Several internal audits by one of its own agencies reveal
that the UN has wasted tens of millions of dollars in its "peacekeeping
operations" in Sudan over the past three years.
Follow this link to the original source: "Audit
of U.N.’s Sudan Mission Finds Tens of Millions in Waste"
The UN Security Council established its mission in Sudan in
March 2005, under the guise of helping to settle a 22-year-old
civil war that has left 2 million dead, leaving tens of thousands,
if not millions, homeless and hungry.
Earlier this month, the Washington Post obtained a copy of
a confidential audit from October 2006 where "a number
of potential fraud indicators and cases of mismanagement and
waste," were noted by the UN Office for International Oversight
Services, the UN agency conducting the audits.
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Irregularities that have been identified so far include:
• Thousands of food
rations being lost to theft and spoilage.
• Millions of dollars being wasted by renting warehouses
that were never used.
• The unnecessary expenditure of $1.2 million used for
booking blocks of luxurious hotel rooms for UN staffers that
were never used.
• A UN agent is accused of steering a $589,000 contract
to Radiola Aerospace for solar airport runway lights when the
company helped his wife obtain a student visa.
• Two senior procurement officials, one U.S. citizen and
one from New Zealand, are charged with misconduct for not complying
with rules designed to prevent corruption.
• A $200 million contract with Eurest Support Services,
a British catering company, is being examined, as the company
has already been charged with rigging bids in three different
African countries.
• One contract to supply gravel for peacekeeping barracks
was described in the audit as "exorbitant."
• Over $9 million in unnecessary fees went to a Canadian
company, Skylink Aviation, by releasing it from its obligation
to fulfill a contract.
• Another $9 million was wasted by hiring a company to
clear UN goods through customs instead of UN staffers doing
the job.
Keep in mind these are the
admitted activities of just one UN mission — the tip of
the proverbial iceberg.
Faith McDonnell is director of the Institute on Religion and
Democracy’s Church Alliance for a New Sudan. She added
these comments:
The greatest tragedy here is that a little money can go a
long way in helping those Sudanese who are in need. While
nonprofit aid organizations and churches can do wonders with
just a few hundred or thousand dollars, the UN wastes millions.
The lost opportunities are staggering.
There are reports in Juba of UN workers served luxurious
brunches by five-star chefs while southern Sudanese outside
scramble to piece together paltry school tuition fees. It
is nothing short of a travesty.
Southern Sudan is really
the best hope for peace in the entire country. Marginalized
people/groups are coming together with Southern Sudanese as
never before. All Sudanese who want just peace, secular democracy,
and religious freedom are counting on the UN and African Union
forces to assist them in stabilizing and developing their country,
not taking control from indigenous leaders and replaying the
same corruption we’ve seen in many other countries.
How corrupt does an organization have to be, with examples
abounding of every kind of immorality, criminal behavior, abuse
and corruption committed by UN individuals and agencies as a
whole, before people wake up to the reality of its workings
and agenda?
