABOUT UNA-USA

The United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA), a program of the UN Foundation, is a membership organization dedicated to inform, inspire, and mobilize the American people to support the principles and vital work of the United Nations. UNA-USA works to accomplish its mission through its national network of chapters, advocacy efforts, education programs, and public events. UNA-USA and its sister organization the Better World Campaign are the single largest network of advocates and supporters of the United Nations in the world. For more information on UNA-USA, visit http://www.unausa.org/.
ABOUT THE UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATION

The United Nations Foundation builds public-private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems, and broadens support for the United Nations through advocacy and public outreach. Through innovative campaigns and initiatives, the Foundation connects people, ideas, and resources to help the UN solve global problems. The Foundation was created in 1998 as a U.S. public charity by entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner and now is supported by global corporations, foundations, governments, and individuals. For more information, visit http://www.unfoundation.org.
Joseph Catapano
United Nations Foundation
(202) 496-6398
Email Information

National Review: Litle American love for the U.N.

Click here to view this article on National Review
By Brett D. Schaefer

Devotees of the United Nations are upset. The House Appropriations Committee recently approved spending “only” $3.5 billion on the U.N. and other international organizations — substantially less than the nearly $4 billion the White House had requested for FY 2013. Among the arguments raised against the committee’s decision, perhaps the least plausible is that the spending cut is “at odds with voters’ wishes.”

That’s the claim advanced by the United Nations Foundation, an independent U.N. “partner” that lobbies Congress and the president to support U.N.-backed positions and to maintain or increase U.S. funding for the U.N. American voters want Congress to fully fund the administration’s budget request for the U.N., the foundation insists. Its evidence? A poll in which more than eight in ten voters said the United States should maintain an “active role within the United Nations.”

It is hardly shocking that the U.N. Foundation would spin, to the U.N.’s advantage, a poll they commissioned to benefit the U.N. But why should U.S. policymakers pay attention to that poll rather than other, more impartial polls that show quite different results?

Gallup, for instance, which has tracked American opinion on the U.N. since 1953, notes that “Americans have never held the United Nations in particularly high esteem, with a historical average of 40% saying it is doing a good job.” In 2012 Gallup asked its standard question, “Do you think the United Nations is doing a good job or a poor job in trying to solve the problems it has to face?” Only 32 percent of Americans answered that the U.N. is doing a “good job,” compared with 61 percent who said it’s doing a “poor job.”

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This is not news. In the 34 Gallup polls that posed the question over the past 40 years, respondents who answered that the U.N. was doing a poor job outnumbered those who thought it was doing a good job, by an aggregate score of 50 to 39 percent. And a Rasmussen poll conducted this month found that 49 percent of likely U.S. voters view the U.N. “at least somewhat unfavorably” versus 42 percent who view it “at least somewhat favorably.”
The U.N. Foundation reports that over 60 percent of Americans think the U.S. should pay its U.N. “dues” in full and on time. Is this outcome really surprising, though? Most Americans are taught to honor their commitments and be personally responsible.

But what about context? The poll never explains the reasoning behind the proposal that the U.S. withhold its dues until the U.N. demonstrates improved performance, better oversight, holding peacekeepers to account for their crimes, or other reforms.

The poll does, however, “push.” In asking whether U.S. membership in UNESCO is important, it supplies the following description of the agency:

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, also known as UNESCO, focuses on education, science and culture around the world. UNESCO helps prevent conflict and build peace around the world by promoting democracy, works to eradicate poverty, and supports education for all. They promote new and innovative ways to educate children in the developing world and help people learn how to provide for themselves.

The wording includes no mention of UNESCO undermining U.S. and Israeli interests by admitting the Palestinian Authority as a member state last year — and after the U.S. told them such action would trigger a suspension of U.S. funding. There is no mention that UNESCO is largely a facilitator, rather than an implementing agency, and that many of its functions could be performed by others. Could anyone doubt that the poll results would have been very different if that information had been presented?

Moreover, Americans might be happy to express support for the U.N. or a U.N. agency in the abstract, especially when told it performs a laudable-sounding mission, but they are much less pleased with other U.N. priorities. A recent Rasmussen poll found that just 5 percent of likely U.S. voters support a proposal that a U.N. agency regulate the Internet. Fully 80 percent oppose the idea.

Since the U.N.’s founding, the U.S. has been its largest financial supporter. Americans are currently charged with paying 22 percent of the regular budget and more than 27 percent of the peacekeeping budget, although they are often disappointed by the U.N.’s inability to live up to its mission. The body’s inaction regarding Syria is but the latest example.

Fraud and mismanagement remain troublingly common. The organization’s oversight mechanisms remain inadequate, as a recent report by the U.N.’s own Joint Inspection Unit explains. Its efforts to address global problems such as terrorism, human trafficking, and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction have been weak, ineffectual, or counterproductive. Indeed, the U.N. cannot even agree on a definition of terrorism.

Many Americans support the founding principles of the U.N. Who doesn’t want to prevent war, promote fundamental human rights, or contribute to higher living standards? But Americans understand as well the bitterly disappointing reality of the U.N. and how far it falls short of those ideals.

