THE UN IS AT IT AGAIN!

Originally posted here

The United Nations is managing Somalia without any apparent accountability mechanisms in place.



Since the collapse of the governmental structures and the ensuing civil strife centered in Mogadishu, the UN has been providing humanitarian assistance to the suffering Somali people. The UN has been doing much more than the provision of food supplies to Somalia. Through its budgetary allocations, fundraising campaigns, administering of ear-marked resources and co-managing of programs , the Un has become the dominant player of the Somali state of affairs. The Special Representative of the Secretary General, one Ahmed Ould Abdalla, has in effect become the colonial governor of the country. In some critical aspects he has been acting more than a mere colonial governor. A case in point is his audacious recent attempt to redraw the boundaries of the country. His brazen attempt was to transfer a potential rich portion of the territorial waters of the country to Kenya. The Transitional Federal Parliament has refused to ratify the agreement. However we have not heard the last on this bizarre escapade.



Be that as it may, there are more pertinent examples of damaging UN interventions and activities. International observers accused the Somali government of being the most corrupt state. The UN, or at least its officials, is part of the intricate web of the massive and blatant misuse of resources. The report of the UN monitoring committee which was set up to monitor arm shipment to the country has portrayed the extent of corruption in the distribution of the humanitarian food supplies. Somali transporters have been accused of instances of overcharging and paying protection money to some militias . Some UN officials are also blamed but the facts on the ground suggest that the UN involvement in the pervasive malpractices are massive and unconscionable. Only an assessment by an external auditor or independent commission will be able to map out the extent and scope of corruption perpetrated by UN officials.



Another example is the institutionalized misuse of Somali resources by a UN agency responsible for international civil aviation. Since the collapse of the Somali state that UN agency has been collecting fees paid by the internal airlines that use the Somali airspace. It is one of the few source of revenue for the national budget but it disappears in a UN black hole in Nairobi. The large bureaucracy which is stationed in Nairobi and which consumes shamelessly a very high percentage of the resources purportedly allocated to meet Somalia’s needs is yet another example of the misuse and blunder by the UN.



The UN in its self-serving seminars and workshops on good governance consistently preaches the virtues of transparency and accountability. The actions and behavior of UN officials are rarely in line with those valued attributes. A current case in point is a contract that has been awarded by the UNDP to educate the Somali public on a draft constitution. A lot has been expended on the drafting on the constitution. International experts were hired. Many meetings were held by UN selected groups. Discussions were held with some Somali government officials. The whole exercise has been authored and micro-managed by the UN. Now the time has come to educate the Somali people on the values of the constitution and its unique attributes. Now has come the moment of realization to contract out the educating exercise to media outlets. For that purpose the UNDP has hired a South African firm as a consultant. A couple of Somali media specialists have been recruited. Advertisements were placed in the Kenyan media specifying the nature of the educating programs. A budget of $7 million has been allocated and authorized for publicizing the draft constitution.



A joint –venture of three Somali firms has submitted a bid for the contract. The joint-venture is led by Universal TV which as far as is known is not a registered firm, has no offices, no salaried staff or equipment to be a credible outlet to deliver the required programs. Universal does not have the offices it claims , does not possess the sophisticated equipments it claims to own , has none of the qualified staff it claims it claims to have in its payroll. It appears that the contract is being awarded to an entity which does not have the requisite resources or capacity. What this appears to be is a scheme to use the allocated resources for other purposes. Contrary to UN principals and practices, there is nothing transparent about the project. Suffice it to say that the UN IS AT IT AGAIN.