Senior U.N. Officials Under Fire for Reckless Talk

Thalif Deen 
February 8, 2006
Inter Press Service News Agency
Original Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32083


UNITED NATIONS, Feb 8 (IPS) - The Group of 77 (G77) has complained to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that some of his senior officials continue to recklessly leak privileged information and to undermine the world body in public. 

In a strongly-worded letter to Annan, the chair of the G77, Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo of South Africa, criticised U.N. officials for bypassing the 191-member General Assembly and briefing the press on matters pertaining to the work of the Organisation -- particularly regarding allegations of mismanagement, fraud and corruption. 

He was referring to an ongoing probe into fraud in U.N. peacekeeping procurement contracts that one official has said could run into the tens of millions of dollars. 

The letter represents the collective views of 132 developing countries plus China, a permanent member of the Security Council. The G77 is the largest single coalition of member states in the world body. 

In its letter, the G77 says these high-profile senior officials are seeking to undermine the oversight role of member states and the General Assembly. 

It is counter-productive to our efforts to ensure trust and an open channel of communication between member states and the Secretariat, it said. 

This is the second letter the G77 has sent to Annan in which it has faulted Secretariat officials. The first letter, sent in October last year, was directed at Annan's Chief of Staff Mark Malloch Brown. The current letter is aimed at Under-Secretary-General for Management Christopher Burnham, a former U.S. State Department official. 

To underscore the seriousness of its criticism, the G77 has asked Annan to circulate the letter as an official document of the General Assembly. 

Addressing the G77 last November, Annan defended himself and his officials when he told delegates that all political decisions in the world body will continue to be made by member states, not by the U.N. Secretariat which he presides over. 

We are not going to usurp your powers, he told a closed-door meeting of the G77. 

There has been a lot of misunderstandings and misapprehensions, Annan said, adding that he had no plans to marginalise the role of the General Assembly, take away its decision-making powers, or even impose decisions on member states. 

Annan also denied that Malloch Brown, who appeared before a U.S. Congressional committee last October, was reporting directly to national parliaments on actions taken by the membership of the United Nations, as asserted by the G77. 

Asked about the charges of management failings in the U.N. Secretariat, Malloch Brown told a TV interviewer last year: We have a hell of a structural problem. The Security Council and member states generally interfere in the management of this organisation. They've not given the secretary-general the authority or the resources or the means to run a modern organisation that can be held properly accountable to its membership. 

We instead have a highly politicised interference in the day-to-day decision-making by ambassadors and their minions, he said. 

Although the current letter does not mention any official by name, it has a thinly-veiled reference to Burnham, whose recent press conference was described by one G77 official as political grandstanding. 

The letter says recent comments to the media by a senior Secretariat official about the contents of the draft audit report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), even before the report was brought to the attention of the General Assembly, raises serious questions about the propriety in the conduct and impartiality of some Secretariat officials. 

Annan also referred to a controversial statement made by Burnham, whose appointment was inspired by the White House and who was quoted as saying that his loyalties were to U.S. President George W. Bush. 

We have discussed this, and he apologised to me. This matter is closed, Annan told G77 delegates. 

Article 100 of the charter says that in the performance of their duties, the secretary-general and the staff shall not seek or receive instructions from any government or any other authority external to the Organisation. 

The charter also says that they shall refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international officials responsible only to the Organisation. 

The letter to Annan, delivered Tuesday, also says: The Group of 77 and China takes all allegations of abuse, fraud and mismanagement in the Secretariat with the utmost seriousness. 

And it was the G77 that proposed a comprehensive audit report to review the practices of Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and identify areas of risk and exposure to fraud and abuse of authority in the operational areas, including those relating to procurement. 

The letter says the view expressed by Burnham at the press briefing was done without due regard for inter-governmental processes or the reputation of the United Nations. 

Such actions, in our view, are a clear contravention of the staff rules and regulations of the Organisation and the provisions of the Charter, which require the staff of the Secretariat, regardless of their seniority and nationality, to be politically neutral and refrain from any action inconsistent with their status as international civil servants responsible to the Organisation. 

In an appeal to Annan, the letter urges him to take the necessary measures to ensure that the officials concerned respect the regulations and rules and desist from such practices with immediate effect. 

Meanwhile, the G77 has also expressed concerns regarding the recent tendency of senior Secretariat officials to commission consultants to conduct studies and produce findings without the prior consultation and approval of the General Assembly. 

The oversight role of the General Assembly should not be replaced by the commissioning of investigations, reviews and studies, in particular where neither the study nor the associated resources have been mandated by the General Assembly, the letter adds. 

The Group of 77 and China supports your efforts to promote a culture of ethics in the Organisation and wishes to urge you to make every effort to curb these unhealthy trends which are not conducive to the ongoing efforts of Member States and the Secretariat alike to reform and strengthen the Organisation. 

We would like to emphasise that allegations of wrongdoing must be investigated promptly and dealt with in a fair manner and that due process be observed, in accordance with the established system for the administration of justice, the letter concludes.