UN Claims No Requirement For Disclosures Before 1999

According to the UN Daily Briefing of 4/25/2005, the UN Spokesperson claims that there is no requirement of financial disclosure forms before 1999.

Asked repeatedly about the UN’s knowledge of the business dealings of Maurice Strong, the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General and Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Korean Peninsula, the Spokesman said that Strong would not have had to complete any UN financial disclosure forms for appointments he held prior to 1999 – as now required by UN staff on appointments of Assistant-Secretary-General or Under-Secretary-General – as that requirement was put into place in 1999.

He added that UN staff on “$1-a-year” contracts or “paid-only-when-employed” contracts are also not required to disclose their financial dealings, although that policy is now being reviewed for envoys employed in either category.

Asked if Strong was the UN staff members referred to as “official number 2” in media reports, the Spokesman said the UN did not have any information to that effect, and that the issue is being looked at by the federal attorney-general’s office in New York.

Asked about a potential replacement for Strong, the Spokesman said that for the short-term, Strong’s duties will be handled by the UN Department of Political Affairs.

Strong is implicated in the UNSCAM scandal, and appears to be a figure involved in various misdeeds in Canada, including possibly delaying payment of $425 million to Sri Lanka in tsunami relief. The UN claims that it is involved in reforming itself, yet the only way reform is going to come is because it is being forced upon it by the likes of the US and federal prosecutors who are looking into the various misdeeds by former and current UN employees including Strong.

At present, there is no change in the policy requiring financial disclosure for UN staff on “$1-a-year” contracts or “paid-only-when-employed” contracts, which means that those individuals can continue to operate with impunity despite the fact that there is growing evidence that some abused the policy. One would have thought that if the UN were serious about cleaning up its house, that it would have demanded the immediate and complete financial disclosure of all of its contracts - including those $1-a-year contracts and paid when employed contracts.

Benan Sevan is among those on a $1-a-year contracts.

He's the former head of OFF.