Citing Abuse of Authority, U.N. Dismisses Elections Chief 
By Warren Hoge
December 7, 2005
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/07/international/07perelli.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1133959662-fCAW3z8hGBkbT/6lPosALg

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 6 - The United Nations fired the director of its highly regarded elections services office on Tuesday on accusations of sexual harassment and abuse of authority.
Carina Perelli, the director of the Electoral Assistance Division, was given her dismissal notice at a meeting with Christopher B. Burnham, under secretary general of management.
She was escorted off the United Nations grounds by a plainclothes officer.
Ms. Perelli denied the accusations to reporters and complained that she had not been provided the specifics of the allegations against her so that she could respond. She said she would file an appeal to the United Nations' Joint Disciplinary Committee and would probably pursue legal action.
Word of her dismissal had circulated in recent days, prompting many people, including John R. Bolton, the United States ambassador, to criticize its timing, only a week before crucial parliamentary elections in Iraq that Ms. Perelli's office is overseeing. You need to ask the question, 'What effect it will have on the ground in Iraq?'  Mr. Bolton said.
Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for Secretary General http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/kofi_annan/index.html?inline=nyt-per \o More articles about Kofi Annan. Kofi Annan, said: Zero tolerance means zero tolerance. We have a responsibility to act. 
He denied that Ms. Perelli's dismissal would compromise the Dec. 15 vote in Iraq, saying her duties had been transferred in Baghdad on Oct. 23 to Craig Jenness, a Canadian diplomat. U.N. work in Iraq on the elections has continued unaffected, he said.
Ms. Perelli disputed that in an interview, saying she was actively involved in setting up audit boards to review the vote and had been planning a January trip to Baghdad.
Ms. Perelli, 48, a blunt-spoken Uruguayan, took over the elections office in 1998. Since then, the agency has been praised for setting up free and democratic votes in places like East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq.
President Bush praised her in his State of the Union address this year.
The case against her emerged in March when a management review of her office by Mannet S.A.R.L., a Swiss consulting firm, accused her of an abusive style of leadership and favoritism and said she had created an atmosphere where sexual innuendo is part of the 'fabric' of the division.
Her dismissal comes at a time when disclosures of mismanagement and corruption in the oil-for-food program in Iraq have put pressure on the United Nations to take stern action against officials who violate standards.
Mr. Burnham's letter said she would receive no further pay or termination indemnity, and Mr. Dujarric said that her office locks had been changed and that she would no longer be permitted to enter the United Nations headquarters building unless she had a scheduled appointment to discuss her appeal.