Still More Corruption at the UN

Cross posted at Reject the UN


Founded in 1971 out of the Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance and the United Nations Special Fund, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has been cited for mismanagement and corruption by its own internal investigators.

The United Nations Development Program was a good idea at one time. It was to help nations become Democracies (I wonder how they actually got that one passed the dictators), try to reduce the effects of war and poverty (they haven't been very successful with this either), help developing nations find environmentally friendly ways to develop (just looking at China and their pollution problem shows how ineffective they are), and help nations with the further spreading of HIV/AIDS and reduce its impact.

This wouldn't be news, except that the mismanagement is widely known to UN officials who overlook the corruption as the cost of doing business at the UN.

In a confidential report obtained by FOX News, UNDP’s auditors have described the UNDP procurement organization that is spending well over $2 billion annually as:

— overwhelmed by its caseload at headquarters and in the field, while procurement ballooned from $800 million in 2003 to $2.5 billion in 2006 and $2.2 billion last year;

— often failing to provide plans to support its buying activities, which the report says causes many purchases of goods and services to be carried out on an "ad hoc basis" (in fact, more than $595 million worth of non-existent purchases were recorded, although the audit notes that they were not paid for);

— wallowing in shoddy paperwork and faulty bidding processes, which contributed to a "high number of waivers of the competitive process and to quality problems in the procurement process in general";

— lacking the expertise to evaluate hundreds of millions of dollars worth of its most expensive and important purchases in civic construction and high-tech communications;

— drastically unqualified: Fully half of the organization’s procurement staff around the world were not certified for the basic requirements of their jobs, while the auditors also found the six-hour course for those who were certified to be "inadequate." Additionally, the auditors noted, "there are entire offices without a single certified buyer";

— suffering from an "apparent" conflict of interest at the top, where the people charged with vetting the procurement process for flaws are also members of the procurement office staff.

But then again it is not their money that they are spending. It is mostly American money. That makes it ok. Again corruption has enveloped what was once a good idea.

Even more ominously, the same auditors point out that UNDP:

— has no sure way of knowing whether it is doing business with organizations that the U.N. itself has condemned for terrorist ties and says UNDP country offices find the current manual system of cross-checking with U.N. terrorist sanctions lists to be "cumbersome and inefficient";

— has no formal policy for suspending or removing vendors for poor performance or corruption;

— and doesn’t ask new vendors for the identity of their owners or other corporate ties. This raises the possibility that vendors caught out for corruption or poor performance could simply switch names and reapply for approved status.

And of course all the vendors really would have to do is bribe the right official. That has been the UN policy since the 1970's.

But this isn't the only corruption to come to light today. The UN has become a center for pedophilia in the world.

The United Nations will investigate allegations by a leading children's charity that UN peacekeepers were involved in widespread sexual abuse of children, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said.

The report, released Tuesday by Save the Children UK, was based on field research in southern Sudan, Ivory Coast and Haiti. It describes a litany of sexual crimes committed by peacekeepers and international relief workers against children as young as 6 years old.

Abuses have been reported in peacekeeping missions ranging from Bosnia and Kosovo to Cambodia, East Timor, West Africa and Congo. The issue moved into the spotlight after the United Nations found in early 2005 that peacekeepers in Congo had sex with Congolese women and girls, usually in exchange for food or small sums of money.

Several month later, Jordan's UN ambassador at the time, Prince Zeid al-Hussein, wrote a report that described the UN military arm as deeply flawed. He recommended withholding the salaries of the guilty and requiring nations to pursue legal action against perpetrators.

And we do know what legal action they will receive. None! They don't get their pay and they get a pat on the wrist back home. What a joke.

In response, the UN adopted a zero tolerance policy toward sexual exploitation and abuse, and a universal code of conduct. The UN requires training for all peacekeepers, but punishment for offenders is left to individual countries.

Training for nations like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jordan, Nigeria, and Ghana. All models for the sexual exploitation of children. Nations where women and girls have no rights or freedoms. Such a good group to defend the helpless refugees of the world.

With corruption such as these examples are the question has to be asked: Is the United Nations relevant in today's world? Does the world really need such an organization? I'm afraid that the answer is no. The United Nations has no place in this world. The United Nations has caused more problems than it has solved. It is a hotbed of corruption and greed.

It is time that the United States and its allies take a long hard look at the United Nations. It is time that they start the move to remove themselves from this organization and build an organization dedicated to the ideals of Freedom and Democracy. A place where the dictators of the world cannot push their ideas of corruption, greed and hatred on the larger world.

It is time for the US to be rid of the UN!