INNER CITY PRESS Global Inner Cities Archive 2006

INNER CITY PRESS Global Inner Cities Archive 2006-- Click here for current ICP Global Inner Cities Report, reports from the United Nations

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On Somalia, Security Council Denies African Union Position, Calling It a Mere Point of View, Disagreements on Darfur

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, December 27 -- When is a communique not a communique?

Tuesday in the UN Security Council, meeting about the crisis in Somalia, a number of council members said they would follow the position of the African Union, IGAG and the Arab League, which were slated to meet overnight. For example, Ghana's Ambassador Nanna said, "I am an African, I will follow what the African Union does." The Council meeting broke up Tuesday night without taking any action, leading some to question whether the Council, or the most powerful members on it, were just dallying so that Ethiopia could "finish the job" on the Islamic Courts, as both outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff were asked. Here's video of Annan; Video of Wolff.

Overnight, as reported by BBC, the AU, IGAD and Arab League issued a communique calling for the removal of Ethiopian troops. But after the Council again took no action on Somalia on Wednesday, Inner City Press asked Ghana's Nanna what happened, what about the AU communiqué?

"Which communique?" Amb. Nanna asked.

The one calling on Ethiopia to withdraw its troops from Somalia.

"Oh really. We saw that communiqué, but some of us had questions about it."

Back at the Security Council stakeout, Inner City Press asked the representative of Qatar if any of the other Council members had questioned the authenticity of the joint communiqué.

"I wouldn't not like to comment on that," Qatar's representative said. Similarly, the Ambassador of Sudan, major AU member, said he would not take any questions about Somalia.

The BBC's story about the communique quotes African Union chairman Alpha Oumar Konare. The BBC has not run any retraction. Finally Inner City Press asked the charge d'affaires of the Baidoa-based Transitional Federal Government of Somalia if it was his position that the AU / IGAD / Arab League communiqué was somehow illegitimate. The response began with obligatory praise for the leaders of each group, including Mr. Konare, as well as of the OIC. Then this statement: "I have seen that communique. It is the point of voice of the three organizations. It is not the point of view of the member states."

And so, again: when is a communique not a communique? What powers are delegated to the leadership of inter-governmental organizations like the AU, IGAD and Arab League to take positions during a fast-breaking emergency? Or could it be, in fact, that the Tuesday statements about following whatever position the AU and Arab League would take were just a fig leaf, only true if they adopted a "don't-name-Ethiopia" position?

Inner City Press asked U.S. Amb. Wolff about the AU communique, and about President Bush' reported call to Uganda's Museveni. Amb. Wolff said he had not information to divulge on the latter, and did not answer the former. Video here.

On the sidelines of the Council stakeout, a US official portrayed Qatar as alone in demanding language about all foreign forces leaving Somalia. Another Deputy Ambassador of a Permanent Five country, asked if the split was 14-1, made reference to "a sizeable majority of the Council." Qatar's representative, on camera, said it had not been 14 to 1. He was seen in heated discussions with the Ambassador of Republic of Congo, just outside the Council chamber. Argentina's Ambassador Cesar Mayoral said he hoped this would be the last Council meeting of the year. But what about Somali civilians?

On Sudan, Kofi Annan came to the Security Council at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, and stayed in the Council for more than two hours. The topic was the December 23 letter than Sudan's president Al-Bashir had sent to him. Hedi Annabi went in, Ibrahim Gambari came out. Finally Mr. Annan came out and declared the letter an accomplishment. After Annan left, Sudan's Ambassador denied virtually everything in the letter. Combined with the Council's open diss of the AU's chairman Konare, thinks do not look good for Darfurians.

In the same spot, Annan had taken a few questions, all about diplomacy and where he'll be for New Year's Eve. He had mentioned Afghanistan as a "victory" of the Council and UN, but declined to take a shouted question about Pakistan's just announced policy of planting land mines on its border with Afghanistan, as a flesh-tearing argument that it is cracking down on insurgents. The Annan administration's top duo's last minute deletion from their post-employment restrictions policy, now no longer prohibiting senior ex-officials from lobbying the UN, again went unexplained. No questions were asked about the just-filed Oil for Food class action lawsuit by citizens of Iraq against BNP Paribas and the Australian Wheat Board. UNDP has been asked about its Somali operations, without response as yet. It would be bad form, apparently, to ask any questions about how the UN is run. To the next Secretary-General, then. Here's to 2007.

Fraud in UNDP-Russia Includes Malloch Brown's French Water Scheme and Kalman Mizsei's Excess

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, December 26 -- The fraud in the Russian Federation office of the UN Development Program, blamed on local employees and a mid-level Bulgarian supervisor, may also trace to the very top of UNDP, an ongoing inquiry has found.

The most recent public audit of UNDP, A/61/5/Add.1, cites but does not fully disclose the fraud at the Russia office. Irregularities in UNDP's Russia operations date back at least to 2000, to a controversial water purification project championed by then-incoming UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown. Subsequently the regional director whom Malloch Brown chose, Kalman Mizsei, used the Russia office as a slush fund for personal expenses, while bragging about flying on George Soros' personal plane.

Those disciplined by UNDP, including Stefan Vassilev, now with the Bulgarian military, and Tatiana Gorlatch, required to cover-up for Mr. Mizsei's excesses, may have taken some blame more appropriately apportioned to those above them in the UNDP hierarchy. This is the story of an agency out of control, rarely scrutinized by the press, jealous and abusing of its ever-growing power.

Mark Malloch Brown took over at UNDP in 1999. One of his first moves was to fire three regional directors, including Africa's Thelma Awori and Europe and CIS States' Anton Kruiderink. The latter's replacement, appointed by Mark Malloch Brown, was Kalman Mizsei, who was then with insurance conglomerate AIG and who identifies himself as a close associate of George Soros (a status shared with Mr. Malloch Brown).

Malloch Brown claimed he would bring financial sophistication to what he portrayed as a sleeping UNDP. As quoted in a book he paid over $500,000 to have published, Malloch Brown decided that too few UNDP country offices had "sustainable business models," something he sought to change with so-called "cost-sharing projects" of the type into which UNDP's Latin America Bureau first veered ("UNDP: A Better Way?", pages 299, 295.)

A major initial project was in Russia, where UNDP arranged to be a middleman for a water purification project in St. Petersburg. In fact, the project was financed by and to be carried out by a private company, the French firm SNF Floerger. After misidentifying the beneficiary as Sanofi SA, Malloch Brown told Reuters that UNDP saw its new "role in piloting the project through local red tape." Click here for that Reuters June 18, 2000, article.

Virtually all of the $90 million cost was equipment. UNDP sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation, state that UNDP's role was to help the company evade or avoid paying taxed on importing the equipment. Running UNDP's Russia office at the time was one Philippe Elghouayel. In a UNDP newsletter replete with photos of himself, Malloch Brown called the arrangement "an example of UNDP’s increasing efforts to foster public-private partnerships." Click here for a copy of that UNDP newsletter.

In this scheme, UNDP would charge money to cut through "local red tape." UNDP sources indicate that concern and amazement at this Russian financial scheme and "cost sharing agreement" was widespread within the agency. UNDP would collect a hefty fee for playing the middle-man in a project regarding which is had little technical expertise, in which is role was little more than vehicle for tax evasion. One close observer of the project asked, "This is UNDP's definition of development?" But this is what UNDP has become, at least in some places and parts.

In fairness, others in UNDP argue that the water purification proposal was far from the most outlandish project of the Russia office. They argue that clean water was needed, and that while UNDP's role was that of a middleman, along with Credit Lyonnais Bank, the goal was more to limit the ten to fifteen percent usually required in bribes than to evade taxes. A variety of even less meritorious project have been pointed out, on which we hope to run future reports, not only the Moscow planetarium but also schemes with Russian prisons, social services, oil and environmental matters -- more on UNDP and the environment, and on UNDP's Russia and CIS operations, in the near future.

For barely two years, Frederick Lyons ran the Russian office, until as previously reported a Bulgarian, Stephan Vassilev, was sent to force him out. (Mr. Lyons went on to UNDP in Iran and then Afghanistan.) There are conflicting accounts of Mr. Vassilev, ranging from as the re-establisher of corrupt tied who forced Lyons to grant approval to a dubious project to renovate the Moscow planetarium to, on the other end of the spectrum, relatively upright militarist who might have let corruption continue, but would not have started it. Even if his motives may have been less than pure, Mr. Vassilev was deployed and used by a Malloch Brown-selected regional supervisor, Kalman Mizsei.

