.bmp)
.bmp)
Is United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon trying to squelch a branch of the world organization whose string of recent reports have drawn member nations' attention to dramatic U.N. failings?At a closed-door meeting of U.N. diplomats earlier this week, the Geneva-based U.N. investigative group known as the Joint Inspection Unit, whose job is to assess and improve the efficiency and coordination of the U.N. worldwide, issued a highly charged annual report that raised the question.Buried in the middle of the 52-page document came a remarkably blunt accusation from the JIU's inspectors that Ban had abruptly and secretively changed 40 years of accepted procedure for selecting the JIU's executive secretary-a post, the report sharply noted, that has been vacant for 14 months.The report added that a Ban-appointed panel had taken the "illegal action" of demanding a bigger hand in the selection of candidates for the job who had already been approved by JIU-a demand in violation, the inspectors said, of U.N. rules and regulations. The report urged the U.N. General Assembly to support the inspection unit and make Ban back down.In closing, the inspectors, whose prose is normally a model of bland discretion, took a further undiplomatic pot-shot shot at Ban."The Unit," they said, "deeply regrets that the Secretary-General, as the Chief Administrative Officer of the United Nations, and thus in charge of promoting accountability as a key element for good management, has not yet taken any action to remedy this uncomfortable situation that negatively affects the operations of the Unit."• Click here to read the JIU report.
In a terse reply to questions from FOX News about the report, a spokesman for Ban would say only that "the Secretary General has followed all rules and procedures established in accordance with the statute of the JIU, the staff regulations and rules and relevant General Assembly resolutions."JIU officials contacted by FOX News declined to discuss the report.Behind the arcane procedural dispute, a significant power struggle was apparently taking place at the U.N.
Click here for the story....
By George Russell
George Russell is executive editor of FOX News.
To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah...
