Posted on 02/08/2005 8:12:50 PM PST by kcvl
Per Fox News...
Fox News has obtained some information about ANOTHER U. N. Scandal and Congress is investigating. I didn't catch all of the breaking news story. SORRY!
Please post details when you get them....
Otay pankie, I'll take your word for it!
Ummmm, what exactly IS the word, tho?
Something about the Sudanese Government OR syrian and 3 million dollars and how the focus of food for oil may be focused on this new scandle
Does it have to do with tsunami relief?
Has Hill/Billy left with the money?
;^)
"3 million dollars"
That's loose change for FFO
Messages sent from Sudanese man, who is missing along with 3 million dollars in another U. N. Scandal.
Theft and Mismanagement Charged at U.N. Weather Agency
By JUDITH MILLER
Published: February 9, 2005
he tempest inside the World Meteorological Organization began with a single check.
An accountant working late one night in July 2003 at the United Nations-affiliated weather agency in Geneva spotted a check that he had signed, but noticed that someone had endorsed it to an unknown third party, one L. Khalil. The accountant's curiosity was piqued, and he began nosing around.
"Within half an hour I had found about 25 checks worth about $400,000 that had not gone to where they were supposed to go," said the accountant, Luckson Ngwira.
That led to a formal audit and a continuing criminal investigation by Swiss authorities at the sleepy agency, focusing on allegations of embezzlement of training funds by Muhammad Hassan, a Sudanese employee who controlled that money. Investigators allege in documents and interviews that Mr. Hassan stole as much as $3 million over three or four years.
This might be a simple embezzlement case, except that in addition to the money, Mr. Hassan is missing as well. A woman claiming to be Mr. Hassan's wife filed a death certificate, which Sudanese officials have told investigators is fake.
The investigation and the ensuing tumult has rocked an agency where excitement usually only comes with extreme weather. "This is bigger than Ben Hur," said Kathleen Charles, who was the agency's chief administrator before resigning in late 2003. "It has kept growing and growing."
The agency, which aims to coordinate and improve weather reporting around the globe, is small by United Nations standards, with just 350 employees and an annual budget of roughly $75 million. But critics of the United Nations said the weather agency's woes, coming after disclosures of widespread abuse in the oilfor-food program in Iraq, reflect broader mismanagement at the organization. The House International Relations Committee is expected to explore this theme at a hearing on Wednesday.
Fred Eckhard, the spokesman for Secretary General Kofi Annan, said that while the specialized agency was in the "U.N. constellation," it operated independently of the Secretariat in New York. "They are responsible for cleaning up whatever might have gone wrong there," he said.
Representative Henry J. Hyde, the Illinois Republican who is chairman of the House panel, said United Nations officials "want it both ways." He said they took credit for the accomplishments of agencies like the meteorological organization but deny "responsibility for accusations of malfeasance."
Those accusations are outlined in diplomatic cables to the State Department from the United States mission to the United Nations in Geneva, copies of which were provided to The New York Times by Congressional investigators. The cables and additional interviews show an agency rife with intrigue and politics.
Mr. Ngwira, 49, the Malawian accountant who uncovered the first unusual check, initially hesitated to report his suspicions.
"Hassan was very close to the man who was then our secretary general," he said, referring to Godwin Olu Patrick Obasi of Nigeria. Mr. Obasi had run the meteorological agency for more than 20 years, and Mr. Hassan had boasted of being close to him. "They were always together, so we knew that if you annoyed Muhammad Hassan, you were annoying the big man," Mr. Ngwira said.
Mr. Ngwira said Mr. Hassan had told him that he had helped re-elect Mr. Obasi as head of the agency by defraying travel expenses for representatives of national weather services when they went to Geneva, one of Europe's most expensive cities. Those representatives elect the agency's secretary general.
Soon after his arrival at the agency, Mr. Ngwira said, Mr. Hassan asked him to be host to "one of our brothers from Africa" who had arrived in Geneva. When Mr. Ngwira declined, saying he and his family were still unpacking, Mr. Hassan said he was making a mistake.
"He said, 'Look, if you do something like this for the secretary general, he will never forget you,' " Mr. Ngwira said Mr. Hassan had told him. " 'People here get promoted not because of their work, but because they're nice to the powerful people here. This is an opportunity for you. If you don't take it, don't be surprised if you don't get promoted.' "
Mr. Ngwira was not promoted, although agency officials said this week that he would be rewarded for pursuing the signs of fraud.
******
There is more but I am not signing up to read it...
For a weather group $3mil is big.
It sounds as if the U. N. is one big party of crooks with immunity.
The UN and Scandal are synonyms.
I'm waiting for "W" to announce "Irrelevant" - no more money
Reb: "Looks like a big storm brewing."
Tex: "Yep. It's gonna come a blue-norther for shore."
Reb: "Blue and norther just sort of go together, don't they, Tex?"
Tex: "Yep. Just like UN and believable, 'cept it's all one word."
Reb: "You mean like damn and yankee?"
Tex: "Yep."
I work on a UN project in Afghanistan. Most of the UN workers I know are very hard-working decent people, although liberal to an extreme.
Unfortunately for these developing countries, the UN is the only game in town. The World Bank, nations, and other donors, give/lend money to the nations in need. The donors have control over who is hired to implement the projects. The UN is perceived as the best and often only qualified provider of services. It's our goal to someday have an organization that will complete with the UN.
As for this situation, it's obvious that the proper controls weren't in place. That can happen because often there is a swift rotation of international staffers. While the pay is good, the conditions are not and the security measures very restrictive. I've been in Kabul two years, which is now makes me a long-termer.
more UN shenanigans ping
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