Money Problems Run Deep at the U.N. 

Stewart Stogel
January 25, 2007
Newsmax
Original Source: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/1/24/155035.shtml

UNITED NATIONS -- Embarrassing situations abound at the United Nations. 
NewsMax has learned that costs tied to renovations of the secretary-general's official residence are now under review. 
This comes as the United Nations prepares to tackle a massive renovation of its New York City headquarters and seeks to recover from a federal indictment of a former senior official for embezzling from the oil-for-food program. 
Last September, the United Nations decided that a massive renovation of the secretary-general's official residence was long overdue. The building, a four-story townhouse, is on Manhattan's posh Upper East Side overlooking the East River. 
It had been described in various U.N. reports as unsafe and unhealthy to live in. 
Originally, the United Nations requested a $4.5 million appropriation from the General Assembly last September. 
It also requested $202,000 to house the secretary-general at a temporary residence while the nine-month project was under way. 
Recently, NewsMax learned that new U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, who has been at the Waldorf-Astoria since last November, was growing tired of the stay and instructed the world body to find him something more private. 
NewsMax also learned that the Waldorf suite was costing the United Nations substantially more than the $202,000 in the original budget request. 
U.N. sources now admit that the real cost is far more than publicly disclosed. Internal updates provided to NewsMax now put the cost above $500,000. 
In a response to a NewsMax inquiry, U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe, admitted that the figures for the entire project, submitted last September, are being updated, but refused to release details. 
Okabe also admitted that the United Nations is again asking [potential contractors] for bids on the project, but could say no more. That process was supposed to have been completed more than three months ago. 
It also means that Ban Ki-moon could still be living out of a suitcase when the annual General Assembly convenes in September. 
As far as the cost to overhaul the residence, word is the final bill could be almost double the amount originally requested. 
This is not the first time controversy has swirled around the U.N. home. 
In January 1997, the then-new secretary-general, Kofi Annan, also took up residence at the Waldorf while the official residence was being renovated. Annan moved into his new digs several weeks later. 
At the time, the United Nations could provide no official explanation for the delays. 
Then, several bills from Manhattan Cable TV surfaced inside the U.N. press corps. 
The Time/Warner company serviced the U.N. home. 
What the bills showed was that workers who were supposedly renovating the residence, were in fact watching pay-per-view pornographic movies when they were supposed to be repairing the building. 
Other records revealed that the workers waited until their overtime kicked in and then began the repairs. At the time, an embarrassed U.N. claimed it was going to ask the contractors to address the problems. The United Nations never revealed how the issue was resolved. 
Now, the residence is again at the center of money problems and construction delays. 
It also comes at a time when the United Nations is seeking to raise $1.8 billion to renovate its 40-acre N.Y. headquarters. 
The headquarters, like the secretary-general's residence, has also been found to be falling apart. 
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has complained that the U.N. campus is a health hazard that needs to be shut down. 
Originally built in the early 1950s, many U.N. facilities contain outdated ventilation systems and still have asbestos in their hallways. 
Leaks have occurred in several underground facilities that straddle the East River. We have found fish and eels in several below-ground facilities, officials in the U.N. security revealed. 
Rats have been seen both directly outside the 38-story Secretariat as well as inside the United Nations' main staff cafeteria. 
All of which comes as the former director of the United Nations/Iraq oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan, faces new criminal federal charges of embezzlement, which if found guilty, could land him up to 50 years in a U.S. prison. 
More than $2 billion is believed to have been siphoned from the project claimed U.N. investigators. 
All of which could prove problematic for the folks at the world body since the United States might be expected to foot a major share of the renovation costs to the home and to the U.N. headquarters. 
With the U.N. oil-for-food scandal yet to play itself out, a new, Democrat-controlled Congress, is not likely to get itself involved another U.N. financial morass. 
Just last week, Ban paid his first official visit to President Bush. The White House was mum on whether the U.N.'s money problems were discussed by the two leaders.