US curbs 'behind WFP Somali cuts'

By Martin Plaut
BBC News

The World Food Programme says US curbs are in part behind its move to shut its Somali feeding programmes for more than 100,000 acutely malnourished children.

The US restrictions affect funding for areas controlled by groups designated as terrorist.

Washington has imposed sanctions on the hardline Somali Islamist group, al-Shabab.

But the WFP says it is doing all it can to get the aid through without it being controlled by the Somali insurgents.

Drought and war has left 109,000 children-under-five acutely dependent on the feeding centres run by the WFP.

“ We take all precautions to ensure that our food only goes to the most needy ”
Josette Sheeran

But money has run out. The centres are closing, to focus the remaining resources on the most needy - babies under two years old, who would never recover from acute malnutrition.

Aid workers have told the BBC the cuts are the result of a freeze on funding by the United States Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance.

Josette Sheeran, executive director of the WFP, said she was unaware of a ban.

She continued: "We've heard of needing to deal with the particular restrictions they have on where aid goes and needing to look at whether or not we can work in compliance with those restrictions."

The US embargo is stopping American aid funds from reaching the vast areas of southern and central Somalia, where the UN estimates half the population is now in need of food aid.

Ms Sheeran said that "getting help to them inevitably involves dealing with al-Shabab and other hardline groups now in control of the towns and villages across the region".

"We take all precautions to ensure that our food only goes to the most needy and is not handled by any particular political groups in Somalia or elsewhere and in particular al-Shabab in Somalia," she said.

"We hope to work through these difficulties and challenges.

"Right now in Somalia, WFP has by far the biggest programme and there are very few aid groups left functioning there."

Ms Sheeran says the WFP is working with the administration of US President Barack Obama on an almost weekly basis to try to resolve these difficulties.

In the meantime the children of Somalia are going without the food they so badly need.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8259791.stm

UN Aid Diversion in Somalia Portrayed as Inevitable, Murky Investigation by WFP

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 16 -- Amid allegations that UN aid funds are being diverted in Somalia, leading to reported threats by the United Kingdom and U.S. to cut or condition their funding, Inner City Press on Wednesday asked top UN humanitarian John Holmes what the UN is doing.

Holmes said that the World Food Program has begun an internal investigation, and that he doesn't know how long it will take. He said it is mostly the U.S. that is concerned -- others name the UK first -- and that other donors just keep on giving. He said there is little choice but to continue. Videohere, from Minute 28:26.

Since the allegations focus on particular trucking companies that are being used, and their links to entities on anti-terrorism lists, Inner City Press asked Holmes what is being done about this, since such diversion would violate, in some cases, legal prohibitions. Holmes said that WFP is diversifying the number of trucking firms it works with. He did not address the legal question. (As reported earlier today, the UN's top legal refuses to answer questions other than on the narrow topics for which she appears for press conferences: today, the UN Treaty Event).

In a sense, there is not a contradiction between taking seriously and acting on these allegations of diversion of funds, and wanting the programs to continue. In fact, diversion leads to a lack of credibility, and ultimately hurts the programs' beneficiaries more.

UN's Ban gets award from WFP's Sheeran, diversion of UN aid in Somalia not shown

Merely referring problems to internal investigations, the time frame of which knows no limits, also hurts the UN's credibility, as has happened this summer in the months old investigation of the head of the UN's Congo Mission Alan Doss asking the UN Development Program for "leeway" to hire his daughter. It was relegated to an internal investigation, and nothing has been done. Watch this site.

Footnote: when during the summer's G-8 meeting WFP spent $400,000 to fly in children from Ghana for a "simulated feeding demonstration" for the G-8 leaders' spouses, neither Ban Ki-moon nor John Holmes for OCHA said there was anything wrong with this. This too undermines confidence in the UN, including by donors.

U.N. Probes if Somali Contractors Are Diverting Aid, Funding Rebels

By SARAH CHILDRESS

NAIROBI, Kenya -- A United Nations group is investigating whether three Somali contractors it uses to ship food aid to people in the war-ravaged country are misappropriating aid and providing financial assistance to insurgent groups, according to U.N. officials.

The U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia opened its probe in July, the officials said. The U.N. World Food Program said it is also investigating allegations regarding diversion of food assistance in the country.

A February U.N. internal report, written by U.N. officials and approved by several of its agencies, including the WFP, said the food-distribution system in Somalia posed "considerable risk to the reputation and effectiveness of the organization," according to a copy reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The WFP declined to comment on the report.

The WFP says its operation in Somalia, one of the agency's largest, reaches 3.5 million people. Officials from the U.N., African Union and Somali government say they are increasingly concerned about the dependability of some of the contractors used by the WFP, which handed out $35 million in food-aid distribution contracts in Somalia last year. It now uses 29 contractors.

The U.K. says it is considering withdrawing financial support for the Somalia program because of concerns about food distribution; the U.S. has also threatened to do so, according to a U.N. official close to the situation and a Western diplomat with knowledge of the donors' concerns.

British officials said they are waiting for the outcome of the WFP's investigation before deciding whether to suspend funding.

USAID, the U.S. agency that gives international humanitarian assistance, is the biggest provider of funding to the WFP's Somalia program. A U.S. official said the government "has been reviewing our policies and procedures for the provision of humanitarian assistance in Somalia," including ensuring that the donations comply with U.S. antiterrorism laws.

The U.S. has given more than $124 million in food aid for Somalia so far in the 2009 fiscal year, according to the U.S. official.

Peter Smerdon, a spokesman for the WFP in Nairobi, said the WFP inspector-general's office, which is separate from the Monitoring Group on Somalia, is investigating allegations regarding diversion of food assistance.

Denise Brown, the WFP's deputy country director for Somalia, said she wasn't aware of the Monitoring Group's probe and therefore couldn't comment on it. "We are, I think, quite happy, or satisfied, with the current system we are using," she said.

According to U.N. officials, investigators from the U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia are looking at Abukar Adani, a Somali businessman, along with some family members and a network of companies they control. Investigators are also looking at Abdulkadir Eno, a Somali-American businessman with interests in Somali ports, and Somali businessman Mohamed Deylaf, these officials said. All three deny misappropriating food aid.

Mr. Adani's son, Abdulkadir Abukar Omar Adani, the managing partner of the family's main trading company, Swift Traders East Africa Co., said the Adani family supports the current government. But he said that to transport food in the country his company is sometimes forced to do business with groups such as al Shabab, the main Islamist insurgency group, which is battling the government and controls much of southern Somalia.

Mr. Adani said representatives from his company negotiate with these groups and sometimes are required to pay them. "Sometimes they impose on you," he said. Payments are part of doing business, and shouldn't be interpreted as a sign of support for the rebel group, he said. "We are not involved in any politics," he said.

Mr. Deylaf said he hasn't provided support to insurgents and supports the government.

Mr. Eno also denied supporting insurgent groups and said he has a financial interest in backing the government, which controls just a portion of the capital, Mogadishu. "Our company believes that once peace and stability are attained in Somalia, then our business activities would be sustainable," he said.

Reports of Nepotism for UN's Ban Off Internet After Legal Threats by Ban's Son in Law

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 22 -- The son in law of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Siddarth Chatterjee, had used threats of legal action to force the removal from the Internet of comments that he may have gotten his promotion with the UN Office of Project Services in Copenhagen due to nepotism, Inner City Press has learned.

In preparing its exclusive August 14 article on nepotism at the UN and Ban's position on and in it, Inner City Press ran across an article in the Indian Star online, which cited Inner City Press' previous piece on Chatterjee's promotion with the UN in Iraq. Recently, that Indian Star article and comments were taken off the Internet -- following a threat from Chatterjee and then by his India-based lawyer. Click here for the now-empty page.

Free press advocates express concern at the threats, noting that in such matters "the cover-up is always worse that the crime," and demand that Ban Ki-moon rebuke and renounce them. But will it happen?

Here for the record, and as requested by press press advocates in several continents, are comments which were on the Indian Star page which Ban's son in law, not stopped and presumably encouraged by Ban, got removed from the Internet by legal intimidation:

(Replied: Saturday, May 02, 2009, 06:05 am EST)

Interesting indeed. Some of us have, until very recently, had the misfortune of being exposed to this man, in a professional sense, in Iraq. Spineless is a very appropriate term to use in describing this individual. There are more, but few are fit for publication. He is, indeed, a discredit to India, the Indian Army, and now the UN (where, incidentally, he has recently moved on significant promotion - despite already being totally over-promoted in the opinion of all that know, and have to work with, him). The recent recruitment of this man to the United Nations Office of Project Services in Copenhagen is yet another example of the ineptitude, nepotism and corruption which is so prevalent within the UN system, even at the highest levels (in this case, within UNOPS). But those in Baghdad are delighted that UNOPS has taken him away from Iraq all the same.

