UN asks employees to take quiz on ethics
Offers certificates to African tribesmen who do well

Steven Edwards
September 29, 2005
National Post
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=0f9d9ad6-bbb6-4b36-9772-6b52dff1f668

CanWest News Service
UNITED NATIONS - In the wake of management scandals, the United Nations is trying to increase its employees' integrity by asking them to take a multiple-choice ethics quiz and offering certificates featuring images of African Masai tribesmen to those who do well.
The initiative comes as a Congressional committee launches hearings into the UN's plans for overhauling its management after the General Assembly rejected the sweeping reforms proposed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The United States backed Mr. Annan's plan to wrest control of the UN's purse strings from the General Assembly, but developing countries used their majority in that body to turn him down.
The UN says the ethics quiz is part of an effort to improve efficiency, but Washington's chief UN envoy told the Congressional hearing major change is needed to make its employees more accountable.
The key is to break the sense of entitlement that permeates the UN system, John Bolton, U.S. ambassador, said in a written statement prepared for his testimony before the international relations committee of the House of Representatives.
UN officials devised the ethics quiz after an internal survey last year found only about one third of employees felt the organization employed people with a high degree of integrity.
Some respondents admitted to giggling over the degree of difficulty of some of the questions.
All staff _____ share the same United Nations' core values, says one, with the possible answers being given as: a) may b) must c) used to d) do not have to.
Another asks whether the UN practises zero tolerance against discrimination, or whether it was a place where workers enjoy an ostentatious lifestyle and an inflated sense of personal importance.
Others describe hypothetical dilemmas. One questions whether it's right for an employee to raid the UN stockroom to get supplies for a child's school project. Another wonders what the employee would do after seeing a colleague drunk and about to drive home.
A scenario in which an employee entered the UN after a career as a model asks whether further modelling for money is appropriate.
The answer should be no, says the quiz, as the employee is now an international civil servant.
An employee stopped for speeding by police is urged to cooperate and not claim diplomatic immunity.
Another question imagines the employee at a dinner table in Kenya, and focuses on how to respond to discussion of a news report on UN corruption. Four relatively short potential answers include changing the subject, saying there are plenty of corrupt people in Kenya, or admitting the UN is corrupt, and thank goodness the matter is being discussed.
But the fifth is so long and detailed, any savvy quiz-taker would surely know it is the right one.
You briefly acknowledge you have read the story, then stress that, like in other organizations, it is the people that make it, and they are susceptible to human weakness, the answer says.
However, the overwhelming majority play by the rules. It may happen, as in any workplace, that certain rules are broken, and that is why the United Nations has established a strong internal investigative mechanism.
If the other dinner guests are still awake, the answer continues: It is the work of this investigative mechanism that has triggered the press reactions. (If pressed further, details may be given on how the United Nations deals with such issues, but no details should be given on pending investigations.)
The UN's management crisis came to a head this month with the release of the final report of the year-long US$35-million probe into the oil-for-food program it ran in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was president. It found UN mismanagement and corruption helped Saddam siphon off about US$10-billion in kickbacks and oil smuggling in contravention of UN sanctions.
Mr. Bolton told the House committee one way to increase pressure on the UN would be for countries to finance it through voluntary contributions, rather than UN-set assessments, as at present.
Mark Malloch Brown, the UN's representative at the hearing, reacted with alarm, telling Reuters news agency such a plan would sink the world body, which relies on the United States for 22% of funding and on all developed countries for 85%.
© National Post 2005