"....The staff is sick and tired of the impunity extended by the office of the Secretary-General to senior managers for their failings especially in situations where it has led to death and disability....."
- UN Staff Union

Frustration is rising fast at the United Nations over Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's inability to police the organization's huge and fast-growing peacekeeping budget, which looks sure to exceed $8.4 billion this year.

That budget, which covers the period from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011, is still under intense debate, especially among the 37 of 192 countries at the U.N. that pick up virtually all of the peacekeeping tab. By far the biggest contributor is the U.S., whose share this year amounts to 27.17 percent of the total, or nearly $2.3 billion. Others include Japan, Germany and Britain.

The issue is not only how much money is being spent, but how the U.N. is spending it. Donor countries are expressing, in undiplomatic terms, their concern at the way Ban's Secretariat has handled the huge peacekeeping enterprise in the past. And so is Ban's independent Board of Auditors.

A report issued just weeks ago by one of the General Assembly's main budget oversight committees, the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), and obtained by Fox News, takes Ban harshly to task. The 11-page document was labeled for general distribution, but only went to selected members of a working group attached to the "special committee on peacekeeping operations," which began to meet on April 4 and is still in session.

The report keys in on the U.N.'s peacekeeping performance in the 2008-2009 budget year — when peacekeeping cost only $7.1 billion — and cites, among other things:

• the U.N.'s mismanagement of huge amounts of peacekeeping property at various sites around the world, including "inaccurate" and "unreliable" record-keeping, and "high stock levels" of property that "will result in waste, deterioration and obsolescence as well as possible loss due to theft";• procedures that excluded "reputable vendors" from its procurement procedures at various missions in Africa;• "widespread" irregularities in procurement in "many" peacekeeping operations, including in contract awards and monitoring of vendor performance;• over-budgeting of expensive air transport resources;• major gaps in Ban's methods of measuring and improving his top officials' performance of their duties to manage peacekeeping better.

Moreover, the report charges that Ban's lack of effective management has become a disturbing habit.

In the U.N.'s customarily congested language, the report says the ACABQ "continues to be concerned" with the U.N. Secretariat's "persistent non-compliance" in implementing Board of Auditors recommendations to improve the situation, and adds that it is "of great concern" to the committee that "effective remedies have not been applied."

Chief among those remedies, the report makes clear, is making U.N. managers more accountable for their actions — or in many cases, inactions, "at Headquarters and in the [peacekeeping] missions."

The sheer scope of the U.N.'s expanding peacekeeping operations is a major part of the challenge. The Board of Auditors' report covers 14 of 16 current U.N. peacekeeping operations and notes — not for the first time — that a mammoth overhaul of the U.N.'s computerized management and accounting systems, known as an enterprise resource planning system (ERP) is far behind schedule, and will not be ready until 2014, at the earliest.

Specifically, the committee notes that "there was no documentary evidence to fully substantiate the actual performance at the United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI)," and that a similar fogginess surrounded the remaining U.N. mission in Kosovo.

The committee also emphasized that the Board of Auditors had complained for three years running about "significant discrepancies" between the U.N. records for "expendable and non-expendable property at various missions" — meaning that the organization could not really account for the huge amounts of goods it had — or did not have — on hand.

The problems of "deficiencies in the monitoring of the inventory" also applied to the main U.N. logistical base for peacekeeping in Brindisi, Italy, where supplies seemed to languish despite the rapid growth in missions that ostensibly needed them.

The same gap between supply and demand occurred in peacekeeping aviation budgets, where the committee and the auditors noted that the U.N. seemed to budget for many more hours of air transport time than its records showed it used. In other words, expensively-contracted aircraft and helicopters were often just sitting around.

Other "irregularities" were also noted, including a $5.3 million overpayment to a vendor in Darfur, and another $3.3 million worth of equipment that was delivered but not used due to various bureaucratic snafus.

In terms of managing peacekeeping personnel, the committee also found the U.N. wanting. Vacancy rates for needed personnel ranged as high as 35 percent, or nearly twice what the organization was supposed to accept — which in turn raised the potential stress on existing staff.

The solution to all this, the committee concluded, was that that Ban and his officials should actually implement the measures that auditors had long suggested for rectifying the problems, especially holding management feet to the fire when required.

The fact that it hadn't happened so far, the report concludes, was an indication of "weaknesses in administration at all levels of management."

Not surprisingly, Ban has taken considerable exception to those conclusions, in a 55-page companion document responding to the auditors' comments, also obtained by Fox News, that offered his own assessment of how well the U.N. Secretariat had done in accepting its auditors' recommendations.

