UN’s internal watchdog faces leadership vacuum

UNITED NATIONS – The leader of the agency that is supposed to root out corruption in the United Nations stepped down on Wednesday with no successor in sight, adding to fears that the UN is becoming less capable of policing itself.

With the departure of Inga-Britt Ahlenius, head of the Office of Internal Oversight Services for the past five years, three of the agency’s four top jobs are unfilled. American and UN officials and watchdog groups are concerned that the UN is compromising its ability to prevent another scandal like the US$1.8 billion milked from the UN-run oil-for-food programme in Iraq.
‘The United States has consistently and aggressively pushed for a strong and independent Office of Internal Oversight Services to uncover fraud, waste and mismanagement at the UN, but we are disappointed with the recent performance of its investigations division,’ said Patrick Ventrell, a spokesman for the US Mission to the UN.
‘We have been crystal clear with the UN at the highest levels that the coming change in OIOS leadership must bring about a significant improvement in its performance to increase oversight and transparency throughout the organisation,’ he told the AP.
Interviews with OIOS officials and documents uncovered in Associated Press investigations portray a demoralised office whose staff lacks confidence in the management’s leadership.
Despite a General Assembly resolution last December urging Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to ensure that a successor was appointed before Ahlenius’ term expired, none has been named and no indication has been given of when that will happen.
Asked by AP about the prospects for replacing Ahlenius, Angela Kane, the UN’s undersecretary-general for management, said July 1 that ‘a very intensive search’ is under way.
Ahlenius declined interview requests and said by e-mail she will submit her end-of-assignment report to Ban on Wednesday, her last day on the job.
Another OIOS leadership position – the directorship of its investigative division – has been vacant since 2006. That unit’s investigators were told, in a document obtained by the AP, not to open cases of financial fraud or corruption involving UN vendors or former staff – a reversal of past policy. Separately, they were ordered not to follow up on or to quickly close out investigations already launched by the UN Procurement Task Force when it operated from 2006 through 2008, according to OIOS officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they said they feared reprisals.
The Procurement Task Force, set up in the wake of the oil-for-food case, was headed by Robert Appleton, a veteran former US federal prosecutor who was special counsel for that inquiry. It was disbanded at the end of 2008 under pressure from some governments that protested findings of wrongdoing involving citizens or companies from their nations.
The General Assembly had directed Ban and Ahlenius to ensure that the task force’s caseload and capacities were transferred to OIOS’ investigation division.
But since the start of 2009, the UN under Ban has cut back sharply on investigations into corruption and fraud within its ranks, shelving cases involving allegations of theft or misuse of millions of dollars, an AP investigation in January showed.
Last month, when asked by the AP to respond to the allegations and detail the UN’s anti-corruption efforts, Ban replied only that ‘addressing corruption as a way of enhancing good governance – that is a very important area – the United Nations is putting emphasis on that.’
In the absence of a permanent director, the investigation division is run by an acting director, Michael Dudley, a career UN official. The department’s management under his tenure was criticised by some employees of the 70-strong division in a survey of staff in late 2008 obtained by AP.
Of 52 respondents, 47 percent said the management operates with integrity and 41 percent said it doesn’t. The rest had no opinion. About three-fifths described the office as having low morale, ineffective leadership and unfair promotion practices. – Nampa-AP