Mizsei was, until three months ago, the head of Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States for UNDP. Mark Malloch Brown brought Mizsei, which whom he shares connections to George Soros, into UNDP from the American Insurance Group in late 2000. As described by multiple sources inside and outside of UNDP, Mr. Mizsei was at best a womanizer and more widely described as a serial sexual harasser. Mizsei imported a personal assistant, whom he quickly promoted through the system until she reached her peak in the UNDP office in Ukraine. This individual would, sources say, show up at high level staff meetings and berate Mizsei "like a lover would," a person attending the meeting says. Other female staffers he "hit on" by suggesting they water the flowers at his residence, or bring him UNDP papers, personally, on the weekend.

Kalman Mizsei also abused UNDP and its finances. For example he took a lengthy "study tour" of Russia, all paid by UNDP. There was no academic sponsor for the trip, which consisted of visiting museum with personal guide and translator, paid by UNDP. Mark Malloch Brown was responsible for signing off on these expenses. The number and length of Kalman Mizsei's UNDP-paid visits to Ukraine raised eyebrows in the agency, although often pretexts were found. Click here for UNDP photos of Mizsei's April 2006 sojourn in Ukraine to, among other things, kick off the UN Global Compact with corporations there. Click here for another Mizsei trip to Ukraine, this time for a "mini-Davos" conference. Click here for UNDP in-house news of Mizsei and Ben Slay in Zagreb, Croatia. Click here for news of Mizsei partnering the UN with Coca-Cola. There are other legends about Kalman Mizsei charging UNDP for unneeded helicopter rides over the Balkans, and throwing a cell phone at staffers while screaming, "I demand a woman!"

In the course of his many travels, Kalman Mizsei instructed staff how he needed to be treated: a hotel no more than a twenty minute walk from the work place, flowers when he arrived, and, perhaps incongruously, that no required drinking take place in formal or informal functions (sometimes difficult given the region that he covered).

Sources tell Inner City Press that Kalman Mizsei required that these unjustifiable expenses come out of project budgets in the Russia office. At first it was easy, to find long-finished projects with still open budgets. But later, to meet the costs, full-fledged fraud became required. The replacement as head of the office of Frederick Lyons by Stephan Vassilev was, sources say, orchestrated by Kalman Mizsei, either for Mr. Vassilev to perform a cover-up or to become the scapegoat.

Inner City Press asked UNDP's Communications Office about the Russia office, and also about Kalman Mizsei. Each response increasingly seems like a whitewash:

In a message dated 11/30/2006 11:29:56 AM Eastern Standard Time, cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org writes:

Matthew, Below are the responses to your questions:

Question: Was Kalman Mizsei fired or otherwise relieved or removed from his position with UNDP? If so, on what grounds?

Response: No. As stated previously, at UNDP -- like at other organizations -- with time colleagues retire, move on or are reassigned. After serving six distinguished years at UNDP, Mr. Miszei is now Professor at Central European University's Department of Public Policy in Budapest.

Kalman Mizsei left UNDP in the Fall of 2006. Despite Mark Malloch Brown's refusal to comment, sources tell Inner City Press that Mizsei's antics became so legend, and the fall-out so undeniable, that even Malloch Brown chastised Mizsei. Kalman Mizsei was given a choice: to leave UNDP voluntarily, or to stay but face charges. Mizsei chose the former, and from Hungary has sent emails bragging that he is now a personal advisor to George Soros.

Despite the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General's refusal to comment on Inner City Press' questions about Kalman Mizsei, most recently at the noon briefings of December 1 and December 6, it is noted that Mr. Mizsei was given that very rostrum, as a UN Assistant Secretary General, on April 30, 2004, click here for the Real video, from Minute 13, for six minutes of eyeglasses playing and ironic reference to human trafficking of sex workers and no follow-up questions, click here for the transcript. On the issue of UN rank, UNDP sources say that Kalman Mizsei repeatedly and inaccurately declared that he was an Under-Secretary General. In any event, he represented the UN, and the UN should answer for him; UNDP refuses to.

UNDP's Communications Office has said it will not comment on recruitment, hiring or promotions issues, and will not released audits like that of the Russian Federation office. (Nor will it release a full copy of that audit even to the nations on the UNDP Executive Board.) Mark Malloch Brown, when Inner City Press previously requested comment from him, responded with the word "jerk," click here for that story, in the spirit of full disclosure. Last week, Inner City Press was told it would not be possible to get a comment on reports that Mr. Malloch Brown was responsible for weakening the post-employment policy finalized on December 22, his last day in the office. Therefore this story runs as such, citing, for UNDP, its most recent public audit and long-delayed narrative response.

The most recent public audit of UNDP, A/61/5/Add.1, states

An article entitled "$1.2 million fraud revealed at the U.N. Office in Moscow," in Kommersant, No 163, page 9, quoted UNDP's then-spokesman William Orme that "this appears to be a sophisticated operation that has been difficult to detect. Unfortunately, we detected it only this year." The irregularities of the water purification / tax avoidance scheme dated back much further, however, as did Kalman Mizsei's use of the office. Given the reference to an OAPR report being "released" on Dec. 6, 2005, Inner City Press asked UNDP for this report. UNDP has refused to provide it, but after some delay provided a narrative, which Inner City Press published in full, stating in pertinent part:

"When the extent of the fraud became evident, Mr. Vassilev was summoned to headquarters. He was removed from his post in August 2005 and subjected to disciplinary proceedings stemming from shortcomings in management performance and oversight. Mr. Vassilev is no longer employed by UNDP... UNDP has assigned some of its most experienced staff to the Russia CO. Ercan Murat, a UNDP veteran who had served previously as Resident Representative in Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Afghanistan, came out of retirement to serve as acting Resident Representative in Russia from September 2005 until September 2006. Marco Borsotti, who currently serves as UNDP Resident Representative in Azerbaijan, has received clearance from the Russian Government and is expected to take up his post as the new Resident Representative in January 2007."

Ironically, of Mr. Murat it is reported that while unlike Kalman Mizsei he is not abusive of staff, his brother engaged in business deals in UNDP's Central Asia footprint that generated some controversy within the agency. Of Mr. Borsotti, we hope to have more in the near future -- UNDP's agreement with Russia specifying the procedures and standards to received the above-referenced "clearance" was requested more than ten days ago from UNDP, but has yet to be provided.

Stephan Vassilev returned to the Bulgarian military. Ms. Gorlatch, who was embroiled in a drag-out divorce and child custody fight with an affluent diplomat, may have reasons to stay silent. But given UNDP's refusal to even respond to questions about its recruitment, hiring and promotion practices, or to release audits of the Russian office, Inner City Press runs this interim investigative piece. Again, there are serious people who are arguing that the St. Petersburg water purification proposal was far from the most outlandish UNDP project. A variety of even less meritorious project have been pointed out, including schemes with prisons, social services, oil and environmental matters -- more on UNDP and the environment in the near future. Watch this site.

At the UN, Mysterious Deletion from Iran Sanctions List of Aerospace Industries Organization Goes Unexplained

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, December 23, 1:50 p.m. -- Minutes before the UN Security Council voted 15-0 to impose sanctions on Iran on nuclear issues, a spokesperson emerged from the Chamber and breathlessly told reporters of a particular company which got deleted from the sanctions list at the last moment. Aerospace Industries Organization, listed in previous drafts under "Entities involved in the ballistic missile program," was suddenly taken off the list. A Security Council source, representing a Permanent Five, veto-wielding member, confirmed to Inner City Press that Russia had demanded the deletion of this company.

After the vote, Inner City Press asked the European Union Three ambassadors to explain the deletion. French Ambassador de la Sabliere said it came out as part of the negotiation, in order to get the resolution passed. UK Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry pointed out that three subsidiaries of AIO remain on the list. But why then remove the parent company? What do the other subsidiaries of AIO do?