American voters expect Congress to be responsible stewards of taxpayer money, not a rubber stamp for the U.N. Our politicians should be vigilant, guarding against impropriety and waste at the U.N., and insisting that U.S. contributions to the U.N. advance U.S. interests.

— Brett D. Schaefer is the Jay Kingham Fellow in International Regulatory Affairs at the Heritage Foundation.

UNDP Blames Arab Spring For Losing $27M Documents, of $800 Afghan Shredder

Click here to read this at InnercityPress.Com

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, June 11 -- The "Arab Spring" was cited Monday by the UN Development Program as an excuse for financial opacity and loss. Inner City Press was the only media covering a June 11 session about UNDP and audit, which was once a hot topic at the UN.
  UNDP's audit droned on in the front; an audio connection from the field could not be hooked up. Then this factoid emerged: the "loss of supporting documentation in Egypt, where $27.3 million in project expenditures could not be audited due to the destruction and loss of documents following the political crisis."
Hearing this, Inner City Press went to the front of the large conference room and asked for a copy of the audit. It was not there.
  UNDP fell under fire in the past for withholding the audits of its program in North Korea. It promised to do better. Monday the proposal was to essentially presume that audits would be public -- but to give "the country concerned" the right to argue for redaction or even withholding in full. We'll have more on this.
  UNDP is run by Helen Clark, who has not held a Q&A press conference in UN headquarter for a very long time, like Ban Ki-moon's top lawyer O'Brien.
 Ban's Peacekeeping chief held a press conference, but refused to answer Inner City Press' questions about he and Ban accepting as an adviser an alleged war criminal, Sri Lankan general Shavendra Silva, and his department introducing cholera to Haiti.
  Ladsous told Inner City Press: "Well, Mister, I will start answering your questions when you stop insulting me and making malicious and insulting insinuations." That video, at Minute 28:10, is online here. On June 11 he told Inner City Press, regarding his French nation's former colony Cote d'Ivoire, "I'm not talking to you, sir," Ladsous told Inner City Press. Perhaps "sir" is progress from "Mister."
  Earlier on June 11 in the North Lawn conferenc room there was the surreal claim that having two UNDP auditors in Kuala Lumpur could help stop corruption at UNDP... in Afghanistan.
  On May 11, Inner City Press asked about corruption in Afghanistan:

Question: On Afghanistan? There is a report that the Monitoring and Evaluation Committee, the Afghan Government, and the international donors have said that the UN system's role in funding the Afghan national police may involve false receipts, what is the UN system’s response? Does it believe that there are problems with the program or that everything is running well?

Spokesperson: Seen the story; speak to UNDP [United Nations Development Programme]. Thanks very much.

And here's from the response UNDP put out, and the UN sent to Inner City Press:

UNDP has a zero tolerance policy towards any form of mismanagement or corruption for its entire country program in Afghanistan. Your article refers to the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan (LOTFA), which is part of our program and helps increase security by training the Afghan National Police—including through payment of salaries. It is audited every year by a globally respected and independent third party auditing firm.

A financial audit recently conducted by KPMG of the 2011 project’s expenditure concluded that there were no financial irregularities. In addition, a comprehensive evaluation of the previous LOTFA phase, also conducted by an external evaluation firm, found no cause for concern.

UNDP notes with concern a statement in your report, which describes a "pattern of bad behavior" at LOTFA – comments you have attributed to an anti-corruption body set up by the Afghan government, the Monitoring and Evaluation Committee. However, their report was released the day before your article was published and makes no reference to “bad behavior”. It does recommend improved oversight and monitoring and UNDP is committed to diligently following up on this.

Moreover, we would like to set the record straight on the following additional allegations in your piece:

1/ For example, a 10-seater sofa set and four tables costing $6,000 -- which the article refers to as “luxury furniture” that might not even have been purchased – were procured with full procedural checks and are still being used by the head of the Afghan Border Police.

2/ The purchase order of a paper shredder, mentioned in your report, matched its $800 price. The purchase was in line with our procurement policy and was only approved after the project justified its need for a more robust product...

Yours truly, Satinder Bindra, Director of Communications - UNDP

  So why the long -- if factually challenged -- response to the WSJ about Afghanistan, including 10-seater sofa set and "robust" $800 shredder?

  Are these the audits which would be redacted or withheld? Watch this site.

Euroepan Union doesn't trust Helen Clark's UNDP anymore. EU pulls the plug$$$ from Projects in Afghanistan (Calls it a corrupt structure)

Wall Street Journal: - EU Freezes Cash for U.N.'s Afghan Police Fund

 

BY DION NISSENBAUM

KABUL—The European Union is blocking the release of €30 million ($37 million) to a United Nations-run fund that finances Afghanistan's police force amid an investigation into alleged mismanagement and corruption at the U.N. program, Western officials in Kabul said.

The EU had previously put the funds on hold pending a determination that the Afghan police force had made certain improvements, the officials said.

European leaders, adding a new condition, decided to keep the funds frozen until they are also satisfied that the U.N. has addressed allegations, reported by The Wall Street Journal on May 10, that officials running the program ...

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ON WALL STREET JOURNAL