Celtlund
24-03-2007, 16:04
As if the oil for food program and the sex scandal in Africa wern't enough, we now have this going on in North Korea.
"But the U.N. officials were even more worried that failing to act would leave them and the U.N. deeply damaged by a continued pattern of unauthorized payments, in cash and in hard international currency, to the dictatorial North Korean government. And personally, they were worried that a future U.N. audit might cast a harsh spotlight on the highly irregular ways that their agencies, led by UNDP, were acting in North Korea, and might accuse all of them of acting illegally.
Every day, for example, agents from the regime's General Bureau for Diplomatic Services — a section of the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs that deals with, and spies on, foreign diplomats — would arrive at the U.N. compound and collect envelopes of cash, handed over by the U.N. to pay local salaries, utilities and maintenance fees. No receipts were ever given.
The same applied to money ostensibly used for U.N. agency projects around the country — projects that the staff were not free to visit at will, if ever. (The Munsudong compound is a highly restricted area, with armed patrols at its perimeter. The U.N. officials could only live in designated quarters located a few hundred yards from their office.)
There were mild differences between the agencies, but the overall pattern of hard currency cash payments remained the same.
The mysteriously appointed local staff, who included critically important finance managers and communications specialists, were another matter of urgent concern. Many had received expensive U.N. training — only to be pulled out of U.N. employment after a few months on the job and assigned to other, unknown Korean government offices.
The U.N. operations officials were also uneasily aware that locally-appointed North Korean staff had access to sensitive U.N. files and communications, without supervisors' knowledge.
Even U.N.-designated cars and their North Korean drivers were operating outside U.N. control. Sometimes they were available and sometimes not; the officials were not even aware of what happened to their cars in the evening.
But the most disturbing fact under discussion in the Munsudong meeting was the absence of normal legal agreements with the North Korean government that would either justify or rein in the chaotic and mysterious operations of the agencies, which in the officials' experience did not conform with the U.N.'s operations anywhere else."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,260223,00.html
Can anyone, anyone please tell me what good is the UN? Why do people continue to support this corrupt and inept organization? Why?
"But the U.N. officials were even more worried that failing to act would leave them and the U.N. deeply damaged by a continued pattern of unauthorized payments, in cash and in hard international currency, to the dictatorial North Korean government. And personally, they were worried that a future U.N. audit might cast a harsh spotlight on the highly irregular ways that their agencies, led by UNDP, were acting in North Korea, and might accuse all of them of acting illegally.
Every day, for example, agents from the regime's General Bureau for Diplomatic Services — a section of the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs that deals with, and spies on, foreign diplomats — would arrive at the U.N. compound and collect envelopes of cash, handed over by the U.N. to pay local salaries, utilities and maintenance fees. No receipts were ever given.
The same applied to money ostensibly used for U.N. agency projects around the country — projects that the staff were not free to visit at will, if ever. (The Munsudong compound is a highly restricted area, with armed patrols at its perimeter. The U.N. officials could only live in designated quarters located a few hundred yards from their office.)
There were mild differences between the agencies, but the overall pattern of hard currency cash payments remained the same.
The mysteriously appointed local staff, who included critically important finance managers and communications specialists, were another matter of urgent concern. Many had received expensive U.N. training — only to be pulled out of U.N. employment after a few months on the job and assigned to other, unknown Korean government offices.
The U.N. operations officials were also uneasily aware that locally-appointed North Korean staff had access to sensitive U.N. files and communications, without supervisors' knowledge.
Even U.N.-designated cars and their North Korean drivers were operating outside U.N. control. Sometimes they were available and sometimes not; the officials were not even aware of what happened to their cars in the evening.
But the most disturbing fact under discussion in the Munsudong meeting was the absence of normal legal agreements with the North Korean government that would either justify or rein in the chaotic and mysterious operations of the agencies, which in the officials' experience did not conform with the U.N.'s operations anywhere else."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,260223,00.html
Can anyone, anyone please tell me what good is the UN? Why do people continue to support this corrupt and inept organization? Why?