EU3 leave AIO deletion unexplained

Inner City Press asked U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff to explain the effect of deleting AIO from the list. Ask other members, Amb. Wolff suggested. Next up was Russian Ambassador Churkin. Inner City Press asked, specifically, what the other subsidiaries of AIO do. Amb. Churkin stated that "the sponsors" of the resolution took AIO's name off the list, and when press about what the other subsidiaries of AIO do, stated, "I am not an expert on these matters." But why then demand that the name come off the sanctions list?

Since, as previously reported, the U.S. used online research to compose the sanctions list, here are two top online references to the "Aerospace Industries Organisation" --

From irandefence.net, as a "subsidiary of Iran's Ministry of Defense" -- "The Aerospace Industries Organisation, a subsidiary of Iran's Ministry of Defence, claims to support the manufacturing process by engaging in 'Scud missile restoration'.

From warshipsifr.com, as the manufacturer of "an anti-ship missile named 'Kosar'" -- "recently Iran's Aerospace Industries Organisation revealed it had manufactured an anti-ship missile named 'Kosar.'"

So why would it be so important to Russia to continue being able to do business with this conglomerate, other than three subsidiaries? The three "subordinate entities of AIO" which remained on the sanctions list as enacted are:

Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group -- reportedly has contracted in the past with Russian Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) and Rosvoorouzhenie;

Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group -- reportedly has contracted with Russia's Baltic State Technical University and the China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO); and

Fajr Industrial Group, formerly Instrumentation Factory Plant -- which has been linked, interestingly, with KBR / Halliburton, click here for more.

To be continued.

In other Saturday Security Council action, a resolution on the protection of journalists in armed conflicts was enacted, and then announced to reporters by the Ambassador of Greece. Inner City Press asked how armed conflict is defined -- specifically, if the definition would include situations like Chechnya, and murders of reporters like that of Anna Politkovskaya. The Greek Ambassador turned quickly away from the microphone. Like the question, repeatedly asked, about the double-standard of cracking down on some countries' nuclear programs and not others, some issues are just not discussed at the UN Security Council. But if an alleged nuclear proliferators is included on a sanctions list and then at the last moment is deleted, it should we think be explained.

At the UN, Security Council and GA Games and Holiday Spirit As Revolving Door Ban Disappears on Final Day

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, December 22 -- On the Friday before Christmas, when the General Assembly went deep into the night and the Security Council deferred for one more day a much watered-down resolution on Iran, Kofi Annan's spokesman Stephane Dujarric held what he's called his last press conference. Coincidentally, or not, the long awaited, much-hyped anti-revolving door policy was to be announced. The briefing was begun by Mark Malloch Brown, who praised Stephane Dujarric and then prepared to go. What -- no questions? Well, no. No questions taken at all.

In his opening presentation, Mr. Dujarric mentioned the new post-employment restrictions. Inner City Press asked him to confirm that there had been a stronger draft, which would have precluded senior UN officials, not only those in procurement, from lobbying the UN for two years after leaving. Mr. Dujarric declined to comment on prior drafts, or who made the weakening change -- that individual had just left the room.

The earlier draft, dated June 12, 2006, provided that

"Former staff members at the Assistant Secretary-General level or above are prohibited from making, with the intent to influence, a communication to or appearance before any staff member of the United Nations, regardless of level... This prohibition is effective for two years."

This provision is entirely missing from the finalized policy, which is limited to "staff members participating in the procurement process." All of the Assistant Secretaries-General, and the Deputy Secretary General, were given a Christmas present three days early: the ability to lobby the UN during the next two years. The DSG will, at least initially, be based at Yale University. But the lobbying will have to be watched, particularly in light of the opaque process by which the initial prohibition was removed.

Later on Friday, a UN official gave some rationale for dropping the prohibitions on senior officials, giving rise to a drier, stand-alone story, click here to view.

The mood in the UN briefing room on Friday was like a professor's last day. The journalists, not dissimilar to a school class in a hothouse, thanked Stephane in turn. Reuters regretted being third to AP and Bloomberg -- "as per usual," Bloomberg jibed -- and a wise and wizened Anatolian reporter wished the half-French Steph "bonne chance." Inner City Press said, and meant, "It was a pleasure," a statement that was reciprocated. Then Inner City Press asked about human rights in Zimbabwe, a topic left unaddressed in Kofi Annan's ten years. What about Mugabe's refusal to honor the extradition request for Marian Mengistu?

"The Secretary-General is against impunity," Stephane said, and meant it. But what does it mean? Peter Karim, who held UN peacekeepers hostage, was given a MONUC-brokered position in the Congolese Army. Joseph Kony of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army, although indicted by the International Criminal Court, meets with Mr. Annan's humanitarian envoy and is not close to begin arrested. We are all against impunity. And yet it continues.

Overnight full copies of Paul Volcker's report on UN Oil for Food appeared in the hall outside the UN Spokesman's office. Seven volumes, more fifteen pounds, fine reading for the holiday season.

But the holiday has yet to being, at the UN. The Security Council scheduled Saturday meetings on Iran and journalists and armed conflict. The GA left until 10 then 11 p.m. it's rubber-stamp approval of committees' reports, including the Capital Master Plan. The funding of investigation of Qana caused much consternation, with the U.S., Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands voting negative. Where, one asked, was Ivory Coast? Doesn't Gbagbo want the U.S. vote in the Council?

They droned on in the GA: the Fifth Committee adopted this resolution without a vote. May I take it the General Assembly wished to do the same? (A beat.) It is so decided. And then the swinging of the ceremonial gavel we saw given to Jan Eliason.

From the Security Council itself, it can now be reported: China delayed the resolution continuing diamond sanction on Liberia because of a specific Taiwan issue. To whit, in Brussels a bureaucrat had floated the idea of upgrading Taiwan from observer status in the (blood diamond) Kimberly process. China was so opposed to this it said it would not vote to continue diamond sanctions on Liberia unless the Brussels wonk recanted. And so it was done. In consultations, issues are traded away and it rarely gets reported. Other examples, to be more fully explored in 2007 are Ivory Coast and Abkhazia, and, we predict, Kosovo.

Also noted in the week's vote counts is Ivory Coast joining the U.S. and Palau in opposing resolutions. Gbagbo knows which side his bread is buttered on. And he and his wife Simone prepare, it is reported, to throw UN envoy Pierre Schori out of the country.

In this last week of Security Council action for 2006, several lesser-noticed resolutions are indicative of the Council's flaws. While the Council finally enacted a purported "de-listing" procedure whereby individuals and entities on which the Council has imposed sanctions can try to get off the list, the regime makes a mockery of due process. Instead of providing standards of proof and rules of procedure, it's again a popularity contest and political football. Without the support of (key) Council members, there'll be no de-listing. Pomp and circumstances, a kangaroo court on the west bank of New York's East River, at least as regards the claims of those put on sanctions lists.

But it is not only a hall of mirrors, our Turtle Bay idyll. As night fell on the second shortest day, the Spokesman's office threw its end-of-year, end-of-term party. The food was chips, the drink red wine and scotch. But the stories were, as the credit card ad has it, priceless. Mojitos and cigars on beaches with ambassadors of Brazil, chefs de cabinet decamping to Mexico for a few days. Why, one asked, does Russia get so few top posts? The USSR used to pay eight percent of the budget, and now barely over one percent, comes the answer. And soon after the party, the GA was to meet, on the dry but crucial scale of assessments. We are family.

Kofi Annan himself will be at an undisclosed location in New York for the rest of his term, "available if needed," he's said. There's continued suffering in Darfur, accelerating war in Somalia and, as decried in a little-noticed UN press release, increased abductions of school children in Haiti. We'll have more on and around this last in the near future.

UNDP's Ad Melkert Says He Will Finally Increase Transparency, Describes Fraud in Russia, Dodges Uganda

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN - 14th in a series Intro followed by 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th

UNITED NATIONS, December 15 -- "I'd like to bring our transparency in line with the UN procedure", the Associate Administrator of the UN Development Program, Ad Melkert, answered Inner City Press on Friday. This answer came after UNDP had refused to provide copies or even summaries of audits of its admittedly troubled Russian Federation office, and after Inner City Press pointed out that the UN Secretariat at least provides full copies to any of the 192 member states which make a request. Mr. Melkert added, "That should be normal... Talking about transparency, the best criteria for me is my own transparency.. I'm looking into that right now." Video here, from Minute 45:46.

