Posted on 05/02/2007 7:22:59 AM PDT by the Real fifi
UNITED NATIONS — With Washington critics increasingly directing their attacks at the management style of the World Bank's president, Paul Wolfowitz, a key figure in the battle over his post is the target of similar accusations.
A former chairman of the World Bank's ethics committee, Ad Melkert, advised Mr. Wolfowitz on employing his girlfriend, who was serving as a top bank official when Mr. Wolfowitz became president. His advice, confirmed by documents released by the bank, has become a key component in the struggle over leadership of the World Bank, which has involved accusations that Mr. Wolfowitz's management style has created a lot of enemies at the bank.
Coming to the U.N. Development Program from his post as the World Bank's ethics adviser, Mr. Melkert found an organization that does not even have such management tools as an ethics committee. Over a year later, one has not been created. According to a spokesman, David Morrison, the agency is currently awaiting a report about creating an ethics "function."
A former Dutch politician, Mr. Melkert's title is associate administrator, but he is universally considered the de facto top man at the agency that disperses $5 billion annually worldwide. Like the UNDP administrator, Kemal Dervis of Turkey, and his predecessor, Mark Malloch Brown of Britain, Mr. Melkert belongs to a class of officials who migrate between international organizations. According to internal UNDP ombudsman reports that, although not meant for publication, were seen by The New York Sun, management ills that have plagued the UNDP were not improved much under Mr. Melkert. "As in the past four periods, the abuse of authority heads the list," the 2006 report concluded.
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
After repeated written denials to American officials, Mr. Melkert admitted that the UNDP possessed the counterfeit bills, adding through Mr. Morrison that top officials knew about it only since February. Later, however, the Sun quoted internal documents reporting about the contents of the Pyongyang safe that were several years old."
Ping
My guess is that the "$5 billion dispersed annually" is no longer being dispersed with zero accountability the way the corrupt mice over there were accustomed to it being dispersed.
Since the chief antagonist of Paul Wolfowitz on the matter of the settlement is Ad Melkert then head of the World Bank’s Ethics Committee readers might be interested in knowing what he is up to now:
[quote]UN sources continue to express surprise that Mr. Melkert’s hiring of Eelco Keij, an operative from his political party, the Dutch Labor Party, has not triggered any formal review by UNDP or its Executive Board. And beyond direct personal conflicts of interest, these UN insiders enumerate Mr. Melkert’s incongruous talk but no action on issues of ethics at UNDP since he has essentially run the agency.
After taking the Number Two post at UNDP in early 2006, few ethics reforms have been enacted. Following criticism that blossomed from an inquiry into the irregular demotion of UNDP’s head of human resources, Brian Gleeson, on November 29, 2006, Mr. Melkert attended a press conference in UN Headquarters on December 15 at which he said he would strive to make UNDP more transparent and more ethical — “you ain’t seen nothing yet,” he later said.
Four months later, we ain’t seen nothing yet. Neither Ad Melkert nor Kemal Dervis have filed the Financial Disclosure forms which Ban Ki-moon and other top UN officials have filed, and which Mr. Ban has made public. At UNDP, there is still no Ethics Office. The simple reform of making UNDP internal audits available at least to members states which ask for them has not been enacted. In fact, Mr. Melkert did not even make the proposal to the UNDP Executive Board meetings in January 2007. [/quote]
And according to the article, he is unlikely to make the proposal to the June meeting either.
http://www.innercitypress.com/undpworldbank043007.html
It actually looks like Melkert may be behind Wolfowitz's problems. What better way to divert atttention from his own corrupt activities? Good to see somebody is on the case.
Regards,
LH
Mr. Melkert takes the ombudsman's annual reports "very seriously, and while there is need for improvement, there is some improvement under Mr. Melkert," a spokesman, David Morrison, said yesterday.
Talk about faint praise!
Mr. Morrison is the clown who said that the agency is currently awaiting a report about creating an ethics "function." Priceless!
Looks like the boomerang is on its way back!
Are these organizations anything more than pass the trash?
Well, it’s interesting you should mention that. The Avni article is from April 20 and while the press is dutifully reporting Melkert’s charges and “refutations” of Wolfowitz and Riza’s statements, no one has mentioned that he is a lying sack—
The NY Sun caught him in a flat out lie about the counterfeit US dollars in the UN safe and NO ONE has mentioned it in their reports.
C’mon, you’re not expecting morality from the head of the IMF Ethics Committee, are you? :-)
From what I gather, he’s a typical technocratic power-player without any inherent political ideology who will bend with any political wind if he thinks he can gain from it.
That’s what it looks like to me. The snakes at the WB made a big mistake because the more Americans learn about these international swindles—and the press pretty much covers them up but for brave people like Claudia Rossett—the more they gget away with.
I know this crowd well as I live in D.C. Repulsive, over paid lot.
Eh, World Bank, not IMF, of course..
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