Inner City Press: Watchdogging and Taking Action Since 1987

Updated December 11, 2006, as part of Inner City Press' UNDP Series --Intro followed by second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth

     While people with knowledge of hiring favoritism and corruption within the UN Development Program continuing coming forward on day six of this series, this page will be devoted to UNDP's responses. First, however, two points on which to focus. UNDP has a $5 billion budget, which is supposed to help the poor. Its chief executive Kemal Dervis as of the date this page beings, December 5 of 2006, has not held a press conference in 14 months.

            Despite or perhaps due to Mr. Dervis' silence, UNDP demanded that the written responses it provides, sometimes six paragraphs in length in answer to a three-line question, should be published in full. That is not, cannot and will not the practice, not only at Inner City Press but at nearly any other independent publication. Due to the request that emails be presented in full, also included below is an email from outgoing Communications deputy William Orme, who is moving on with some irony to encourage independent journalism. On December 8, after stating among other things that UNDP would not longer response or comment on "UNDP’s recruitment and personnel practices," UNDP withdrew its request for presentation in full.

-----Original Message-----
From: cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 7:20 PM

Dear Matthew,

... for the record, we would like to point out that we never asked for our replies to be published in full.

-----Original Message-----
From: cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 7:13 PM
Subject: Your UNDP queries

Dear Matthew,

UNDP is working to address the numerous questions you have asked us. As many of your concerns touch upon similar kinds of issues we thought it might be helpful if we were to state, for the record:

That we do not release the reports of our internal audits and investigations. The results of these reports are communicated on an annual basis to the UNDP Executive Board in the form of an annual Administrator’s report on Internal Audit and Oversight, which we believe you already have. The reports of UNDP’s external audits are available at http://www.unsystem.org/auditors/.

That we will no longer be responding to unsubstantiated allegations about UNDP’s recruitment and personnel practices.

From: [CW at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 5:20 PM
Subject: RE: deadline today 5 p.m.

...we are still working to provide you with a response to your 1 December question on our Russia Country Office (you asked about "any and all investigations undertaken in the past 10 years", not just about the 2005 investigation). In response to your above request for the 2005 investigation report, please note that we do not release the reports of our internal audits and investigations. The results of these reports, however, are communicated on an annual basis to the UNDP Executive Board in the form of an annual Administrator’s report on Internal Audit and Oversight (this is the longer document that contains the text you have pasted above). The reports of UNDP’s external auditors are available at http://www.unsystem.org/auditors/.

-----Original Message-----
From: cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 6:27 PM
Subject: RE: Additional Qs re UNDP, response to your Q re deadlines, thank you in advance

Dear Matthew,

Thank you for posting the full text of our note to you of 5 December. We would encourage you to integrate our points into your stories as well, as we believe doing so would present a more balanced picture of UNDP.

We hope the below addresses some of your outstanding concerns.

On the Millennium Project:

The Millennium Project was set up in 2002 as an independent advisory body to the Secretary-General, charged with proposing the best strategies for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It is funded by donors on a voluntary basis and administered by UNDP (contracts, human resources policies, etc.). It has been led since the outset by Professor Jeffrey Sachs. Guido Schmidt-Traub is its Associate Director.

The Millennium Project was designed from the beginning as a time-bound exercise. Its mandate expires at the end of 2006. In order to bolster progress towards the Goals, we have decided to merge the work of the Millennium Project into UNDP. To this end, UNDP has set up a new sub-unit in our poverty group, which will consist of some 20 positions.

To complete the integration by the end of the year, UNDP management is using an expedited competitive recruiting process for five lead positions. These five positions have been advertised and are in the process of being filled.

Five other positions do not require a competitive process under UNDP recruitment procedures and will be filled with people currently working for the Millennium Project.

All other positions will be recruited according to standard UNDP recruitment procedures, and this process is on-going.

For the record, Jeffrey Sachs will continue to be involved with the UN’s effort on the Millennium Development Goals. As of 1 January, he will serve as Special Adviser to UNDP on the Millennium Development Goals. His salary will continue to be $75,000 per year.

On the allegation that Kemal Dervis’s paramount interest is Turkish politics:

Prior to joining UNDP in August 2005, Mr. Dervis was a high profile Turkish public figure. Because of this, journalists around the world often ask him for his views on issues involving Turkey. The suggestion on your website that the resulting media coverage means he is somehow "aiming for a position in Turkey" and "using UNDP money to further his own goals" is contemptible. Mr. Dervis does have a junior Turkish-speaking member on his staff to assist with correspondence and other matters relating to Turkey, as well other general office and research duties. Her job does not involve media relations.

In response to the allegations on the Inner City Press website relating to the 2006 Report of the Office of the UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Ombudsperson: An Ombudsperson’s work is, by nature, concerned primarily with complaints and conflicts within an organisation. UNDP, like every organisation large and small, has its share of complaints and conflicts. It works to resolve those problems through the Ombudsperson and also through other means. For the record, other sections of the Report state that "Most staff members who have contacted the Ombudsperson either in the country offices or at headquarters have also indicated their satisfaction at the outcome following intervention by the Office," "The [Ombudsperson's] recommendations have resulted in appropriate disciplinary measures at all management levels," "The Executive Heads have made their position on [retaliation for contacting the Ombudsperson and 'pretaliation'] extremely clear," and "The Administrator and the Executive Directors have given whole-hearted support and have themselves sought the services of the Ombudsperson."

Further, Inner City Press published its allegations relating to the Ombudsperson’s report on 5 December, then sought official comment from the UN Spokesman on 6 December. Further still, for the record, UNDP takes pride in its leadership in establishing channels, including the Ombudsperson, through which staff can air grievances or report misconduct. Among other measures, UNDP has put in place an anonymous fraud hotline, a disciplinary committee and a workplace harassment reporting mechanism for staff concerns. Moreover, UNDP’s most recent Global Staff Survey shows overall morale at UNDP higher than ever, at all levels of the organisation, and for both men and women: 74% of those surveyed would recommend UNDP as a good place to work to their friends and associates.

Regards,

Cassandra Waldon