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Friday, Jan. 3, 2003
U.N. Documents Reveal Fraud at Population Fund
By Austin Ruse
An investigative report just released by the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) and the International Organizations Research Group (IORP) has found widespread financial and programmatic mismanagement within the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
"The United Nations Population Fund: Assault on the World's Peoples" reports that internal U.N. audits show that UNFPA does not monitor the quality or reliability of the reproductive goods it ships to poor countries. The report also unveils little-known internal U.N. audits that accuse UNFPA of failing to account for up to 50 percent of its funds for the years 1998 and 1999.(cont)
newsmax.com
Fraud at UN drug office
by Dana Larsen (23 Nov, 2001) Low morale despite expensive offices, cars, and satellite TVs
On July 29, the Observer reported on "gross mismanagement and possible corruption" at the UN Office of Drug Control.
The article claimed staff morale is at "rock bottom" and that the contract of executive director Pino Arlacchi will not be renewed when it expires in February, 2002. Arlacchi is a former Italian senator who made his name fighting the Mafia.
Some of the excessive spending listed by the Observer included hundreds of thousands of dollars for redecorating the offices of senior officials, buying new cars and excessive numbers of portable phones. Also listed was the purchase of several large television sets, satellite dishes and valuable Chinese vases, none of which can now be found.
- The Observer: www.observer.co.uk
cannabisculture.com
UN rocked by flood of fraud cases
Officials were 'addicted to luxury'
Jason Burke, Gaby Hinsliffand, Ed Vulliamy New York THE United Nations has been hit by an unprecedented wave of fraud, waste and corruption. Officials at its anti-fraud investigation unit say they are expecting to have to run more than 350 inquiries by the end of the year - nearly twice the tot
Sunday September 3, 2000
The Observer
The United Nations has been hit by an unprecedented wave of fraud, waste and corruption. Officials at its antifraud investigation unit say they are expecting to have to run more than 350 inquiries by the end of the year - nearly twice the total for 1998, and a 50 per cent increase on last year. Thousands of staff, contractors and consultants have been interviewed in scores of countries.
The revelations will embarrass Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, who is to welcome national leaders, including Tony Blair, to the 'Millennium Summit' in New York next week. The summit will be the biggest such meeting in the UN's history and Annan is hoping to convince sceptical heads of state that the UN has provided value for money and that its role should be expanded.
One senior investigator said last week that the UN investigations unit's workload was greater than ever. 'We are seeing more and more frauds and abuses of authority... There is a huge range of things to look at,' she said.
The alleged crimes being investigated by the unit, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, range from the petty - such as employees using UN offices to run their own businesses or using UN planes for personal travel - to the huge, such as million-dollar frauds.
The OIOS's annual report, due out next month, will reveal cases of sloppy management, lax enforcement, harassment and outright criminality. Last year the OIOS conducted 247 inquiries and claimed to have saved the UN more than $23 million (£15m). So far this year the unit has taken on 230 new investigations. It is working with dozens of international police forces - including Scotland Yard - on inquiries into the activities of United Nations personnel.
In one major success this year a former UN official was jailed for three-and-a-half years for embezzling $770,000 (£513,000) while working in the former Yugoslavia. Charles Kim, a former chief of travel for the UN mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina, worked with a local travel agency and an airline employee to falsify bills.
In another case, $700,000 (£466,000) was recouped after it had been misdirected into a private individual's account by a bank.
Other investigations have been into false claims of living allowances and education grants, the payment of $6m (£4m) for sub-standard supplies in Angola, mismanagement of a number of conferences and alleged fraud by a contractors.
The UN has been criticised for failing to tackle fraud and waste. The US government is refusing to pay more than about $1 billion until 'convincing measures' have been taken to improve the situation. The British Government has been similarly vocal in calling for reforms.
A senior investigator at the OIOS said last week that, as the UN had expanded, so had the fraud and the waste. Much of
(cont)
observer.co.uk
United Nations identifies fraud in U.N. missions
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Internal U.N. audits over the course of the year have identified dlrs 17 million in misused funds from cases of fraud, mismanagement and sloppy bookkeeping, according to a new U.N. report.
The United Nations has recovered about dlrs 5 million of the cash and has made more than 900 recommendations to various U.N. agencies and departments on ways to avoid future mistakes, according to the report, released Friday by the Office of Internal Oversight Services.The report focused on some of the costliest U.N. activities: peacekeeping, humanitarian affairs and procurement.In Kosovo, for example, software problems calculating living allowances for U.N. staffers led to a dlrs 324,000 overcharge that has been reimbursed, the report found.
The report also found problems when auditors checked that U.N. funds were spent as intended by the non-governmental organizations on which the UN relies to carry out its programs around the globe.
Some of these U.N. partners made "significant" exchange rate gains by charging the United Nations for costs in dollars and then paying for goods and services in local currencies, the report said. Dileep Nair, chief of the U.N. watchdog agency, said the United Nations needed to expand its oversight efforts in the field, where 70 percent of its staff is based, to guard against such wrongdoing.
"Because it is in instances like this where fraud, misconduct can occur on a large scale," he told reporters. The report also cited progress in ongoing investigations.
The chief of the U.N. travel unit of the U.N. mission in Bosnia, who was convicted in U.S. District Court of wire fraud for submitting fraudulent invoices for excess baggage, has paid the United Nations dlrs 110,000 in restitution and is serving his nearly four-year prison sentence, the report said.
The organization is still working with the Croatian government to try to find the accomplices and get the rest of the dlrs 800,000 that was lost in the scheme.
unb.ca |