Among other things, Ban noted that his administration "has achieved significant improvements in ensuring that the indicators of achievement and outputs ... are formulated as specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound."

In other words, he and his officials were doing as well as could be expected in measuring their accomplishments. Ban added that consideration also had to be given to the political climate where peacekeeping missions operated, which often limited outcomes.

On issues such as the use of expensive aircraft, Ban pointed to his administration's rebuttal in the auditors' own report, to the effect that "forecasts could not be exact owing to the nature of emergency situations. It was preferable to have sufficient capability on the ground than to be faced with a shortage when a crisis occurred." (But Ban's Administration also admitted that in the case of peacekeeping in Darfur, at least, it was cutting its planned use of aircraft in the future by nearly 50 percent.)

Ban also pointed out that even the auditors felt that his administration had done better this time than in the previous year — by lifting the rate of implementation of audit recommendations from 32 percent to 40 percent, as of March 2010. The rate was even better for those deemed of the "highest priority." Still others, he declared, were "in progress" or had target dates set for completion.

UNDP's Free Speech Concept

This is what pro-poor means at United Nations

United Nations Development Millionaires !

637 UNDP Staffers are Millionaires, and another 1041 UNDP staffers have enough salary (income) to justify million dollar homes in New York (or tri-state area NY/NJ/CT).

UN/UNDP's budgets are untransparent !

U.N. budget is “utterly opaque, untransparent and completely in the shadow” and would benefit from being consolidated and audited from the outside. MMB from NyTimes

JOSE RAMOS HORTA - PRESIDENT OF EAST TIMOR

‘‘You know how many layers of bureaucracy there are when the European Union wants to help East Timor? Well, they don’t provide the funds to us, the funds allocated are managed by world bank. And the world bank has its own layers of bureaucracy. And they charge for that. The project is then managed by UNDP. But UNDP is only good at doing studies, they don’t execute projects.’‘

Boutros Boutros-Ghali on UN:

"perhaps half of the UN work force does nothing useful"

Can Helen Clark be trusted on Climate Change ?

President Obama's answer to Helen Clark's appeal for US to do more on climate change was : "I think the American people right now have been so focused, and will continue to be focused, on our economy and jobs and growth that ... if the message is somehow, we're going to ignore jobs and growth simply to address climate change, I don't think anybody's gonna go for that," he said. "I won't go for that."

In 2011 Rami Makhlouf - a trusted development partner of UNDP in Syria

In 2008 U.S. Treasury designation: Rami Makhluf Designated for Benefiting from Syrian Corruption (Click on photo to see US Treasury page)

"Screwed" How Foreign Countries Are Ripping America Off

A full chapter (7) dedicated to UNDP and UN Secretariat. But it today at Amazon.com (click above picture)

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Asma al-Assad is UNDP's champion of reform in Syria

UNDP's special relations with dictators and terror is well documented. Yet, they continue to operate covered by UN Immunity. Click on immage for story.

Aicha Gaddafi You are Fired !

UNDP continues to be in bed with other dictators. Will clean it one at a time.

Where is NETAID money David Morrison?

UNDP Transparency Censored

UNDP Chief Finance Officer

The UNDP is a secretive organization and so far has kept in the dark every information related to its Chief Finance Officer and Deputy Assistant Administrator, Mr. Darshak Shah. Click on the picture for more on Finance Office of UNDP.

UNDP Belarus - best breast corner

Should tax-payers dollars be used to photograph beautiful breasts - even when making a valid point?

Uncle Helen turning UNDP into a cove of corrupt NZ labour politicians

CLICK ON PICTURE TO SEE Chris Carter's latest Credit Card scandal - can he work at UNDP after that? It seems YES he is full tested!!

Helen Clark says: "No more cars"

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.

Happy Valentines Day !

Andrew Mitchell - says Helen Clark is up to no good!

1. UNDP’s partnership with the World Bank needs to be more effective, particularly in fragile and crisis-affected countries. 2. UNDP’s near universal mandate means its technical resources are spread very thinly. The Board does not provide strategic direction. HR management is weak. It has a weak results chain. 3. There is limited evidence of active senior management consideration of cost control. Country evidence points to mixed progress on demonstrating cost-efficiency. 4. The Executive Board is politicised and there is a lack of consensus on the key areas for reform. It is not clear that current plans for change will deliver the required depth and breadth of reform. 5. Evidence gathered at country level was highly critical of UNDP’s ability to deliver results. Its delivery can be undermined by staffing issues and bureaucratic processes. 6. Its performance in fragile states is mixed. It has reasonable training and a range of guidance and analytical tools but struggles to fill posts. 7. There is no evidence that the Climate Strategy was directly guiding resource allocation decisions

Mark Malloch Brown outraged over Aicha Gaddafi

“I hope she's not a UNDP Ambassador,” ...“I don't think it's UNDP. I was surprised when I saw that... she was an Ambassador to any part of the UN system.”

