POLITICS: U.N. Probes Office that Guided Anti-Corruption Treaty

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 3 2003 (IPS) - A United Nations agency that brokered a much-ballyhooed international treaty against bribery and corruption is now being investigated for misconduct and financial irregularities in its own backyard.

Less than 72 hours after the 191-member General Assembly unanimously endorsed a historic global convention against corruption Friday, a U.N. investigative unit is probing the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on charges of ”mismanagement” and ”misappropriation of funds”.

The probe is being led by the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), a watchdog body mandated to track corruption and waste in the U.N. system.

The allegations – involving ”clear acts of corruption,” a ”pattern of irregularities in issuing contracts” and ”abuses of administrative discretion” – were made by Samuel Gonzalez-Ruiz, an inter-regional adviser to UNODC, who submitted his resignation on the weekend.

UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa told reporters his agency is taking the allegations ”seriously”.

”The severity of the allegations brought to my attention deserves a most thorough examination,” Costa said. ”They were made public without prior consultation with me, or without me having been alerted beforehand.”

A native of Mexico who once headed his country’s anti-mafia crusade, Gonzalez-Ruiz said that UNODC ”routinely punishes whistleblowers and that corrupt officials enjoy immunity and/or passive protection from top management”.

Coincidentally, the convention will be open for signature at a high level conference Dec. 9-11 in Mexico, a country that played a key role in making the long-discussed agreement a reality.

Costa said he had requested that OIOS conduct the investigation in order to ”guarantee an independent assessment.”

”The results will be made public as soon as they are available and administrative or disciplinary actions will be taken as necessary,” he added.

Years ago, a former head of UNODC left the agency under a cloud after it was accused of waste and mismanagement. The office has since undergone ”major management reforms” aimed at increasing transparency, governance and efficiency.

”There is irony in the situation,” Costa said. ”The UNODC is proud of its reforms and of its work, including the recently agreed Convention Against Corruption that we brokered.”

”We owe it to governments, staff and the public at large to demonstrate in deeds that we tackle corruption everywhere, starting from the office itself,” he added.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the General Assembly on Friday that the new convention was a ”remarkable achievement” and complemented another landmark instrument, the U.N. Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime, which entered into force last month.

”Corruption was an insidious plague that had wide-ranging and corrosive effects on societies because it undermined democracy and the rule of law, and led to violations of human rights, distorted markets, eroded the quality of life and allowed organised crime, terrorism and other threats to human security to flourish,” he said.

The treaty, Annan pointed out, directs governments to return stolen assets to the countries that own them and, if fully enforced, removes one of the biggest obstacles to development.

”Corrupt officials will, in the future, find fewer ways to hide their illicit gains. This is a particularly important issue for many developing countries, where corrupt officials have plundered the national wealth, and where new governments badly need resources to reconstruct and rehabilitate their societies,” he added.

Ambassador Muhyieddeen Touq of Jordan, acting chairman of the ad hoc committee that negotiated the treaty, told reporters Friday the convention is the first globally negotiated U.N. treaty to deal with corruption.

Judging from the level of support already seen for the convention, he believed that it could easily receive the 30 ratifications it needs to become law. About 125 countries participated in the negotiations leading to Friday’s announcement, including developing and developed countries, he added.

The 71-article treaty – formally called the United Nations Convention Against Corruption – was under discussion for nearly three years before it reached the General Assembly. It is set to enter into force 90 days after ratification or accession by 30 states.

The treaty covers a wide range of subjects, including public procurement, bribery, illicit enrichment, embezzlement, misappropriation, money-laundering and freezing of assets. Additionally, it also protects whistle-blowers.

Palitha Kohona, head of the U.N. Treaty Section, told IPS it would be difficult to predict how soon the convention would receive the 30 necessary ratifications. ”This has been a difficult negotiation but many countries have demonstrated excellent goodwill,” he said.

Kohona also said that the convention expresses the collective will of the international community – that corruption is no longer acceptable.”But the convention will need to be translated into domestic law. This will take time,” he said.

”Only if the convention is implemented in good faith and vigorously through domestic legal provisions will it become truly effective and contribute to countering the pervasive effects of corruption,” Kohona added.

The United States, which has come under heavy fire for doling out billions of dollars worth of Iraqi contracts to political cronies with ties to the White House, has strongly supported the treaty.

Last month, the huge U.S.-based energy conglomerate Halliburton, once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, received over 2.0 billion dollars worth of contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq, of which 1.2 billion dollars were awarded on a non-competitive basis.

A second major U.S. company, Bechtel Corporation – also with close ties to the administration of President George W. Bush – has been criticised for various irregularities relating to Iraqi contracts.

Still, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte told delegates Friday that the fight against corruption had long been a priority for the United States, beginning with its efforts in the 1980s to rally worldwide attention to bribery in international business contracts.

Negroponte said the U.S. delegation had been pleased to participate in the negotiations on the anti-corruption treaty. ”Today’s resolution was a milestone achievement in the global effort to ensure transparency, fairness and justice,” he said.

”That was vital not only to the rule of law but to the fundamental confidence citizens must have for representative government and private enterprise to succeed,” Negroponte added.