A day after a senior UN official was indicted on bribery charges, the United Nations management chief said on Thursday an investigation into corruption was at full throttle and he urged anyone with relevant information to cooperate. The dominoes are beginning to fall, the undersecretary-general for management, Mr Christopher Burnham told the Associated Press. Anyone with information about corruption anywhere in the UN needs to come forward now before the dominoes reach them, he added.
Mr Burnham, who has been instrumental in pressing investigations into corruption especially in UN procurement activities, said the corruption probe goes beyond the procurement department. This investigation is as serious as a heart attack and is at full throttle, he said.
The warning from Mr Burnham followed Wednesdays indictment and arrest of former UN procurement official, Mr Sanjaya Bahel. In an indictment unsealed in US district court, Mr Bahel of Manhattan was accused of using his influence to steer contracts worth more than $50 million to a man who rewarded him with valuable real estate. The man, Mr Nishan Kohli, was arrested Wednesday in Miami.
Mr Bahel pleaded not guilty on Thursday and was freed on $900,000 bail. Defence lawyer, Mr Raymond A Levites said Mr Bahel, an Indian diplomat and the former head of the UN commodity procurement section, looks forward to the trial and being acquitted and then getting some apologies.
Mr Bahel was one of eight staff members put on paid leave by the UN in January while a new procurement task force pursued allegations of fraud and mismanagement in purchasing for UN peacekeeping operations. In 2005, the UN procurement department handled almost $2 billion in purchasing for the department of peacekeeping, almost double the amount in 2003, UN officials said.
On August 31, the UN charged Mr Bahel with misconduct and suspended him without pay after an investigation concluded that Mr Bahel used his relationship with a wealthy Indian businessman and his son to steer deals to the company they represented. The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services, the UNs internal watchdog, provided its final report to US and Indian authorities and the US Attorneys office in the southern district launched its own investigation, the UN spokesman, Mr Stephane Dujarric said.
Mr Dujarric was grilled by reporters on Thursday on why Mr Bahel was initially cleared by the UN watchdog, and why anyone should have faith in the supposedly independent body to rout out criminal activity. There may have been issues with previous audits that were not followed through on, that were not acted upon, Mr Dujarric said.
But he pointed to the reforms instituted after a sweeping year-long probe led by former US Federal Reserve chairman, Mr Paul Volcker concluded last year that the UN allowed illicit, unethical, and corrupt behaviour to overwhelm the $64 billion oil-for-food program in Iraq. One of the great lessons learned from the Volcker report is the fact that we do need to tighten up our procedures, in terms of audits that have taken place, audits that have to be followed up on, Mr Dujarric said.
After the Volcker report and the guilty plea in August 2005 by UN procurement officer, Mr Alexander Yakovlev to wire fraud and money laundering, The Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan transferred authority for procurement from the assistant secretary-general, Mr Andrew Toh to the UN controller.
Mr Dujarric said two of the eight people suspended in January are still under investigation. UN officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing probe, said one of them is Toh.
The US ambassador, Mr John Bolton on Thursday praised Mr Burnham, an American, for being the driving force in the creation of the procurement task force which assisted in the case against Mr Bahel and is playing an important role in uncovering UN fraud. |
I'm "deeply concerned about this in no uncertain terms", I tells ya...
NEW YORK - A friend of the former procurement official at the United Nations pleaded guilty in a bribery case, saying he let the official rent and later buy an apartment for his family at reduced prices so he could win lucrative U.N. contracts.