End of ignorance era at WFP ! - Sheeran shown the door despite heavy "lobbying in Washington DC"

Losing WFP Fight, Sheeran Sets Sail for WEF, Cousin Fix In UN System Fog?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 3 -- This morning Josette Sheeran, the head of the World Food Program who didn't want to leave, announced that when her term ends in April she will become the deputy at the World Economic Forum.

As Inner City Press reported in early November, Sheeran was enlisting Republican members of the US Congress to threat to cut funding to WFP if she did not get a second term.

But Barack Obama had in mind a former Chicago public relations executive Ertharin Cousin. Conveniently, Cousin has been serving as US Ambassador to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, whose director along with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon nominates the head of WFP. So it would seem the fix is in.

Back in July 2009, as Inner City Press exclusively reported,

"UNITED NATIONS, July 11 -- On the sidelines of the G-8 meeting on July 10, the World Food Program shut down its headquarters for a "simulated food distribution" for the spouses of the G-8 leaders, flying in school children from Ghana to put them on display. Many WFP staff members found the display disgusting, a waste of money and a disrespect to UN recipients. U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama may have shared some of the concerns: she did not attend... Sheeran, rumored to be under review by the the U.S. which nominated her under George Bush, conducted a 'seminar' which some attendees found awkward and stilted, 'a quest for personal publicity.'"

There was also some less public jockeying: again as Inner City Press exclusively reported, within the UN system community in Rome, many alleged Sheeran engaged in a quid pro quo with then FAO chief Jacques Diouf, hiring a relative of his for an information technology post in exchange for FAO hiring the husband of her personal assistant, Tanujah Rastogi.

(Cousin, we note in passing, once served as Deputy Director of the Chicago Ethics Board.)

One thing Sheeran can be credited with during most of here WFP tenure is not shying from questions, in marked contrast to most other UN system executive in Ban Ki-moon five years.

(c) UN Photo
Ban gives Sheeran a picture: (Chicago) boot not shown

Footnote: Sheeran's announcement was re-tweeted by the head of the UN Development Program Helen Clark, who like Ban's chief lawyer Patricia O'Brien has refused multiple requests to take questions in New York, the headquarters of UNDP.

So here's a question for UNDP: does the agency deny, or why has it covered it, that the Sudanese National Security Committee has barred it from entering Al Muglad in South Kordofan, including having vehicles detained by military intelligence for days in Babanusa and being barred from passing to El Obeid in North Kordofan? There are of course other questions. Watch this site.

LEAKED US CABLES: WFP OPERATIONS BECAME 'TOO RELIANT' ON SOMALI MILITANTS

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS STORY ON DEVEX.COM

Posted by Ivy Mungcal on 04 February 2011 07:12:54 PM

The U.N. World Food Program withdrew from southern Somalia in January 2010 because after becoming “too close” to the al-Shabaab militant group and finding out that its traditional way of delivering assistance was not working in the country, according to leaked confidential U.S. diplomatic cables.

The U.N. organization cited security reasons for leaving Somalia in January last year. But in the memo, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the then-U.N. special representative to Somalia, said the suspension of WFP operations in central and southern Somalia was not necessary and was driven by the organization’s need to distance itself from al-Shaabab and not by security reasons.

WFP suspended its operations in the African country “because it had become too reliant upon al-Shabaab and its system of pay-offs,” Ould-Abdallah told U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, as revealed in a Jan. 20, 2010 cable published by the Telegraph.

An internal report has claimed that half of the food aid provided by WFP in Somalia was diverted to corrupt contractors, militants and local U.N. staff members. Mark Bowden, the U.N. resident coordinator in the country, said the report was unfounded. WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said the organization will investigate the report but noted that it contained some factual errors.

>> Scandals Plague UN Somalia Operations

>> Bowden: Somali Aid Diversion Report Unfounded

>> WFP Halts Some Somalia Contracts

UN sinks $$ into Haiti 'love boat'

The United Nations is spending more than $10 million to house some of its Haiti relief workers on a pair of chartered cruise ships -- one of which has been dubbed "the Love Boat" by UN staff.

And some of the funds are going to a company closely linked to the government of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, FOXNews.com reported yesterday.

National Review: The U.N. 'Love Boat'

by BRETT D. SCHAEFER

EnlargeiStockphoto.com

The World Food Program has rented out two passenger ships to accommodate many U.N. staff members off the coast of Haiti. At $112,500 per day, how much of these costs are passed off onto the U.S., the largest contributor to WFP.

