In UN's New Justice, Sex for Contracts Charges Covered Up, UN Wants to Try Again
By Matthew Russell Lee
August 3, 2009
The Inner City Press
Original Source: http://www.innercitypress.com/undt1poonjab080309.html
UNITED NATIONS, August 3 -- The case of two former UN staff members who were summarily dismissed after being http://www.innercitypress.com/procure071807.html named as having accepted the service of prostitutes in exchange for awarding UN contracts is among the first to be taken up by the UN's new system of justice. In a hearing in the UN's basement on Monday, Judge Goolam Hoosen Kader Meeran of the new UN Dispute Tribunal cajoled the representatives of Walter Cabrera and Brian Streb to agree to let him review their case based only on the documents considered by the now defunct Joint Disciplinary Committee. 

  Cabrera's representative said that before the JDC, they didn't contest the facts -- that http://www.innercitypress.com/procure071807.html UN contractor TCIL offered escort and bar services and paid for the hotel, reportedly -- but rather argued this did not constitute serious misconduct and they shouldn't have been fired.
  Judge Meeran said he will review the file and rule, and will not rake over the past. He proposed that how ever he rules, his public opinion will say that the underlying facts are well known to the parties. 
  These parties, including the UN, agreed Monday to this diplomatic language. What they forget is that the victim of the crime, if it was one, are the taxpayers whose money is wasted by corrupt UN procurement. The UN only became aware of the charges of sexual favors for contracts because it was testified to elsewhere in Manhattan, by witness Kohli at the Federal Court trial of Sanjay Bahel. 

  Once it came out, and http://www.innercitypress.com/procure071807.html Inner City Press ran the names, the UN had to take action. But now its new justice system proposes to gloss over the facts, and the UN's lawyer agreed.

The UN's representative at Monday hearing at first attacked the Joint Disciplinary Panel's proceeding as highly irregular, and argued that the two men's cases should be re-litigated before Justice Meeran. This seemed wasteful, particularly in light of his argument that the two cases should be combined so as to save money. 

  After being dressed down by Judge Goolam Meeran, the UN's lawyer began to praise the JDP, saying only that because of the difference in venues -- the JDC was not binding -- the UN might have presented more evidence. 
   It became clear that the UN Secretariat's prefers this new justice system to the previous one. The conflict of interest of the Secretary General not having timely ruled on the JDC recommendation, and that being a basis for his representative to argue for a second chance to present evidence was also apparent. 

   Cabrera's and Streb's representatives contended to Inner City Press, not without basis, that the UN wants to try the case again, a form of double jeopardy. That the UN consented so easily to pre-agreed on cover up of a scandal does not bode well. We will continue to follow the case.
Footnotes: during Monday's hearing, Brian Streb approached Inner City Press and, perhaps surprisingly, offered praise, that he's been out of work for two years but reads Inner City Press, that it's needed. Inner City Press expected him to be angry for having been named at the person alluded to in Kohli's testimony, and for having http://www.innercitypress.com/dmcmp111207.html made the connection between him and the Capital Master Plan.

   On the other hand, Inner City Press has more recently http://www.innercitypress.com/oios1appleton062309.html covered questions about Procurement Task Force chief Robert Appleton and is working on another story questioning the objectively of the PTF under Appleton. Mr. Appleton stopped answering questions when he saw he could not control, and he's had other UN officials step forward in his defense. If we had to choose between the two....