Inner City Press inquired into a meeting Mr. Melkert held on December 1 with the staff of UNDP's Poverty Group, concerning steps taken to quickly bring Jeffrey Sachs' team from the UN Millennium Group onto the UNDP payroll. Having just referred to transparency, Mr. Melkert nevertheless began with the "hope you are not going to ask me about all the meeting that I've had." He continued that "for this exception case, yes, this First December meeting, I was... It was a managerial decision to merge, it's my responsibility, everybody can and should work with that. With respect to staff rules, we have tried to make the best out of that." While confirming much of what Inner City Press sources have said about the meeting, Mr. Melkert denied that he has told staff not to speak to the press. Time will tell.

Mr. Melkert claimed that UNDP never funded disarmament in Uganda, only "community development." Rather than naming Karamoja, the region in Eastern Uganda in which the program was funded, Mr. Melkert apparently confused it with the Lord's Resistance Army-impacted area he called "Northern Uganda," where he said it is "hard to distinguish from the situation of risk and potential conflict including the roles weapons play." Video here, from Minute 36:25. But William Orme, previously of UNDP's Communications Office, said earlier in the year there was a voluntary disarmament component, and UNDP in Uganda issued a press release announcing the suspension of funding. When the seeming dissembling spreads to the Number Two in the agency, the plot thickens. What will the often invisible Number One, Kemal Dervis, have to say? While his December 18 appearance has been cancelled, Inner City Press was again told on Friday that he will appear on December 21. He can be expected to be asked to spell out UNDP's plan for greater transparency, among other things.

Perhaps as a forerunner of the increased transparency needed at UNDP, hopefully as a sample of the type of response that will come regarding other scandals and locales inquired into, the following was provided to Inner City Press in response to questions:

Subject: UNDP responses

From: cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org

To: Inner City Press

"On UNDP's Russia office: Three Resident Representatives have headed the UNDP Country Office (CO) in the Russian Federation since it began operations in 1997. Philippe Elghouayel served from August 1997 until January 2001. Frederick Lyons served from March 2001 until April 2003. Stefan Vassilev served as acting Resident Representative from April until June 2003, and then as Resident Representative from September 2003 until August 2005.

A full internal UNDP audit of the Russia Country Office was conducted in August 2001. This cited numerous shortcomings and gave the CO an overall rating of "deficient." A follow-up partial audit was conducted in September 2003. This noted improvement in many areas and issued a rating of "partially satisfactory."

The discovery of suspected fraudulent activity triggered an internal investigation in June 2005. This investigation concluded that one payment amounting to $190,000 was fraudulent. Additional payments that could be fraudulent were under investigation. Three former UNDP staff members, all locally employed Russian nationals, were implicated in the fraud. All three resigned from the Country Office before the investigation was launched.

When the extent of the fraud became evident, Mr. Vassilev was summoned to headquarters. He was removed from his post in August 2005 and subjected to disciplinary proceedings stemming from shortcomings in management performance and oversight. Mr. Vassilev is no longer employed by UNDP.

In September 2005, drawing on the evidence collected in the investigation, the UNDP Administrator made an official request to Russian law enforcement authorities to open a criminal investigation into the fraud. Such an investigation was opened by the Moscow Prosecutor and is currently under way, with UNDP's active cooperation.

UNDP informed its Executive Board of the fraud, as part of its regular reporting processes. In the wake of the special audit and rigorous internal reviews, UNDP has undertaken a painstaking restructuring of its finance operations and management structure, enacting the recommendations both of UNDP auditors and of a regular UN Board of Auditors audit conducted early in 2006. In addition, oversight roles and functions have been carefully reviewed at Headquarters, and fresh efforts have been devoted to ensuring that audit recommendations are heeded.

To support these corrective efforts, UNDP has assigned some of its most experienced staff to the Russia CO. Ercan Murat, a UNDP veteran who had served previously as Resident Representative in Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Afghanistan, came out of retirement to serve as acting Resident Representative in Russia from September 2005 until September 2006. Marco Borsotti, who currently serves as UNDP Resident Representative in Azerbaijan, has received clearance from the Russian Government and is expected to take up his post as the new Resident Representative in January 2007.

The effectiveness of UNDP's corrective measures was recently confirmed through an independent external review which judged the management practices of the Russia CO to be fundamentally sound and in line with UNDP regulations and standards."

There. Some of the things not yet addressed are the Brussels funding for the Moscow planetarium project, as well as the other requested audits concerning Honduras, Afghanistan and the Private Sector Unit of the Bureau of Resources and Strategic Partnerships. There is also the reference to "receiv[ing] clearance from the Russian Government," more on which anon.

In fairness, on Thursday evening UNDP sent Inner City Press among other things this denial:

---Original Message-----
Subject: UNDP responses

From: cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org

To: Inner City Press
Sent: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 7:00 PM

"Dear Matthew, regarding the allegations relating to the Bratislava Regional Centre... Ben Slay has not collected any improper daily sustenance allowance at any time. We find no suggestion that his predecessor did, either, but because his tenure ended some time ago, we are pulling additional records out of storage to confirm this. The Vienna office you appear to be making reference to opened before Ben Slay even arrived as Director of the Bratislava Centre. Ben Slay sometimes works from the Vienna office. He does not collect DSA for doing so. "

Sources in Bratislava indicate that the individual opened a small UNPD office in Vienna, then sought to recruit other UNDP officials in Slovakia to relocate to Vienna, "to make his move look less strange." When an investigation into UNDP-Bratislava and the antics of Kalman Mizsei began, the individual hurriedly moved back to Slovakia...

Again, because a number of Inner City Press' UNDP sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to conclude this installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals of UNDP and many of its staff. As they used to say on TV game shows, keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we apologize for any phone tag, but please continue trying, and keep the information flowing.

UNDP Questions Mount, Mark Malloch Brown Calls Them Irresponsible, Answers Only in Vanity Press

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 4, lightly edited Dec. 7 -- As additional information arrives in the wake of last week's sudden re-assignment of Brian Gleeson, the head of the UN Development Program's Office of Human Resources, Inner City Press on Monday morning sought comment from Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, previously the Administrator of UNDP. It is reported by staff that Mr. Gleeson repeatedly invoked Mr. Malloch Brown's name to justify what he called his best practices policies, and stated that Mr. Malloch Brown was going to make him head of the UN Secretariat's Office of Human Resources and Management.

In the wide hallway between the UN General Assembly and Security Council, Inner City Press approached Mark Malloch Brown with a series of questions, beginning with a request for comment on the re-assignment of Brian Gleeson.

Mr. Malloch Brown replied, "You are a jerk. You are the most irresponsible journalist I've come across." And then he walked away.

Inner City Press called after him that there were other questions. Many are contained in the first four installment of this ongoing UNDP series. An additional question, regarding favoritism and entitlement, involved the use not only of UNDP but also of UNFPA, to dole out to a Malloch Brown ally a job in Turkey, sources tell Inner City Press, when the MMB ally's spouse had a UNDP job in Turkey. Numerous staff members have come forward with complaints of favoritism, abuse and threats of retaliation. If Mr. Malloch Brown is right, perhaps they are all irresponsible jerks. But perhaps Mr. Malloch Brown is not right.

Another question, which Inner City Press raised Friday to the Secretariat's Office of the Spokesman as well as to UNDP, is how Mark Malloch Brown decided to commission the recent book, "UNDP: A Better Way?" The book's author, Craig N. Murphy thanks as his first acknowledgement "Mark Malloch Brown, who hired me to write this history. He offered the unbeatable combination of... a good salary and travel budget."

Mr. Malloch Brown having declined, at 10:44 a.m., to take questions, Inner City Press at noon reiterated the question to the Secretariat's spokesman: how did Malloch Brown decide to have this glowing history writing, how was the author selected and how much was he paid? Was he paid from UNDP core funds? Beyond the still-unspecified "good salary" paid to the author, UNDP retained the copyright. The book, perhaps not surprisingly, effusively praises Mr. Malloch Brown. It is reminiscent, to one UN-immersed reader, of the "Great Book" of Turkmenbashi, the President for Life of Turkmenistan, a volume known as Ruhnama.

From the field, UNDP Resident Representatives have over the weekend written to Inner City Press with congratulations for its series on UNDP, which began with a November 29 report on the reassignment of Brian Gleeson. In that report, Inner City Press noted that there were competing theories for Gleeson having been told to resign. More specific information has arrived, that while UNDP is authorized to have some 65 officials at the D-2 level, a recent check found more than 110 officials received D-2 payments and perks. This played a role, as it would in nearly any other organization, in making a change at the top of the Office of Human Resources.

Additionally, a letter to a funder nation, purportedly dated November 4 and giving a seven- to ten-day window to respond, was delivered to the nation's representatives after the deadline, a snafu also cited in the re-assignment of Mr. Gleeson.

[Paragraph excised, see Note below.]

It is reported that Mr. Malloch Brown brought Brian Gleeson into UNDP as a consultant on efficiency, and that this later became a high (and high paying) job at UNDP. This is similar to the current process by which associates of Jeffrey Sachs are being put onto UNDP's payroll outside of UNDP's normal recruitment and hiring procedures.

As one specific example, for this mid-day report, Inner City Press is informed that Guido Schmidt-Traub, still listed on the web site of the UN Millennium Project, is already working at and paid by the UNDP Poverty Group. Meanwhile, sources tell Inner City Press, the post Mr. Schmidt-Traub has been given is still purportedly being advertised to create the appearance of a normal recruitment process. More on this in forthcoming reports. UNDP's Communications Office, along with Mr. Kemal Dervis, was asked about this on the morning of Friday, December 1, in written questions reference a deadline of later that day. On Monday the response has been that the questions will be answered sometime this coming week. To date, the candor of the responses, the delay and obfuscation, are not acceptable. Perhaps they are, to adopt a phrase from the hallway, irresponsible.

MMB w/ FM of Uganda (click here for earlier analysis of UNDP's role in ongoing violent disarmament)

Regarding Mr. Malloch Brown's impact on UNDP staff in Vietnam, again for example, the following arrived last week:

Subject: Update on Brian Gleeson Story, for Mr. Matthew Russell Lee

From: [Name withheld upon request]

To: matthew.lee [at] innercitypress.com

Sent: Fri, 1 Dec 2006 3:44 AM

Dear Mr. Matthew Russell Lee,

I write as Vietnamese staff member at UNDP Viet Nam. I wish remain anonymous to protect my job, but I feel is my duty to write you about other linkages with Mr. Brian Gleeson and high salary appointments by Senior Management in our Country Office.

The story on Mr. Brian Gleason is quite demoralizing for many UNDP staff who carry out their duties with honesty, integrity and fairness... our senior management approved a number of high paying international appointments without following required procedures and regulations of UNDP.

Many of us national staff know that former Resident Representative at UNDP Viet Nam Mr. Jordan Ryan (a close friend of Mr. Mark Malloch Brown) and the Deputy Resident Representative of Operations Mr. Neil Reece-Evans (a close friend of Mr. Brian Gleeson) collaborated to recruit through the "back door" an American friend from the past Mr. Jonathan Pincus at very high paying job in our office.

Mr. Brian Gleeson was informed but he choose to ignore. Mr. Jonathan Pincus then use similar procedure to hire his friends in the office and on projects. [Click here for more.]

[For the record: On Dec. 4, three days after this story was published, UNDP wrote that "Hiring at the Vietnam country office takes place according to standard UNDP procedures. Jonathan Pincus, a tenured professor at the University of London, was recruited in 2004 as Senior Country Economist in a transparent and competitive process. He was not previously known to any senior staff at the UNDP Vietnam Country Office. Dr. Pincus is a widely recognized expert in his area and has made substantial contributions to UNDP and the wider UN system’s work in Vietnam. With respect to the staff letter posted on your website, UNDP has been a leader in establishing channels through which staff can air their grievances or report misconduct without fear of retaliation. Among other measures, UNDP has put in place an anonymous fraud hotline and a mechanism to file complaints on sexual harassment and abuse of authority." And see Inner City Press's December 7 article, the eighth installment in this UNDP Series, also on Vietnam - click here to view.]

Regarding Kalman Mizsei, by many accounts chased out of UNDP earlier this year after multiple complaints of sexual harassment -- including having brought and hired young women from Central Europe and then applied inappropriate pressure -- it now appears that Mr. Malloch Brown was among those who heard or tolerated Mr. Mizsei's racialist rant in a taxi in South Africa in 2002. "Zero tolerance" for some and not for others, it appears.

The UNDP produced, Malloch Brown-commissioned book "UNDP: A Better Way?" refers, at 297, to the UN Millennium Project's "Jeffrey Sachs, the economist whom Malloch Brown had bought in." Given that Mr. Malloch Brown declined, at 10:44 a.m., to take questions, Inner City Press at noon asked this question of the spokeswoman for the president of the General Assembly, who'd been speaking about the Millennium Development Goals: what is the status of the UN Millennium Program, and how many if any of its staffers are being hired by UNDP and on what basis? If not from Mr. Malloch Brown and the Secretariat, and if only after already days-delay from UNDP, then from the General Assembly President's always professional spokeswoman, an answer should soon be forthcoming.

News analysis: When now outgoing U.S. Ambassador John Bolton called a Malloch Brown speech the most irresponsible act by the Secretariat he'd seen, Inner City Press asked Amb. Bolton to compare the speech to Rwanda. But hyperbole is not limited to one side of the debate. Among the UN press corps, even some supporters of Mr. Malloch Brown opine that the questions he faced about his living arrangement have left him too quick to conclude that any questioning or investigating of the UN must come from the far right (viz. his references to Fox News and Rush Limbaugh earlier this year.)

In 2005, Mr. Malloch Brown pointedly advised journalists to question their motives. But as seen for example with UNDP's attempt to cover-up that a disarmament program it funded in Uganda resulted in human rights abuses, trying to mislead, intimidate or insult the press doesn't help an institution nor its real-world constituents. As the UN's Jan Egeland again confirmed in agreeing to respond to Inner City Press' questions on Monday, the abuses in Eastern Uganda continue, with nary a word for example on UNDP's Uganda web site. On disarmament, UNDP's presumably non-irresponsible web site Uganda website still trumpets the government's round-up of guns in May 2006, reciting that "Mr. Cornelis Klein, outgoing UNDP Resident Representative, hailed the GoU for having taken a lead in the SALW [Small Arms and Light Weapons] program by, among others, establishing the Ugandan National Action Plan on SALW." Jan Egeland's response on Wednesday about Eastern Uganda's Karamoja region should go online here soon.

[Dec. 7 note - In the above, certain details have been removed so that there is less distraction from the subject of this series: the UN Development Program. According to the Secretariat's spokesman's December 7 lecture, these were the details which led to the December 4 comments of the Deputy Secretary-General, ex-Administrator of UNDP. While the paragraph now-missing above was only reported after Mr. Malloch Brown's comments, and therefore cannot have formed a basis for Brown's comments, they are excised in order to keep the focus on UNDP. Back to the substance - click here for a list of the most recent articles.]

As UN Speechifies, UNDP Audits Are Still Being Withheld, While War in Somalia and Sudan, Pronk Blogs On

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN - 9th in a series

UNITED NATIONS, December 8 at 6 pm, updated below -- With Kofi Annan's Special Representative Jan Pronk back in Sudan for what seems the final time, Annan's spokesman on Friday on noon continued deflecting and stonewalling requests for simple information about an ally of Mark Malloch Brown whom he had extensively defended the previous day. At five p.m. deadline UNDP informed Inner City Press by email that an audit of fraud in UNDP's Russia office, responsive to a December 1 request, would not be released. UNDP states that no such information, nor comments on allegations of violations of UN hiring practices rules, will be released.

Less than an hour later, Inner City Press found at the UN Spokesman's Office document counter a press release by UNDP, apparently placed there much earlier in the day, which makes a number of claims. Click here to view. Ironically, UNDP did not email a copy to Inner City Press, nor ask any question for comment prior to its "publication." UNDP tries to argue that individuals named in this series were not contacted prior to publication. In fact, Inner City Press called the direct lines of Brian Gleeson, Nora Lustig, Romesh Muttukumaru and others, as well as directly asking and attempt to ask questions of Kemal Dervis on Nov. 27 and Mark Malloch Brown on December 4.

