Letters to Gabriella: activism

Kofi Annan 09 January 1997

I will not compromise. I expect from each and every staff member, at all levels, a total commitment to excellence. I pledge to you today that we will develop a new management culture in the Organization. Our senior managers across the world must understand their obligation to properly manage the staff [I intend] to hold my managers accountable We are the United Nations The excellence of our performance will turn our detractors into supporters. We all know [that] nobody argues with success.

Corrupt officials, knowingly or not, display a contempt for other people, no matter how minor or seemingly innocent their corrupt acts. This contempt harbours within it the seeds of megalomania that, if allowed to flourish, will eventually blossom into grosser and grosser acts … where other people are considered expendable and other people’s lives are considered meaningless and useless. All corruption is a deceit, a lie, that sacrifices the common good or the public interest for something much less … [I]t gives comfort to social pathologies that divide, destabilise and desensitise. Not only does it point society in the wrong direction, but it also exhausts governmental legitimacy, supports the wrong kind of public leadership and sets the wrong kind of example for future generations. Gerald E. Caiden, Toward a General Theory of Official Corruption, Asian Journal of Public Administration, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1988, p.19

Top Related Sources and Websites

IO Watch (www.iowatch.org) has a list, copied here in shortened form, perhaps the best effort to summarise UN reform on the internet. International Herald Tribune, at www.iht.com, a comprehensive source on UN issues. The Economist www.economist.com has provided a steady chronicle of UN performance. The New York Times has extensive coverage of UN operations at www.nytimes.com. Financial Times (UK), www.ft.com/home/europe has excellent specific articles/commentary on UN problems. Foreign Policy, www.foreignpolicy.com Global Governance www.acuns.net UN Forum is an open and independent forum on UN issues at www.unforum.com Eye on the UN, www.eyeontheun.org Inner City Press www.innercitypress.com.Heritage Foundation www.heritage.org, ReformtheUN.org, found at www.reformtheun.org, IPS - Inter Press Service http://ipsnews.net, covers many global topics as an independent global news agency. Low Level Panel (LLP) www.lowlevelpanel.org, to aid UN reform and effectiveness. US Government Accountability Office (GAO) www.gao.gov the largest and most professional national oversight office. Global Integrity www.globalintegrity.org Government Accountability Project (GAP) www.whistleblower.org UN Board of Auditors www.unsystem.org/auditors, the only professional and respected unit among diplomat/amateur-dominated UN oversight bodies. Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), www.acfe.com Center for the Accountability of International Organizations (CAIO), www.caio-ch.org International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), www.icj.org Bretton Woods Project www.brettonwoodsproject.org Global Transparency Initiative www.ifitransparency.org The One World Trust www.oneworldtrust.org www.freedominfo.org, links freedom of information advocates. AccountAbility www.accountability.org/uk Global Policy Forum, at www.globalpolicy.org International Crisis Group (Crisis Group), at www.crisisgroup.org Transparency International (TI) www.transparency.org, i OneWorld network www.oneworld.net

Postscript

There will no longer be any postings to this site regarding my almost decade-long battle to achieve justice from UNDP, except in the extremely unlikely event that they do choose to make restitution.
This experience has drawn me into the last few years into an investigation of Transnational Economic Crime Networks, in other words companies and individuals that exploit Africa’s wealth to the detriment of Africans. Not particularly surprisingly instances have been found of UNDP involvement in this.
Future publications and Blog posts will deal with these issues.

Sunday, 11 March 2007

The Impossibility of Getting it Right

Letters to Gabriella

Pursuing the Rule of Law and Accountability in the United Nations and International Institutions