UN: An internal UN inquiry into the department which runs international peacekeeping operations has uncovered extensive evidence of mismanagement and possible fraud and has triggered the suspension of eight procurement officials, pending an investigation, according to UN officials.
UN investigators have uncovered rampant waste, price inflation and suspicion that employees colluded with vendors in awarding contracts for a variety of peacekeeping programmes, according to a confidential report given to several governments.
Peacekeepers, for example, spent $10.4 million to lease a helicopter for use in East Timor when it could have been secured for $1.6 million, and they paid $2.4 million to buy seven aircraft-hangars in Congo which were never used, the report said.
An additional $65 million or more was paid for fuel which was not needed for missions in Sudan and Haiti, said the report, which called for an investigation into whether UN staff members improperly "colluded to award" one UN supplier an $85.9 million fuel contract for the Sudan mission.
The failure of UN managers to enforce basic standards has led to a "culture of impunity" in UN spending, said the report. There are "strong" indications of fraud involving contracts whose value totalled about $193 million - almost 20 per cent of the $1 billion in UN business examined by the auditors.
"We have no idea yet as to the scope of this, but I believe that we have significant evidence of fraud and corruption," said Christopher Burnham, UN under-secretary for management.
However, he said that the decision to suspend the eight officials - including Andrew Toh, who recently oversaw the UN procurement department, and Christian Saunders, the director of the UN procurement division - did not mean that they had done anything wrong. The findings come as the UN struggles to recover from a financial scandal involving abuse of the $64 billion oil-for-food programme in Iraq and reports of widespread sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers.
Meanwhile, US prosecutors are conducting their own investigation into criminal wrongdoing in UN contracting. The US attorney's office for the southern district of New York in August charged a former UN procurement officer, Alexander Yakovlev, with receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes on behalf of companies doing business with the UN. Yakovlev pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud and agreed to co-operate with the ongoing investigation.
Monday's revelations come as UN peacekeeping operations are expanding rapidly, with more than 70,000 uniformed police and blue-helmeted troops posted in 18 missions around the world.
John Bolton, US ambassador to the UN, said that the procurement scandal would not prompt a retreat from UN peacekeeping. However, it highlighted the need for far-reaching administrative changes. "It shows the sad record of mismanagement we are trying to deal with through the reform process," he said. - (Los Angeles Times/Washington Post service)