Mr. Dervis, the head of a $5 billion UN Program, has not held a press conference in 14 months. There is more that will be said, while not deviating from the substance of this series on UNDP. This is merely an update a half-an-hour after seeing strangely UNDP's blind side press release, just before the festive annual ball of the UN Correspondents Association.

Earlier on Jan Pronk, the spokesman said he wasn't sure if he was actually in-country. If the Dutch press had it, one might think that the UN would know. The Number Two on story 38, however, is adverse or lacks knowledge about new media. He called workplace reporting about UNDP "irresponsible" and its purveyor a "jerk." Then his spokesman loyally sketched a scenario in which the "personal" material about Brian Gleeson would come down, and apology be offered. Click here for the transcript. The material came down, in the spirit of diplomacy, and the spokesman was so informed. Video here, at Minute 19:40. But the stonewalling continued.

Question: if at the direction of Mark Malloch Brown the spokesman is so quick to trash a journalist with whom he purports to joke, in robust defense of a friend of Mr. Brown, how can the spokesman the next day refuse to answer any question about the Malloch friend? It is hard to comprehend. Or it is the way that power work, in the late Annan-Brown regime. Everything's genteel until the wrong toes are trodden on. Then the gloves come off. The effect is to stonewall reporting on one of the UN's largest programs. Despite its annual budget of $5 billion, UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis has been allowed to go 14 months without taking questions. Last week, after the UN ruled that even a ritual Memorandum of Understanding signing with the Islamic Development Bank couldn't be attended, an in-house photo came out.

Dervis with press kept at bay

Today Mr. Dervis is in Vietnam, and so we continue our reporting, from a UNDP volunteer there, an on-the-record source since UNDP cannot retaliate, at least not directly. Pierre De Hanscutter was a computer / IT volunteer with UNDP in Vietnam. He states that while there, he attended a meeting in which UNDP proposed to buy computer equipment and services, from a company managed by the Vietnamese military, TECAPRO, at costs up to 35 times the going rate. Pierre De Hanscutter has provided a document, click here to view [which for now is blocked out by UNDP's Dec. 8 press release]. For example, he says, the purchase of a wireless router for $3500, when it normally priced at $120. His immediate boss Bui Khanh Huong made these arrangement, and Pierre De Hanscutter states that neither the top guy, Neil Reece nor the middleman Koen Van Acoleyn did anything to stop it. Mr. Reece said only that it would be good if it could be 10% cheaper.

Pierre De Hanscutter's check of UNDP computer security found 15% of computers entirely unprotected, including that of the office's director. After raising the over-paying and other irregularities first to UNDP-Vietnam and then by letter to the UN in New York, Pierre De Hanscutter says he was told to no longer work in the office. Now outside the UNDP system, Pierre De Hanscutter has called for an investigation of UNDP in Vietnam, including its relation with TECAPRO. Is Kemal Dervis there to investigate? It doesn't sound like it. And so the questions mount, for his belated December 18 presser.

Along with two questions posed with a five o'clock deadline (to be further reported out and with the responses to follow in full), and December 6 questions not even responded to, here was a question posed, and the response:

"responsive to earlier still-unanswered question, please provide the investigative report on UNDP's Russian Federation office referred to in the paragraph below, which is in the most recent audit of UNDP, A/61/5/Add.1, at page 22:

"Potential fraud had been detected at the Russian Federation office and reported to it for further investigation. The Office of Audit and Performance Review performed an investigation and released its report on 6 December, 2005. This report concluded that one payment amounting to $190,000 was fraudulent. Additional payments that could be fraudulent were under further investigation. Two former UNDP staff members were implicated in the perpetration of those transactions (the former Assistant Resident Representative for Operations, who resigned on 20 April, 2005, and a former Project Administrator who resigned on 1 November, 2004). These cases were also reported by the Administrator of UNDP to the authorities of the Russian Federation on 15 September, 2005 for further action."

And please provide an update." On this the following arrived, twenty minutes after deadline, thus confined to later in this report:

-
From: [CW at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 5:20 PM
Subject: RE: deadline today 5 p.m.

...we are still working to provide you with a response to your 1 December question on our Russia Country Office (you asked about "any and all investigations undertaken in the past 10 years", not just about the 2005 investigation). In response to your above request for the 2005 investigation report, please note that we do not release the reports of our internal audits and investigations. The results of these reports, however, are communicated on an annual basis to the UNDP Executive Board in the form of an annual Administrator’s report on Internal Audit and Oversight (this is the longer document that contains the text you have pasted above). The reports of UNDP’s external auditors are available at http://www.unsystem.org/auditors/.

How convenient, this non-release of "the reports of [UNDP] internal audits and investigations." We'll have more on this shortly, including once at least some of the December 6 UNDP questions are answered.

Update of 7:25 p.m. -- More than six hours after UNDP published its naming-names press release, UNDP finally sent Inner City Press a copy, along with a reiteration of the above with a new promise to be even less transparent:

Subject: Your UNDP queries

From: cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
cc: dujarric, et al. [at] un.org
Sent: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 7:13 PM

UNDP is working to address the numerous questions you have asked us. As many of your concerns touch upon similar kinds of issues we thought it might be helpful if we were to state, for the record:

That we do not release the reports of our internal audits and investigations. The results of these reports are communicated on an annual basis to the UNDP Executive Board in the form of an annual Administrator’s report on Internal Audit and Oversight, which we believe you already have. The reports of UNDP’s external audits are available at http://www.unsystem.org/auditors/.

That we will no longer be responding to unsubstantiated allegations about UNDP’s recruitment and personnel practices. We urge you to desist from publishing such allegations, however, as doing so can harm the reputations and be personally hurtful to innocent colleagues. As previously communicated to you, UNDP has in place checks and balances to ensure transparency, and mechanisms to allow staff to air their concerns. We also have effective mechanisms for redressing legitimate grievances. Like any organization, we of course could undoubtedly do better. But our 2005 Global Staff Survey indicates that morale at UNDP is at the highest level since the survey began in 1999, with 74 per cent of staff saying they would recommend UNDP as a good place to work.

Finally, kindly find attached a statement that we issued today.

Regards,

Cassandra Waldon

"Finally" is right - it was six hours after UNDP distributed the press release. The statement that UNDP "will no longer be responding to unsubstantiated allegations about UNDP’s recruitment and personnel practices" means, for example, that questions about violations of the UN System's stated hiring practices will simply not be answered by UNDP. Perhaps UNDP sees an opportunity, in the time Secretary-General transition with some key Under-Secretaries General already gone, to declare independence from transparency, the press and the public. We'll see.

By contrast, fast answers were provided Friday on Sudan and Somalia -- the sides should talk, always a fine thing to say -- and a speech made up on the Congo. Video here, from Minute 14:20. On Somalia, the spokesman said he hadn't seen reporters of increased shelling by Ethiopia (click here for one) and of Uganda chomping at the bit to send troops against the Islamic Courts Union. "The S-G would call on those who send troops to reach out to all Somalis," the spokesman speechified. Great. Meanwhile what has the UN's envoy Francois Lonseny Fall been doing? He's been to Mogadishu once. And the requested list of the UN's partners in Mogadishu? It has still not been provided, nor a simple list that was promised days ago. This regime is just playing out the string. And the gangsters, in the tent and out, seem to sense it...

Update of 7 p.m. -- Less than an hour after this article was published, and less than two after the emailed response above, Inner City Press found at the UN Spokesman's Office document counter a press release by UNDP, apparently placed there much earlier in the day, which makes a number of claims. Ironically, UNDP did not email a copy to Inner City Press, nor ask any question for comment prior to its "publication." UNDP tries to argue that individuals named in this series were not contacted prior to publication. In fact, Inner City Press called the direct lines of Brian Gleeson, Nora Lustig, Romesh Muttukumaru and others, as well as directly asking and attempt to ask questions of Kemal Dervis on Nov. 27 and Mark Malloch Brown on December 4.