It is a shame. And it would appear people are still being fooled.

and Posted: Saturday, February 28, 2009, 06:34 am EST

SANDHAYA AGARWAL (India)

Siddharth Chatterjee is a spineless man .He could not even pass the staff exams in Indian Army ... IT IS A SHAME THAT United Nations... GET FOOLED

After the Indian Star article and its comments went offline, they still remained available in the cache of Google and other search engines. Ban's son in law's lawyers made more legal threats -- "this is round two of the Bans and Google," said one observer of plans by the UN to get Inner City Press removed from Google News, click here for the most recent -- to get it out of cache.

Now even that censorship of questions of nepotism within Ban's UN has been accomplished -- click here for the now empty cache page.

Siddarth Chatterjee a public figure, and thus his legal threats are spurious, even an abuse of process. He is the son in law of the UN Secretary General, he was awarded a job at the UN's D-2 level (see below. Now, after refusing to answer Inner City Press' repeated questions referred by Ban's Spokesperson's Office if Chatterjee is a D-2 or a D-1, UNOPS tells other journalists that he is a D-1, in order to forestall other media coverage. Will it work?

UN's top lawyer O'Brien and Ban Ki-moon, legal threats of son in law not shown

Most recently, UNOPS in Copenhagen has told a Nordic newspaper what Chatterjee is a D-1, without explaining that the post was described by UNOPS' deputy director, in writing, as a D-2 post:

From: Vitaly VANSHELBOIM
Sent: 03 March 2009 11:09
To: UNOPS - EMO
Subject: Welcome to the new mailgroup

As you know, yesterday EUO and MEO formally merged into a new regional office called EMO (Europe and the Middle East) based in Copenhagen...I will be acting Regional Director of EMO until we have recruited a “permanent” replacement. In response to our advertisement for the D-2 regional director job, we received some 130 applications. Five candidates were short-listed for interviews: four were interviewed last Friday and the last interview is scheduled for Thursday this week. We’d like to make a decision by mid-March.

So even assuming that, as in Iraq, the UN decided even if only belatedly to keep Mr. Chatterjee a level below the grade of the post they awarded him, that is only being done to discourage press coverage of nepotism.

Even this raises questions of whether Ban, who came into the UN system promising reform and to run things cleanly, is due to his relatives' promotions so paranoia and angry about questions of nepotism that he has a conflict of interest in dealing with charges of nepotism against others in the UN, for example his own envoy to the Congo Alan Doss -- click herefor that.

Inner City Press broke the story about Alan Doss asking the UN Development Program for "leeway," to bend hiring rules and give his daughter Rebecca Doss a job in UNDP's Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific leading to a "man bite man" incident which was the focus of other media's follow up coverage. After Inner City Press' story about Ban and nepotism early on August 14, Ban's Deputy Spokesperson wrote to Inner City Press that:

From: okabe@un.org
To: matthew.lee@innercitypress.com
Sent: 8/14/2009 7:57:02 A.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj: your latest entry

What I said was that queries on the biting incident should be directed to the NY County DA Office.

On the allegations, we take the matter very seriously.

"The Secretary-General is aware of the situation. He has been assured that a thorough independent investigation is underway, He takes this matter very seriously, and expects to see a report upon his return to NY."

Ban Ki-Moon returned to New York from his South Korea vacation and delivered prepared remarks at a World Humanitarian Day event in the UN's visitors' lobby on August 19. He took no questions. On August 21, after waiting two days, Inner City Press asked Ms. Okabe if Ban had as he expected now received the report on nepotism, and what would he do about it?

Ms. Okabe answered that although Ban had returned to New York, he had gone on leave again. So finally, what will he do?

Footnotes: in the course of legally threatening the Indian newspaper -- but not U.S. based Inner City Press -- it was argued that the Indian Star report which triggered the two comments Chatterjee and Ban did not like was "based only on a blog." The response was that Inner City Press is better read, at least online, than the Indian newspaper they threatened.

On that, Reuters of August 21 reported that "U.N. officials also complain bitterly about the indefatigable bloggerMatthew Lee, whose website Inner City Press regularly accuses Ban and other U.N. officials of hypocrisy and failing to keep their promises to reform the United Nations and root out corruption." Later, a telling second phrase was added: "(Some U.N. officials accuse Lee of not always getting his facts right, but his blog has become unofficial required reading for U.N. staffers around the world.)"

