UNITED NATIONS, May 18 (UPI) -- U.N. Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast Wednesday became the latest top U.N. official to leave his post in the wake of the Iraq Oil-for-Food Program scandal that began unfolding in November.
However, he had never been tied to any accusations of wrongdoing and in announcing the Briton was leaving his post, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said "it is with real regret " Annan announced Prendergast's retirement.
But with only 18-months to go in Annan's term, it is not unusual for top aides to begin looking for future endeavors to pursue. Some went sooner than later, obviously shoved, the terms of others were coincidental and the timing was unfortunate for them.
While there admittedly is a new broom doing the proverbial sweep on the 38th floor of U.N. World Headquarters in New York -- manned by the secretary-general's new chief of cabinet, Mark Malloch Brown -- there also is an Annan-led wide-ranging reform of U.N. ways under way, starting with management. Annan has been pushing for reform since he took office in 1997.
"The United Nations must take real action now where it is in the secretary-general's authority to do so directly, particularly in the critical areas of management, oversight and accountability," Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette said Tuesday.
"We hope that the September Summit will signal a willingness on the part of member states to tackle the fuller review we are advocating in the report," Frechette told reporters, referring to a meeting of world leaders to discuss Annan's "In Larger Freedom" document on progress toward achieving global socio-economic targets and U.N. change.
She acknowledged major criticism was leveled by the Independent Inquiry Committee looking into oil-for-food program, headed up by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, whose reports raised questions about the selection, briefing, oversight and accountability of senior management.
But that is not the sole reason. There was hurt within the world organization.
Staff responded somewhat negatively last year to an integrity survey on internal misconduct.
Then there was a survey by Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, the Jordanian ambassador to the United Nations, on problems of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeeping staff -- contributed and disciplined by U.N. member states but under supervision of the world organization.
So, because of all this criticism, Frechette said in a position paper released in connection with her announcements Tuesday, "the Secretariat has faced an unprecedented series of organizational challenges which have exposed flaws in the way it does business. As a result, the U.N. must take real action now where it is in the secretary-general's authority to do so directly."
That means taking action where he can do it now and not have to wait for the 191 member states of the world organization to agree on action. The immediate objective is to improve the performance of senior management, enhance oversight and accountability, ensure ethical conduct and increase transparency.
"It is clear that a more robust approach is needed to ensure that once senior officials are appointed, they are briefed on the broader system of U.N. rules, regulations, codes of conduct and managerial systems," Frechette said, announcing the United Nations was developing a formal induction program to provide in-depth training in these areas for senior officials of the secretariat." The first session scheduled for next month.
The quality and speed of executive-level decision-making was improved by a Senior Management Group, established in 1997, to coordinate policies in the U.N. System, but that group had become too large for timely decision-making, Frechette said.
Two new senior management committees, meeting for the first time this month and weekly or monthly thereafter, would ensure clearer outcomes with better definitions of responsibilities and improved time lines, she said.
The most obvious shortcomings identified by the Volcker inquiry and other crises were in the area of oversight and accountability.
The current systems for monitoring management performance and preventing fraud and corruption were insufficient and had to be "significantly enhanced," she said.
The independence of the Office of Internal Oversight Services also was to be strengthened, Frechette said.
Additionally, a new Oversight Committee was being established and would meet this summer in response to the IIC and the General Assembly and a new Management Performance Board would meet this summer.
U.N. Controller Warren Sach was leading a working group to draw on existing best-practices against fraud and corruption, including a model recently developed by the World Bank, she said.
The U.N. Department of Management was also preparing recommendations to expand the scope of the financial disclosures prospective senior officials would have to make, even when they were to be employed for short terms or under special conditions.
New financial disclosure rules would apply to present as well as future senior posts, Frechette said.
After an expert recommended by the non-governmental organization, Transparency International, reviewed best practices, Annan issued "a robust new whistleblower policy" for staff members to comment on before he formally issues it, the deputy-secretary-general said.
On the problem of eliminating sexual abuse and exploitation from peacekeeping missions, the General Assembly was considering a request for additional resources to strengthen the United Nations' capacity to investigate accusations and to create code of conduct enforcement units in all peacekeeping missions. The headquarters unit was to be launched July 1, she said.