From Sleaze in Vietnam to Fights in DC-1, UNDP Appears Out of Control at the Top

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN - 3d in a series

UNITED NATIONS, December 1 -- In UNDP's far-flung empire, the strings are pulled for giving jobs by a very few hands in New York. This week the director of UNDP's Office of Human Resources Brian Gleeson was "re-designated" without notice to a quickly created Special Advisor post. Since Inner City Press' Wednesday night report on this, mail has flooded in. Below is a sample message regarding Vietnam, the author of which requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation by UNDP.

Where UNDP employees' communications allow for direct follow-up, Inner City Press has been calling UNDP. Friday Inner City Press telephoned the head of UNDP's Poverty Project Nora Lustig. UNDP sources have told Inner City Press that Ms. Lustig was brought in to UNDP in April 2006, outside of the normal channels, and that she has since then similarly brought on a crew of her own. Click here for Ms. Lustig on film.

Friday Ms. Lustig's secretary told Inner City Press that she was in a meeting, but wrote down a question and request for comment on a detailed account Inner City Press has heard from multiple sources of a incident in which, allegedly, Ms. Lustig was abusive to a UK staffer, in front of a representative from the UK Home Office, who complained of Ms. Lustig's behavior. The story goes on from there, and may soon be told at greater length in this space. In fairness get Ms. Lustig's comment, Inner City Press left a detailed question with her secretary, in the building known as DC-1 otherwise known as a maze. Ms. Lustig's secretary called back to say that Ms. Lustig was referring Inner City Press to Kemal Dervis' personal spokeswoman, who in turn stated that the deputy communications official of UNDP would call with answers, which never happened, as of 9:55 p.m. deadline.

Because of the involvement of UK officials and personnel, Inner City Press on Friday asked UK Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry about the incident, and whether he thought it appropriate, as a matter of UN reform and transparency, that the head of UNDP has not held a press conference in 14 months. Amb. Jones Parry said he would not be aware of the former, and had no comment on the latter, other than pro forma praise for UNDP. Further inquiries have been made with the UK mission.

At UNDP, a pattern of favoritism in hiring is emerging. Regarding Vietnam the following arrived:

Subject: Update on Brian Gleeson Story, for Mr. Matthew Russell Lee

From: [Name withheld upon request]

To: matthew.lee [at] innercitypress.com

Sent: Fri, 1 Dec 2006 3:44 AM

Dear Mr. Matthew Russell Lee,

The story on Mr. Brian Gleason is quite demoralizing for many UNDP staff who carry out their duties with honesty, integrity and fairness.

But no organization is 100% clean. Senior Management of UNDP Viet Nam often advise our Party and Government on transparency and stamping out corruption, even while some of us know that some elements inside our office are not always clean.

But it seems that lower paid national staff are held at much higher standard than senior international staff who run our office. One female national staff member was made to suffer greatly for two years following minor infraction and then forced out of the organization.

Meanwhile not long after, our senior management approved a number of high paying international appointments without following required procedures and regulations of UNDP.

Mr. Brian Gleeson was informed but he choose to ignore. Mr. Jonathan Pincus then use similar procedure to hire his friends in the office and on projects.

Everything was made correct on paper according to procedure, but recruitment decisions were made prior to "official advertisements" and a recruitment process that was superficial and not clean.

Meanwhile there are many national economists in Viet Nam who can do the job at much lower cost or even other foreign economists living in Hanoi who require much less pay and can save transportation costs.

Some of these appointments should now be reviewed and cancelled and a proper recruitment process undertaken with open, fair and transparent competition for Vietnamese economists in our country. Mr. Kemal Dervis will visit our country next week, but we dare not speak.

I wish to remain anonymous. This seems only way to clean our organization.

This desire to clean up UNDP is widespread at the non-top levels of UNDP. And the account of bogus competitive evaluations for job which have already in reality been doled out to favored insiders is echoed from elsewhere in the system.

On Friday morning, Inner City Press put to Kemal Dervis and three members of his communications staff a set of six questions, one of which concerns hiring practices at UNDP Vietnam. As of six o'clock, there had been no response from UNDP. Therefore Inner City Press made two telephone calls to UNDP. Kemal Dervis' personal spokeswoman told Inner City Press that the agency's deputy spokesperson would be calling with answers. But as of 9:30 p.m. deadline, no information was forthcoming.

Now, after Inner City Press on Friday asked one and then another of the Permanent Five Security Council members' UN Ambassadors countries for their views on Kemal Dervis not having held a press conference in 14 months, Inner City Press is informed that Mr. Dervis will deign to take questions, it is believed on December 14. We'll see.

Again, because a number of Inner City Press' UNDP sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to conclude this second installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals of UNDP and many of its staff. As they used to say on TV game shows, keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we apologize for any phone tag but keep the information coming -- "to clean [the] organization" of UNDP, as said above by the economist in Vietnam.

In UNDP, Drunken Mis-Managers on the Make Praised and Protected, Meet UNDP's Kalman Mizsei

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN, 2d in a Series

UNITED NATIONS, November 30 -- Drunk on a plane to Turkey, making racialist comments in a taxi in Johannesburg, engaging in sexual harassment and the awarding of jobs in expectation of sexual favors at the UN's Headquarters in New York. These are snapshots of the director for Europe and the CIS Countries for the UN Development Program, Kalman Mizsei, before he was finally asked and allowed to resign in September of this year.

A number of UNDP sources, including in Central Europe, have described for Inner City Press the tenure of Kalman Mizsei (pronounced, Mee-Jay) which included overseeing serious corruption at UNDP's Moscow office, in which funds from the European Union for rehabilitating the Moscow planetarium went missing, and UNDP served as a veneer for sole source contracts in exchange for 10% of the money passing through. Kalman Mizsei, a neo-conservative economist, was a proponent of these financial schemes, in which UNDP made money (built up "local resources," in the agency's parlance) for serving as a conduit on projects including by the World Bank for such things as irrigation and sewage projects.

Since UNDP had no technical expertise in these areas, it was easy for money to be stolen. But since so few journalists, at least at and around UN Headquarters, cover UNDP, and since UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis makes himself unavailable to the media, not having held a press conference in 14 months, the well-meaning agency continues to be run into the ground. This is part two in Inner City Press' periodic series, Profiles in Kemal Dervis' UNDP.

First, the current set up. On November 27, Inner City Press sought to question Kemal Dervis in the entrance of UN Headquarters. "I don't take questions like this," Mr. Dervis answered. On November 29, Inner City Press sent questions by email to Mr. Dervis and his communications staff, including

Question: Was Kalman Mitzei fired or otherwise relieved or removed from his position with UNDP? If so, on what grounds?

On November 30, the following was sent from UNDP:

Subject: RE: Press questions, on deadline, re UNDP [and] Kalman Mitzei, etc.

From: [at] undp.org

To: Inner City Press

Sent: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 11:28 AM

Matthew, Below are the responses to your questions: [Question: Was Kalman Mitzei fired or otherwise relieved or removed from his position with UNDP? If so, on what grounds?]

The six distinguished years included an incident on a plane to Turkey, in which a drunken Kalman Mizsei assaulted a stewardess and the police were called, until the UN system helped extricate Mizsei from the problem. Inebriated or not, there were racist comments by Mizsei in a taxicab in Johannesburg, in earshot of a(nother) close associate of Mark Malloch Brown, then-head of UNDP and now Deputy Secretary-General. Sources indicate to Inner City Press that Kalman Mizsei's antics, including sexual harassment and violation of hiring rules in search of sexual favors, were "legend" within UNDP. That nothing was done for so long, and that UNDP continues to this day in response to direct questions about why Mizsei left to cover it up, is indicative of more serious problems.

In his capacity as Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS, Mizsei presided over mismanagement by UNDP Russian of a World Bank-funded sewer project. (The direct mis-manager, it is reported, is still working at the UN Office of Project Services, UNOPS, more regarding which later in this series.) The next UNDP Russia manager, Fred Lyons, made the mistake of firing a local-hire Russian employee. After that, Mizsei sent a fixer, a 33-year old Bulgarian who moved Fred Lyon out of the way (to Afghanistan) and took his job -- and then went on the lam himself, embroiled in a smaller, only $1 million UNDP Russia scandal with one Tatiana Gorlov.