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April 13, 2010

In a story posted last week on Fox News's website, George Russell laid out one of the most outrageous examples of poor judgment and profligacy seen in recent years from a U.N. organization. As Russell reports, two passenger ships (the Ola Esmeralda and the Sea Voyager) have been rented by the World Food Program — a U.N. humanitarian-relief organization — for $112,500 per day for the purposes of "accommodation for many of the U.N.'s international staff" off the coast of Haiti. The ships are also available to NGO workers and dignitaries such as Brazilian president Luiz Inacio da Silva, who recently visited the impoverished and earthquake-ravaged island. The total cost of renting these ships is projected to be over $10 million for the first 90 days. U.N. staff call one of the ships the "Love Boat."

Sensing that the news might not be received well, WFP quickly pulled down its own article (complete with pictures) about the ships. Russell preserved the story, however, and does a wonderful job of exposing the many questions surrounding WFP's decision to rent these ships. Among the highlights:

WFP is being overcharged, because the projected expense is millions of dollars more than what the ships would have been likely to earn through normal operation.

The Ola Esmeralda is owned by a Venezuelan company with close ties to Pres. Hugo Chavez.

Also included in the story is a revealing insight into the U.N. mindset. Russell asked Edmond Mulet, special representative in Haiti of the U.N. secretary general and head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission (MINUSTAH) in the country, about the decision. Mulet's answer, spread through several quotes in the story, was shocking: "It is the least we could do for them. They are working 14, 16 hours a day. The place was pulverized. Living conditions are really appalling. . . . [When] oxygen masks come down in a falling plane, the first thing you do is put them on yourself. You have to be in good shape in order to help the Haitians."

Apparently, a visit to the Lido Deck is just the thing for staying in "good shape."

Russell reports that if the two boats are fully booked, the cost to WFP is $181.81 per passenger per day for the Sea Voyager and $154.25 per passenger per day for the Ola Esmeralda. But U.N. staffers get to stay on the ships for $40 per day, and those participating in the U.N. peacekeeping mission get to stay for $20 per day. So WFP, even if the ship is full, provides each U.N. "passenger" a direct subsidy of up to $161.81 per day. But WFP doesn't really pay for it, of course; the taxpayers in the countries who contribute to WFP do. In 2008, the U.S. gave over $2 billion to WFP — about 40 percent of its total budget.

And as if that weren't enough, American taxpayers pay roughly a quarter of the expense of U.N. operations and staff salaries — expenditures that include a Daily Subsistence Allowance for U.N. staff of $244 dollars. Reasonable people might wonder, given that their daily allowances would more than cover it, why WFP is not charging U.N. staff the full cost of staying on the ships rather than $40 or $20 per day. Such is the regard U.N. agencies have for our hard-earned tax dollars.

This is just the latest in a series of missteps by WFP. For instance, according to a March 2010 report by the U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia, "up to half of the food aid intended for needy Somalis is routinely diverted," and WFP food-aid delivery was dominated by three individuals (and their families and associates) linked to "arms sales and insurgent connections." A February 2010 story, also by Russell, detailed how WFP's relief effort in Afghanistan was inflated, with some outside experts saying that “some of the costs are more than 100 percent higher than they need to be."

Since the U.S. is by far the largest contributor to the World Food Program, Congress should take a keen interest in its activities in Haiti and elsewhere.

Edmond Mulet says: UN should take care of its personnel before caring of Haitians

"These two boats ("Ola Esmeralda and "Sea Voyager") are for the United Nations in Haiti like Oxygen masks come down in a falling plane. The first thing you do is put them on yourself"

"You have to be in good shape in order to help the Haitians"

"Haitian civilians .....understand"

WFP overpaid for leasing Ola Esmeralda

Josette Sheeran of WFP has cleared the waver of Bid for the Lease of "Ola Esmeralda". WFP is now paying $72,000 U.S. per day for retaining "Ola Esmeralda" in Port-au-Prince, $23,000 U.S. more of what would cost to Lease this boat in Venezuela ($ 49,000).

$ 23,000 U.S.

x

30 days

x

6 months

=

$ 4,140,000 U.S.

The United Nations Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) as well as the US Mission to the United Nations (USUN) and the United States Congress should investigate this latest WFP/UNDP/MINUSTAH affair and go to the bottom of this deal and who is profiting from all this excess of money destined to Haiti's poor.