Cheat-Seeking Missles

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

UN Procurement Scandal Growing

It's following in some mighty big footprints, but the United Nations procurement scandal is off and running, tarnishing the oil-for-food besmirched UN one more time.

At yesterday's press briefing, Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for Annan, confirmed that eight more UN officials have been suspended as the investigation unfolds, but he refuses to name names.

In December, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies reported on the scope at that time, before the latest suspensions: Two arrests, one guilty plea (Alexander Yakovlev, who had at least $1 million in a secret Carribean account), hundreds of millions of dollars of procurement contracts under investigation, and charges that the purchasing department is "inept, disorganized and ripe for malfeasance."

No surprise there, eh?

Now Compas, an English company billing itself as the world's largest catering group, is under fire for its UN work in west Africa. Three execs have been dismissed from Compass' Eurest Support Services group (ESS) -- but execs are getting bonuses in the hundreds of thousands of pounds range.

Its ousted execs shared 2.4 million pounds in bonuses between them.

With records like that, maybe their next employer will be the UN.