Beyond these so-called smaller scandals, UNDP's business model in the Mark Malloch Brown era grew to include using UNDP's "excess administrative capacity" to become a middleman for project funded by others, about which UNDP knew little. Fees of up to 10% were paid to UNDP, for holding money for as little as one day. UNDP would provide the veneer of a legitimate bid-out and tender process, but in many cases the winner was pre-selected, and money even wired to them, before the supposed competition was held. This was and is called "mobilizing local resources," and was praised from the highest levels of UNDP.

One aside and interim update about Brian Gleeson, who yesterday was "redesignated" from heading up UNDP's Office of Human Resources to a Senior Advisor to Surge position: some Gleeson supporters, while not disputing that Kemal Dervis attempted to fire Gleeson as, in September, Kalman Mizsei was fired, say that along with the other issues, Gleeson refused to quash one or more investigations that Dervis wanted stopped. Brian Gleeson's office was called to discuss just this type of nuance. Watch this space.

But back to Kalman Mizsei. After a series of complaints, finally in September 2006, sources say, Mizsei was advised to resign or fire himself. Since returning to Hungary, he has bragged about, among other things, being a personal adviser to George Soros, even a nephew. Despite a number of UNDP sources placed at different levels of the agency saying that Mizsei was a disgrace and even a laughing-stock, an email query to Kemal Dervis and his communications staff this week resulted in the claim that Mizsei's service was distinguished and his departure entirely voluntary. If these are UNDP's and Dervis' standards, it is a sad day for the world's poor.

Because a number of Inner City Press' UNDP sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to conclude this second installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals of UNDP and many of its staff. As they used to say on TV game shows, keep those cards and letters (and now, emails) coming.

UNDP Sources Say Dervis Fires Malloch Brown-linked Officials, Then Offers Hush-Up Jobs

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, November 29 -- Kemal Dervis, the administrator of the UN Development Programme, sent out an email mid-afternoon on November 29 stating that the Director of UNDP's Office of Human Resources, Brian Gleeson, was taking a lower-level job as a Senior Advisor. UNDP sources tell Inner City Press that the Special Advisor position was quickly created after two events. In the first, UNDP moved to fire Brian Gleeson for having funneled high-paying jobs, outside of normal channels, to associates of UN Deputy Secretary-General, and former UNDP Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown. According to these UNDP sources, alternative grounds for firing or requesting resignation involved sexual harassment or the outright sale of jobs for cash, or first month's salary. Then, between 11 a.m. and Mr. Dervis' 2:20 p.m. email, something changed. Some say Mark Malloch Brown intervened. Other say Mr. Gleeson went to the office of Kemal Dervis and showed evidence of other improprieties at UNDP which he would release if the firing proceeded. Suddenly the Senior Advisor position was offered, effective immediately.

This is also a story about an agency and its personnel being unable or unwilling to answer simple factual questions on a timely basis. By telephone and email, and in person in the case of Kemal Dervis, Inner City Press sought comment on these UNDP issues. The agency's head of Communications William Orme was told that these were questions on deadline, but made no response. Brian Gleeson was called and a detailed message was left with his secretary. Given the lack of subsequent response, only this film, click here, can be offered, expressing dissatisfaction at "certain political leaders" and at reporters for not telling the UN's story. You have to return calls, some reporters say.

In the UN Headquarters building, the UN spokesman was asked to seek comment, including from Mark Malloch Brown. Was Malloch Brown consulted prior to Mr. Gleeson's redesignation? Did Malloch Brown play any role in this process? These are yes or no questions.

It was at 2:20 p.m. Wednesday that Mr. Dervis wrote to "colleagues" that "this is to inform you that Brian Gleeson, Director, Office of Human Resources (OHR), Bureau of Management (BoM), has been designated to serve as Senior Advisor for the Surge Project in the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery... on Thursday, 30 November, 2006." Mr. Dervis' email also thanked Brian Gleeson for having "done a difficult job well." If the swirl of Gleeson issues remains, this written praise by the head of UNDP seems more like cover-up than diplomacy.

The demotion announced Tuesday is the most recent of moves by Mr. Dervis against officials previously installed by Mark Malloch Brown. In UNDP's Office of Finance, covering all European and CIS countries, the Hungarian Kalman Mitzei was fired, Inner City Press is told by UNDP sources, for sexual harassment and favoritism and was replaced by one of Mr. Dervis' colleagues from when he was at the World Bank, a before that from Belgrade. Observers question the wisdom of this selection, for Balkan(ized) geo-political reason and otherwise.

It's worth noting that both Mark Malloch Brown and Kemal Dervis formerly worked at the World Bank. Those who know him say Mr. Dervis envied Malloch Brown's ascent to the top of UNDP. Now that he rules UNDP, with surprisingly little oversight, Mr. Dervis is putting his own hand-picked associates in place.

From: Kemal Dervis [mailto:kemal.dervis@undp.org]
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 2:20 PM
Subject: Appointment of Brian Gleeson as Senior Advisor for BCPR Surge Project

Dear Colleagues,

This is to inform you that Brian Gleeson, Director, Office of Human Resources (OHR), Bureau of Management (BoM), has been designated to serve as Senior Advisor for the Surge Project in the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR). On behalf of the organization, I would like to thank Brian for doing a difficult job well for more than two and a half years and to wish him success in his new assignment While the selection process for the appointment of a new OHR Director is underway, I have asked Romesh Muttukumaru, Acting Deputy Director of the Bureau for Resources and Strategic Partnerships (BRSP), to serve as Officer-in-Charge of OHR. These transition arrangements will come into effect on Thursday, 30 November, 2006. I urge all staff to please cooperate during this transition period.
With best regards, Kemal

Mark Malloch Brown, of course, is still asserting himself. His close ally Bruce Jenks remains in place at UNDP's Bureau of Resources and Partnerships (Mr. Jenks was traveling on Wednesday and would not be able to comment, Inner City Press was told, until next week at the earliest) and his Cape Verdean associate Carlos Lopez has been selected to give briefings to incoming Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Some call it Shakespearean, this hard-ball dueling between ex-World Bankers Kemal Dervis and Mark Malloch Brown. But how is it, these people ask, that high-paying UNDP jobs are given outside of official channels, in some cases, such as that of one Nancy Barnes, without even showing up in databases of employees? In UNDP's European Union and CIS shop, corruption is said to be endemic. The European Union in Brussels funnels funding through UNDP, a funding stream never reviewed even by UNDP's Executive Board. Nor is oversight being given by UNDP auditor Jessie Mabutas, whose role in jobs-for-pay may be more participatory than investigative. More on this next week.

For now we note: on November 27, Inner City Press attempted to ask Kemal Dervis questions in the General Assembly hall, after a meeting about the Millennium Development Goals. As Inner City Press recounted at that day's UN noon briefing, Mr. Dervis said, "I don't answer questions this way, walking out of meetings." Inner City Press reiterated its request, made for more than five months now, that Mr. Dervis come to a press conference and answer questions, which he hasn't done since a single press conference when he got the UNDP job, 14 months ago. Mr. Dervis indicated that it would take a "special event" to get him to a press conference. Might these events be considered special? We'll see.

Inner City Press sought to reach Brian Gleeson on Wednesday afternoon. His office expressed surprise that word of his (down) shift to Special Advisor had "spread to the UN." Some thought that UNDP was part of the United Nations. UNDP is the UN's main representative to most countries. But UNDP these days is apparently run as a fiefdom unto itself. In seeking UNDP's explanation for Mr. Gleeson's abrupt downshift, and UNDP's response to this story, messages to the UNDP Communications Office went unanswered, as has become a pattern. An attempt to reach Kalman Mitzei yielded that he has returned by Hungary. A 6:45 p.m. call to Romesh Muttukumaru, Brian Gleeson's interim replacement at the helm of UNDP Human Resources, yielded an outgoing message that Romesh Muttukumaru was busy on the phone; a message seeking comment, or UNDP's official explanation of the change at the top of its Office of Human Resources, was not returned.

Given what UNDP sources say of Mr. Gleeson, now downshifted to advisory status with "the Surge Project in the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery," it's worth noting that a recent UNDP job ad for a position with this Surge Project in the BCPR lists, among required "corporate competencies," that the employee (and presumably advisor) "Treats all people fairly without favoritism" and "Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN values and ethical standards." Developing...

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Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

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