US prosecutors call UN staff in purchasing inquiry

By Irwin Arieff
February 14, 2006 
Reuters
Original Source: http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-02-14T213956Z_01_N14395435_RTRIDST_0_UN-PROBE.XML
			
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors want to interview 11 U.N. employees in connection with an inquiry into possible fraud in peacekeeping procurement contracts spanning a six-year period, U.N. officials said on Tuesday.
The names of the employees, who are in jobs related either to peacekeeping or procurement, have not been made public.
But the officials stressed that none had as yet been charged with any crime and retained, for now, their diplomatic immunity -- gained as a result of their employment by the United Nations.
Under U.N. rules, they typically would lose their immunity only after being charged with wrongdoing.
These are only inquiries at this stage and not part of any judicial proceedings, U.N. chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. We have always said we would cooperate with U.S. judicial authorities or any other judicial authorities which are currently investigating the procurement department.
A letter from Maria Vicien-Milburn of the U.N. Office of Legal Affairs encouraged the 11 to meet with representatives of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, citing a duty to cooperate.
Federal and New York prosecutors have been looking into allegations of fraud and abuse in U.N. peacekeeping purchasing in a follow-up to multiple investigations into the now-defunct U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq and a U.N. audit of six years of peacekeeping procurement contracts.
The U.N. audit found that as much as $300 million of the $1 billion spent on the contracts during that period may have been wasted, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said recently. The United States picks up about a quarter of the U.N. peacekeeping tab.
The United Nations fields some 85,000 troops, police and civilians in peacekeeping missions around the world, which account for about 85 percent of all U.N. procurement spending.
Based on preliminary audit findings, the United Nations last month indefinitely suspended with pay eight procurement and peacekeeping employees, including its two most senior procurement officials.
The United Nations said at the time the eight suspensions were administrative rather than disciplinary actions and did not imply wrongdoing, but stressed the inquiry was expanding.