You can't Spell Unethical without the U.N.

U.S. Diplomats Raise Skepticism Over Terms of U.N. Ethics Probe
Tuesday, August 28, 2007

By George Russell

The battle over a United Nations whistleblower who exposed unauthorized dealings between North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il's regime and the $5 billion United Nations Development Program has become a bureaucratic alley-fight between the U.S. mission to the U.N. and the top managers of UNDP itself.

Round One went to the managers last week, after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared that UNDP would be allowed to appoint an outside investigator to examine the whistleblower’s claims that, among other things, he lost his job because he pointed out the irregularities to his superiors, who told him to keep quiet.

The alternative was to make use of the U.N.’s own newly created ethics office, which had already discovered “prima facie” evidence of retaliation against the whistleblower, Artjon Shkurtaj, a 13-year U.N. veteran who served for two years as UNDP’s operations manager in North Korea. The irony was that the ethics office was created specifically to deal with whistleblower protection issues similar to those in the Shkurtaj case.

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Conservative Bloggers Comments:
So the UN creates an ethics office specifically to deal with whistleblower protection issues and then the first case that comes up the Secretary General doesn't allow the group created by his office to do the investigation. Even better, they allow the people who are accused of wrongdoing to appoint an "outside investigator" to conduct the investigation. I sound like a comedy writer. Are these people kidding me? The UN with almost no remaining credibility has the chance to start off on the right foot with a new Secretary General and do the right thing by investigating the UNDP (the ethics office already has evidence of wrong-doing) and taking care of their own dirty laundry. Instead, Ban Ki-Moon (Secretary General) decides to stick with the UN's corrupt ways and allows the UNDP to essentially investigate itself. Shame on the Secretary General for allowing it and shame on us for continuing to fund this useless and corrupt organization.

The United Nations - Time to move on...

U.S. Pressures U.N. for Action on Ethics Case
Thursday, August 23, 2007

Faced with continuing intransigence by the United Nations Development Program over the charge that a whistleblower lost his job for reporting on the agency’s violations of its own rules in North Korea, the U.S. government has gone on the public offensive.

Charging that UNDP stonewalling is "counter to good governance, is contrary to key U.N. rules and directly and fundamentally undermines serious efforts at U.N. reform," and that UNDP’s behavior is "irresponsible and unaccountable," the top U.S. diplomat at the U.N. pursuing the issue has asked the U.N.'s newly appointed ethics czar to make public detailed evidence he has collected that supports the retaliation charges.

The diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mark Wallace, also urged the ethics czar to continue with his investigation despite lack of UNDP cooperation and make the conclusions available to all U.N. member states. Wallace requested that the U.S. government’s "strong concerns" about the UNDP’s actions be conveyed to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and that he be asked to "insist" that UNDP cooperate with the ethics investigation.

Wallace’s requests were made in an extraordinary four-page letter to the head of the U.N. Ethics Office, Robert Benson, on Aug. 21. A copy has been obtained by FOX News.

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Conservative Blogger's Comments:
I have said it before and I will say it again. The United Nations is an absolute waste of our tax dollars! We are funding a corrupt organization that is simply of little to no use to the world community. It's time to get some value out of the New York real estate they occupy by shutting the place down and putting our dollars to better use. Another noble idea whose execution in the real world does not quite translate.