How bad is the situation if the UN's own internal audits show massive waste and fraud in the UN's operations in Sudan? Well, they say that tens of millions of dollars have been wasted and that UN officials have been steering contracts to cronies, so I'm guessing that the situation is actually even worse than they are letting on.
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations has wasted tens of millions of dollars in its peacekeeping operations in Sudan over the past three years, according to the findings of U.N. auditors examining the financial practices of the global body's overseas missions.
U.N. officers in Sudan have squandered millions by renting warehouses that were never used, booking blocks of hotel rooms that were never filled, and losing thousands of food rations to theft and spoilage, according to several internal audits by the U.N. Office for International Oversight Services. One U.N. purchasing agent has been accused of steering a $589,000 contract for airport runway lights to a company that helped his wife obtain a student visa, while two senior procurement officials from the United States and New Zealand have been charged by a U.N. panel with misconduct for not complying with rules designed to prevent corruption.
The U.N. procurement division "did not have the necessary capacity and expertise to handle the large magnitude of procurement actions" in Sudan, particularly during the early phases of the mission, according to a confidential October 2006 audit obtained by The Washington Post. Investigators also detected "a number of potential fraud indicators and cases of mismanagement and waste."
The internal United Nations audits provide a rare glimpse into the messy business of assembling a massive multinational expeditionary force in a war-torn nation. They also highlight the Bush administration's struggles to make progress on its top Africa initiative: ending a decades-long civil war between Sudan's Islamic government and southern rebels, and halting the mass killing of civilians in the country's southern region of Darfur.
U.N. peacekeeping officials maintain that the auditors' allegations are overblown, and that they neglect the difficulties of launching a major operation in a nation with few roads and a government hostile to foreigners. "This is seen as a witch hunt that is not warranted given the fluidity and complexity of that mission," said one U.N. official who served in Sudan, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigations.
Kofi Annan's legacy lives on, complete with denials that there is any corruption issued by bureaucrats who are not supposed to be talking to the press. And despite the track record of massive incompetence and corruption, there are still people who demand that the UN be allowed to handle even bigger and more complex things.
A certain definition of insanity comes to mind here.
“fluidity and complexity” nice. that says it all.
“UN officials have been steering contracts to cronies”
This seems to have become standard practice at the UN over the last couple of decades. The reason is simple – these people are not answerable to anyone but themselves. There is no Law Enforcement agency that can make arrests for fraud at the UN and no laws governing how they conduct themselves – just internal UN rules created and enforced by, you guessed it, the UN delegates and their employees – the very people perpetrating the fraud and mismanagement in the first place. The inmates are, indeed, in charge of the asylum.
I’m gonna be the “parent” here and insist on cutting them off …