Travel Palestine - Rediscover Your Senses

Get ready to a sensual feast of ...sounds...scents of The Land of حماس‎ Ḥamās Documentary sponsored by UNDP Funds (click on picture for video)

Helen Clark on UNDP's own corruption (Can she be trusted?)

“When funds intended for life-saving treatment and prevention are stolen, that theft is tantamount to murder.” CLICK ON PICTURE FOR MORE

Scandal in Rwanda with Human Development Report

Aurelien Agbenonci, UNDP's RR in Kigali accuses Khalid Malik of making up data without UNDP Rwanda's knowledge. Rwanda Government is unhappy !!!

H.E. Dirk Niebel - German Development Minister

"I take the accusations made in the media concerning corruption and breach of fiduciary duty at the Global Fund very seriously and I am sure that the Fund will clarify the matter without delay. Germany is one of the biggest donors to the Global Fund. I have therefore seen to it that a special review will be held. I have frozen all further disbursements to the Fund until matters have been fully clarified, and I will ask a representative of the Fund to come to the BMZ to discuss the matter."

US Amb. Joseph Torsella blows the whistle on UN budgets

U.N. Secretariat’s proposed $5.2 “regular” budget for 2012-2013, was “simply loosening our belt a little less than we originally planned.”

The U.N. Exposed

How the United Nations Sabotages America's Security and Fails the World (Click in picture to purchase the book)

Share now information about illegal dealings at United Nations

If you are in possession of UNDP or any other United Nations Agency' contracts, correspondence, financial records or databases, which you believe detail wrongdoing such as fraud, mismanagement and abuse of authority, and you have failed to have UN's internal control, oversight and justice systems respond and/or react to your claims, you can send them to UNDP-WATCH and we will make them public keeping your identity anonymous and confidential.

Send an email to: undpwatchmeister@gmail.com

Helen Clark is watching you!

Gaddafi aint got nothing on UNDP - Click on the picture for more!

Malakia: A Turk advises Greece on Economy

Kemal Dervis (Turkish) and George Papandreou (Greek) share many late-night phone calls together (Click on picture to read story)

Where does Ban stand on Libya?

C'est vraiment ce que tu veux pour ta carriere?

Because UNDT is the first level of the UN’s two-tiered justice system, there is a possibility that this decision may be appealed. Hopefully, the Secretary-General will not be “absurd” enough to do so. Click above to go to GAP page.

Andrew Mitchell Demands Transparency from United Nations

And I promise you as well that in future, when it comes to international development, we will want to see hard evidence of the impact your money makes. Not just dense and impenetrable budget lines but clear evidence of real effect

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT UNITED NATIONS

Ban Ki Moon supports Ethics Decision on UNDP North Korea

Question: He recommends strongly that UNDP pays 14 months back pay to the whistleblower. Does the Secretary-General stand behind that recommendation? Should UNDP in fact pay that money, or are they free to rebuff that recommendation? Spokesperson: We will see what is going to happen. The Secretary-General of course is behind Mr. Benson on his report. There is no doubt about it. What UNDP will do, we will be seeing this; how they will implement that report.

Resign Now Kemal Dervis!!

In Memoriam to Algiers Victims

About UNDP Watch

UNDP Watch is a grouping of United Nations Staff committed to openness. We believe that everyone has the right to access information held by United Nations.
Despite a stated commitment to openness, UNDP remain a highly secretive agency.
Although a wealth of information is available on some UNDP websites, its Executive Board operate behind closed doors, much important programme and administrative information is never made available and, as a rule, information that is disclosed is provided only after relevant decisions have effectively been taken.
While UNDP has adopted “internal policies” on information disclosure, they in fact operate on precisely the opposite presumption. For the most part, they list which documents will be disclosed and when, and there is a presumption against the disclosure of all the other information they hold. They do not establish right of access, the lists of documents subject to disclosure is limited, they do not set out clear and narrow grounds for refusing access and they do not provide for independent oversight mechanisms to ensure proper implementation of the policy.
The UNDP WATCH is calling for the complete overhaul of these policies.

Speak out on Herfkens Corruption

U-Seek (UN Staff Union Initiative)

"...We believe that without accountability, there is impunity. We ask that you (Secretary General) not be complicit in cover-up of what happened prior to 11 Dec attack. The staff is sick and tired of the impunity extended by the office of the Secretary-General to senior managers for their failings especially in situations where it has led to death and disability."