Ironically, on August 20 a UN under secretary general approached Inner City Press about the anti-Ban memo by Norwegian deputy permanent representative Mona Juul, having "just read it on your blog." For all of Ms. Juul's criticism of Ban, from Myanmar to Sri Lanka to climate change, Juul missed the nepotism and family connection angle. Her husband Terje Roed Larsen works for Ban, as another of his Under Secretaries General who has refused to make any disclosure of his finance or to answer Inner City Press' questions about them.

This is run for the proposition that as well as being a nepotism cover up scandal, this is a story about new media. Ban and his son in law have lawyers threaten ill-read newspapers for daring to carry a report based on what they call the "blog" Inner City Press and two resulting comments. They urge what they view as "real" or mainstream media not to cover stories which are broken by Inner City Press -- which, for example, had the world exclusive, acknowledged on Associated Press and in Japan media amog others, of the final draft of the Security Council's North Korea sanctions.

Inner City Press, which writes more about Myanmar than other UN based correspondents, was never even told of the opportunity, given to others, to accompany and report on Ban's ultimately failed trip there. Some say that in all this, Ban is being ill-advised by those around him. The question remains: is this anachronistic media strategy of cover up, deployed by Team Ban, working? Watch this site.

UN boss 'passive leader, throws fits'

A SENIOR Norwegian diplomat has slammed Ban Ki-Moon as lacking leadership, ineffectual and prone to angry outbursts, a daily reported today, just two weeks ahead of the UN chief's visit to Oslo.

Mona Juul, the Norwegian ambassdor to the UN, sent a damning confidential letter to her ministry half-way through Mr Ban's mandate, in which she said he had "hardly shown any leadership,'' Aftenposten reported.

The newspaper, which obtained a copy of the letter, said Ms Juul also described Mr Ban as being "passive,'' especially in hotspots such as Sri Lanka, where a decades-long rebel insurgency was brought to an end by a bloody government offensive.

"At a time when solutions by the UN and multilateral agencies are more necessary than ever to resolve global conflicts, Ban and the UN are notable by their absence,'' she reportedly wrote.

The Norwegian foreign ministry has not commented on the report so far.

Ms Juul, who played a leading role in brokering the Oslo accords which led to a peace agreement being signed in 1993 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said Mr Ban had been a "passive observer'' in Sri Lanka.

She said he had also displayed his weakness in the face of the global financial crisis, on environmental issues and the situation in Myanmar where opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been in detention for decades.

"Ban regularly throws a fit which even his most cool-headed and experienced collaborators have a problem in dealing with,'' she wrote.

The South Korean-born Mr Ban is due to visit Norway on August 31.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told the newspaper that Ban was a "worker'' and a good listener.

At WFP, Ethics Missing Amid Waste and Garage Scandals as Josette Travels the World, Food Program Whistleblowers Say

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 15 -- In the wake of the World Food Program's controversial shut down of its Rome headquarters for a "simulated food distribution" display for the spouses of G-8 leaders, reported on by Inner City Press and skipped by both Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni, more and more whistleblowers from within WFP have approached Inner City Press with their complaints.

Most center around what they call the excessive travel and waste of Executive Director Josette Sheeran, the cover-up of scandals by weak ethical controls and discipline by promotion out to the field, and use of WFP for political purposes, fancy junkets and receptions and a make-up post for UN insider Staffan de Mistura. Inner City Press has asked WFP about these, and has received some answers.

Here is a sample complaint received from within WFP, anonymous due to fear of retaliation, then some WFP responses:

Matthew, Your reporting on the "Disneyland" school feeding show for the G-8 spouses was excellent. And many, many people in WFP agreed with you and had real doubts about it. The tents have come down but there's been no word on whether the contributions have increased to pay for it, and to feed more hungry poor. You should however, be aware that many WFP workers did attend work that day, even though parking was very difficult and WFP is not well connected by public transport to the areas in Rome where most staffers live. There are WFP staff who do have principles.

At 8:20, those not involved with the event were told through the PA system to remain at their workstations until the event was over and coffee, tea and water was placed on tables by the elevators on each floor. In other words, the staff were not welcome. Maybe that's why they were "encouraged" to "work from home".

