Obama for President Octagram

RobbieMHertford, Hertfordshire, England UK115 Threads 6 Polls 4,553 Posts

RobbieMHertford, Hertfordshire, England UK4,553 posts

Indyfella: Regarding the UN:

Fox News (today)

Beset by scandals surrounding the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has decided to tighten the reins on anti-corruption and ethics investigations across his sprawling organization — even while trying to keep those investigation results from the general public.

The decision by Ban marks a major reversal of course from less than a year ago, when he announced that the U.N. Secretariat “does not enjoy the jurisdiction” over protection of whistle-blowers who expose wrongdoing at UNDP, the U.N.’s development arm, or other agencies in the labyrinthine U.N. system.

At the time, a broad spectrum of U.N. reformers complained that Ban had ceded those powers, as well as the management of anti-corruption probes, to UNDP and its sister agencies, turning a unified anti-corruption system into a jumble of potential conflicts of interest and differing standards.

Since then, UNDP has been hit with a variety of other scandals — including a FOX News investigation last month into UNDP’s procurement of $2.3 million worth of airport scanners for the customs service of the radical Chavez government of Venezuela, which the U.S. manufacturer of the equipment said it never shipped.

Yet another important scandal surfaced last week, when a UNDP whistle-blower demanded an investigation by Ban’s Secretariat into UNDP support for a Somali financial company with ties to terrorist organizations on the U.N.’s own sanctions list. The whistle-blower, Ahmed Ismael, claims that he was fired after bringing the issue to UNDP’s attention. (A UNDP spokesman told news agencies, “Clearly UNDP takes all these allegations extremely seriously and we are in fact investigating them thoroughly.)

In the midst of all the controversy, Ban told a meeting of top-level U.N. officials in Switzerland three weeks ago that he has suddenly seen the wisdom of a single set of standards in those sensitive areas, at least when it comes to the U.N. investigating itself.

A copy of Ban’s talking points for the April 28 meeting was obtained by FOX News.Even while Ban is asking the U.N. to toe the line on investigating itself, he wants fewer outsiders to know the outcome. Among other things, he said, he wanted copies of U.N. system-wide audits to be available to nations that asked for them — but only if governments would keep them confidential. The U.S. mission to the U.N., for one, has in the past put Secretariat audits on its local Web site for public review.

And on the explosive issue of investigating U.N. corruption, Ban let his managers know that “we should be careful to protect individuals whose security and rights may be compromised” — in other words, that investigation results can even be concealed from U.N. member governments.

Nonetheless, the talking points seem to indicate a major turning point for Ban. Only last August, he declared opaquely that his own newly formed Ethics Office “does not fully enjoy the jurisdiction over all the funds and programs of the United Nations.”

Behind that foggy language, it appeared that Ban was signing off on the Balkanization of his sprawling organization, especially over the delicate issue of investigating its own possible wrongdoing.

Theres an easy way of preventing corruption within the UN.It's really simple.

Simply anyone who commits fraud from the public purse should be hung and the execution televised.

If anyone has moral objections i don't mind despatching the criminals.