Trouble At The UN In Tokyo

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]Inner City Press: UN's Tokyo Scandal Addressed Only to Japanese Media
Faced with financial irregularities at its Information Center in Tokyo, the head of the UN's Department of Public Information, Kiyotaka Akasaka, called an impromptu press briefing on less than three hours notice. The reporters who were informed of and invited to Mr. Akasaka's briefing by the UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit were only from Japanese media outlets, which share a communal office on the 4th floor of UN headquarters. Upstairs in his 10th floor office overlooking the East River, Mr. Akasaka emphasized that the Information Center, called a UNIC, had paid contractors in advance based on falsified invoices. One of the contractors went bankrupt, and its successor is now reportedly demanding a second payment. Akasaka spoke to the reporters he had invited, buttressed by two auditors from the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services. The goal, according to several interviews conducted in the UN on May 21 by Inner City Press, appeared to be to rebutting as well as containing the scandal, limiting it to media in Japanese. But the UNIC in Tokyo represents the entire UN and its worldwide contributors, as does the Office of Internal Oversight Services...When Mr. Akasaka convened only Japanese media to speak about advance payments on falsified invoices at the UN Information Center in Tokyo, was he speaking in his personal capacity?...Regarding the Tokyo UNIC, a subtext to Mr. Akasaka's briefing was growing unrest reported against the director, Charmine Koda.

The story above is a few weeks old but I was looking for some background on this other story:

[floatr][/floatr]Asahi: Koda resigns as U.N. info center head
Journalist Charmine Koda has stepped down as director of the U.N. Information Center in Tokyo amid confusion over her contract renewal and what she called "harassment." Her resignation June 2 has embarrassed U.N. Department of Public Information officials in New York ahead of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon's visit to Tokyo later this month. Admitting its reappointment notice was late, the department said it had asked Koda, 52, to stay on. Koda, a former TV newscaster, took the job in 2006. She said she faced "harassment" and was forced to quit after looking into inappropriate accounting practices at the Tokyo center.

The Yomiuri also carried this story but both accounts appear to leave out the real cause of the conflict. Either Koda was hounded out for uncovering money scandals or she was responsible herself for a failure of oversight and the UNIC was hoping to quietly dump her after Ban Ki Moon's visit.

[gkanai]

If Moon was smart, he'd bring in outside auditors to audit the entire Tokyo UN operation.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Koda files libel suit against U.N. official

Charmine Koda, former director of the U.N. Information Center in Japan, filed a 10 million yen libel suit with the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday against Kiyotaka Akasaka, U.N. undersecretary general for public information, over Akasaka's recent remarks about her, which she said were "baseless and defamatory." Koda, a 52-year-old former TV news anchor, accused Akasaka of defaming her during a June press conference, saying Akaska accused her of using her position of power to harass subordinates while serving as director of the U.N. Information Center in Tokyo from April 2006 to June 2008. In the July edition of the monthly magazine Bungei Shunju, Koda wrote that she had been subjected to what she alleged was organizational harassment at the United Nations, and that it led to her resignation.

[Mulboyne]

Mainichi: Gross mismanagement uncovered at Tokyo U.N. office

There have been numerous instances of gross financial mismanagement at the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, according to an internal U.N. report obtained by the Mainichi. According to the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) audit report, violations of internal regulations included falsifying billing statements, and unmonitored orders for U.N. printed material that were then dumped in storage. All told, the Tokyo office of the UNIC was admonished for violating 10 provisions of the U.N.'s internal management rules, and the audit report called for the reprimand of those responsible. Although the information center enjoys extraterritorial rights, just as foreign embassies do, all the staff members are Japanese nationals. The Japanese government pays some 40 million yen of the center's operating costs per year, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also launched an investigation.

According to the report, not only did the center instruct outside contractors to falsify billing statements, but in 2005 it also paid a contractor 3.13 million yen for services to be delivered in 2006. Some 1.13 million yen of this advance payment was lost when the outside contractor went bankrupt. Making advance payments and false billing statements are violations of the U.N.'s financial rules. Another violation involved over-ordering of translated U.N. print material in 2003. The August 2007 OIOS audit discovered that around half of the original order of 150,000 copies had been dumped in the center's storage room. "Advance payment became standard practice from the year 2000," the person in charge of the outlays said. However, the OIOS stated that it "was concerned with the tight-knit relationship between the U.N. center employees and contractors." Until 2007, the person in charge of procuring outside services, who did not have the authority to approve purchases of more than 2,500 dollars engaged in direct negotiations with contractors and their selection. The audit also discovered that the U.N. center had failed to retain almost any purchasing documentation, such as contracts or purchase orders.

Former director of the center Charmine Koda noticed the improper accounting practices and called for the audit, which was undertaken in March 2008. "We strongly encourage the Tokyo UNIC to use Japanese government contributions properly," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated. "We are taking the audit recommendations into account, and are continuing with our investigation. However, we cannot comment on specifics at this time," stated the UNIC head office in New York.

The UN investigation report is on Wikileaks here. The Consumers Union of Japan also got involved last year.

[Behan]

From the original article posted by Mulboyne:

The reporters who were informed of and invited to Mr. Akasaka's briefing by the UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit were only from Japanese media outlets,

So much for United Nation[color="Red"]s[/color]