Many dedicated long-term WFP staff see the current regime as a joke. Around the time of the G-8 event, Josette was also slated to attend the Non-Aligned Movement First Ladies Group in exotic Sharm El Sheikh. Clearly she's into Wives Clubs, which is not where she should be. However, perhaps because of the embarrassment of the G-8 wives event, she canceled.

We interrupt this whistleblowing for WFP's response:

"Greg Barrow is on leave. Please find the following responses to your questions. Ms. Sheeran was invited to the event but due other commitments, did not attend. She was represented by Ms. Sheila Sisulu, WFP's Deputy Executive Director for Hunger Solutions, who delivered a keynote speech and met with the host of the NAM First Ladies conference, Mrs. Mubarak to discuss school feeding and nutrition."

The whistleblower continued:

Word is that in the second half of 2009, she will spend perhaps no more than three weeks in Rome. A lot of her time is in Washington and elsewhere in the US (are we feeding Americans now, or is she doing something else there?). And there is a trip to places like Australia (over a weekend, of course). So who is actually running the organization? How can she justify, even with annual leave, spending less than one eighth of her time at her desk? Money which could and should be spent on feeding people or on properly staffing key departments or systems is being blown on business class airfares for her and her accompanying delegations and on school-feeding conferences near the north Italian lakes when somewhere within driving distance from Rome would have done, to name a few.

There are stories of parties being held costing more than 100 Euro per head at fancy Roman villas, paid for by WFP and/or FAO for people who never even worked for either organization. 100 Euro can buy about 300kg of wheat. Instead of feeding/entertaining one fat cat for a night, that's a lot of children who could be served.

UN's Ban and WFP's Sheeran, similar travel, similar

Again, WFP had a different spin:

Ms. Sheeran's schedule for the rest of this year is still being finalized and will be adjusted as the year progresses depending on the most pressing needs and priorities. As the schedule stands today, she will be in Rome for a number of weeks. The role of a WFP Executive Director involves travel demands, which can often be sudden, such as a trip to Myanmar after the cyclone when WFP has an emergency response, or to donor countries to meet high level representatives. This fall, Ms. Sheeran's will make her first donor trip to Australia as part of a wider travel plan which includes WFP field operation visits. We believe you are referring to an official event co-hosted by WFP and FAO in honor of the departing President of IFAD, our sister UN agency in Rome.

But how much did it cost? At least on the Simulated Food Distribution Display for G-8 Spouses, WFP has finally given its own figure as to cost: 219,000 Euros. Click here for Inner City Press' counter calculations.

Inner City Press has asked, twice, about the new but we're told absent held of ethics, Joe Scalice, and whether notice was given of the vacancy externally or even internally. The post because open when Shuresh Sharma was moved to WFP's oversight office. From there, Inner City Press is told, an official was caught in a scandal in WFP's garage, then quickly exiled to the Sri Lanka IDP crisis. Inner City Press has asked:

What notice was given to internal candidates that they could apply? How many applied? Also, please comment on fraud case in Johannesburg starting next month and a whistleblower's statement that the individual "who headed it previously was very quickly sent out to the field when he was caught by the security guards in the underground executive car park in his car with a young lady, and they weren't discussing audit matters. So they may have had to fill it very quickly. I think it was done internally. Also, there has been an exodus from audit in the past year." Steffan de Mistura's post, did anyone previously hold it? or was it a new / made up post? Was the Executive Board consulted?

When the requested answers are received, they will be published on this site.

USDA: COTTON PROJECTIONS FOR 2009/10

COTTON:  The U.S. 2009/10 cotton forecasts are virtually  unchanged from last month, with slightly larger beginning  stocks offsetting marginally lower production.  Production is  lowered 43,000 bales, based on the National Agricultural  Statistics Service’s first crop survey of the season.  Harvested  acres are estimated at 7.8 million, reflecting abandonment of  14 percent, and the yield per harvested acre is estimated at  816 pounds.  Domestic mill use, exports, and ending stocks are  unchanged from last month.  The forecast range for the  marketing-year average price received by producers is  narrowed 1 cent on each end to 49 to 59 cents per pound.  The 2009/10 world cotton forecasts are also virtually  unchanged from last month.  Production is forecast at 105.9  million bales, reflecting an increase for China, offset by  reductions for Greece, Brazil, and Australia.  World trade is  raised marginally, due mainly to increases in imports by Turkey  and Vietnam.  World ending stocks of 57.5 million bales are  lowered by less than 1 percent.