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WILLIAMS: U.N. WITCH-FINDING INSPECTORS IN INTERNAL OVERSIGHT SERVICES:
22/10/2007 (MaximsNews Network)
UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network /
- 23 October 2007 -- To
great fanfare, last year the UN's witch-finding inspectors, the Office of
Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), announced that they had nailed a Singaporean
staff member, Andrew Toh, for corruption.
To considerably less
fanfare, this month the Singapore government revealed that the
UN's internal courts had cleared Toh of any substantial wrongdoing - and
found that the OIOS had harassed him and spent millions of dollars investigating
him without any success on the main charges.
Instead of punishing his persecutors,
last Thursday UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon suspended Toh for two months
without pay and demoted him.
This is like fining a witch at the
stake for fire-raising, or as the indignant Singapore
foreign ministry colourfully put it: "Toh is like a pedestrian
deliberately hit by a speeding car as he crosses the street, only to be cited
for jaywalking as he lies injured, while the culprit goes unpunished".
Almost two years ago, under pressure
from the US, the UN sent more staff to help the OIOS investigate the UN's
procurement office. The new procurement task force began in January 2006, with
its head a former assistant district attorney from Connecticut, and its first
official act was to put Toh on leave while they investigated.
Toh was been ground down in a
Kafkaesque process ever since. When they could not find any evidence to back
their original corruption charges against him, they expanded their investigation
and demanded that he submit details of all transactions in his family exceeding
US$10,000, as well as any gifts received exceeding US$250, for the previous
decade.
The UN's joint disciplinary committee
has now cleared Toh of fraud, but obviously leery of being accused of wasting
the UN's resources, reprimanded him for negligence in filing his financial
disclosures.
This should be no surprise to anyone
who has watched the OIOS at work. For years, American politicians and media
wanting to score quick political points have raised allegations of "waste,
mismanagement and corruption" at the UN.
Instead of rebutting false charges,
successive secretary generals have pandered to them, throwing accused staff to
the wolves. Any UN staff member who comes under investigation, particularly from
an American accusation, is presumed guilty, even if like Toh he is proven
innocent.
During the Iraq "oil for
food" storm, the Volcker
commission's release of OIOS's internal reports fed the media frenzy, helped
along by malicious leaks from investigators.
Half-digested, with no notice taken of
any rebuttals from the "accused," a typically memorable charge was
that the UN's border inspectors had wasted money by being on station at the
Iraqi border months before the food and oil trade was up and running.
But, as an exasperated staff member
pointed out, that was because the UN security council had ordered them to be
there. And if they were not, doubtless, he suggested, there would have been a
nitpicking OIOS report complaining about their failure to comply with the
council's instructions.
In 2001 I wrote a story about a
company using the planes that it was contracting to the UN to smuggle
"blood diamonds" from central Africa. I approached OIOS for
comment.
They did not return my calls, but
internal sources told me its response was not to investigate the company, but to
investigate who had leaked me the story. Even professionals inside its ranks
have quit and tried to
blow the whistle on the OIOS's methods.
The UN needs an adequate justice
system that exonerates the innocent, punishes the guilty and dissolves the OIOS
and its procurement task force, the acting head of which - despite being guilty
of this wasteful and malicious vendetta against Toh - is confidently expecting
to be promoted next year.
The Wall St Journal is already
campaigning to retain the task force in the face of Singapore's objections.
The UN panel on Toh's claims
recommended that OIOS and the UN should review their rules on investigations and
"bring them in line with the judgements of the United Nations
administrative tribunal and the existing international instruments on human
rights".
That is long overdue.
The impunity that used to be enjoyed
by perpetrators in the UN has been replaced with a lack of accountability and a
total impunity by the OIOS, whose malicious incompetence is aimed more at glory
in the Murdoch press than at justice.
Since the UN has been quick to remove the diplomatic immunity of any staff
member suspected of criminal behaviour, not least anyone fingered by the
Fox-hunters of the far right, Toh wants reciprocation.
He wants the secretary general to lift
the immunity of his persecutors so he can sue his persecutors for the egregious
abuses of natural justice and established procedure which the UN's own courts
have found.
By the time the UN appeals procedure
rules that Toh's suspension and demotion were wrong, and awards him substantial
compensation, his persecutors will be safely drawing a substantial salary.
Ban Ki Moon has made the promotion of
human rights a priority of his administration. He should begin inside his own
organization by ignoring US pressure and putting a stop to the persecution of
Toh.
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
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