U.N. Outrage
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| Tue, 06-15-2004 - 1:02pm |
http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/25725.htm
Many U.N. employees fear reprisals from their bosses if they step forward with information on the Iraq oil-for-food scandal or report other allegations of corruption, according to a shocking internal survey released yesterday.
A recent poll of 6,086 employees and managers released on the U.N. Web site revealed that the staff has little faith in the world body leadership's commitment to ethics and integrity and that most believe that when allegations of wrongdoing surface, they are not properly handled.
The survey, conducted by an outside consulting firm for the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight, also revealed that a large plurality of the staffers feel unprotected from reprisals for reporting violations because the United Nations does not have strong enough whistleblower protection and is run by an "old-boys network."
The report said 45.2 percent of the staff gave "unfavorable" responses to questions about whether they are protected from reprisals if they report wrongdoing while only 7.4 percent gave "favorable" responses.
"Most of the infrastructure to support ethics and integrity is in place, accountability is not. There are perceived weaknesses" such as protection from reprisal for identifying those who violate the guidelines, the report said in summary of staffers' perceptions.
"More importantly, the staff seems to wonder: Who can or should be held accountable if leaders and supervisors are not? Who can care much about ethics and integrity if leaders, supervisors and staff appear not to care?" the report added.
The release of the survey comes at a time when the credibility of the United Nations is facing its most severe test amid allegations of wholesale corruption within the $100 billion U.N.-administered Iraq oil-for-food program.
The General Accounting Office estimated that Saddam Hussein stole $10.1 billion through oil smuggling and kickbacks from suppliers of humanitarian goods.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is also facing questions after revelations that his son was hired by a Swiss company that received a U.N. contract.

Op-ed: Tear Down This U.N. Stonewall
Because several columns of mine zapped the U.N. for its cover-up of the costliest financial rip-off in history — even calling it "Kofigate" — I braced myself for an icy rebuke. But Kofi Annan assured me, in his courteous way, that the committee he had appointed to look into the oil-for-food scandal, headed by former Fed chairman Paul Volcker, would do a thorough job.
I respectfully asked if this included an inquiry into his own potential conflict of interest: when Annan's son was a consultant to Cotecna Inspections, that Swiss company won the lucrative U.N. contract to monitor the shipments of food and medicine to Saddam's sanctioned regime. Annan revealed that a competitor had protested undue influence in that contract award, and that an internal U.N. report would be delivered to the Volcker committee.
But that was further evidence of corruption containment. When the International Relations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on May 20 requested 55 internal U.N. audit reports on oil-for-food, Annan wrote Chairman Henry Hyde on June 2 that Volcker "believes the policy of the Organization not to release non-public documents is entirely appropriate."
I suggested that the U.N. was using Volcker, a man of spotless reputation, to control all information about the scandal. The secretary general said "I will look into this further and ask Mr. Volcker to call you."
Annan was true to his word. In came a call two days later from a very tall former central banker who prefers that his name not be used. "I thought I had a large staff together weeks ago, but they backed out on me. Now we have some top-flight investigators coming on and we'll announce them soon. The budget crunch hasn't come yet, but the U.N. will have to come though with the amounts we need."
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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/14/opinion/14SAFI.html?ex=1087790400&en=8ebbbff363c43afb&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE