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American Diplomacy
takes pleasure in making available to its readers an announcement released by the newly formed Centre for UN Management Accountability in Geneva, Switzerland.
~ Ed.
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CENTRE FOR UN MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTABILTY (CUNMA)
Makes Its Debut
Geneva, 28 September. Edward Patrick Flaherty, an American lawyer specializing in the law of the international civil service, is pleased to announce the formation of a new public interest law firm/NGO known as the Centre for UN Management Accountability (CUNMA). During the Centre‚s initial formation stages, Mr. Flaherty will serve as both Executive Director and General Counsel, but will eventually relinquish the top post upon the identification of an experienced successor.
The non-profit, non-partisan Centre, with offices in Geneva, Switzerland and Boston, MA, USA, is dedicated to the accelerated reform of the United Nations and other international organisations whose existence and efficient management have become more and more critical to the maintenance of health, peace, and security throughout the world.
Through a combination of both internal and external litigation (including « whistleblower suits ») and journalistic exposé, the Centre hopes to help drive the current but rather ineffectial efforts of many of the UN agencies and other international organisations to reform themselves. Convinced that the very existence of the UN and its related agencies depends entirely on the ability of these organisations to immediately restructure in the areas of service delivery, financial control, and staff management, CUNMA advocates many of the strategies employed to salvage state-run enterprises around the world (such as at the giant Italian state energy firm, ENI). Honesty, accountability, and transparency must become the motto of all such organisations if they are to see the light of the 21st century.
Several of the immediate projects of CUNMA are as follows :
- developing a code of ethics for lawyers representing international organisations and international civil servants in employment litigation;
- identifying « best practices » for the management of international organisations;
- increasing the use of standard surveillance and investigation techniques, as well as criminal proceedings, to discourage fraud and embezzlement of public funds;
- providing a confidential and retaliation-free clearing house for tips or reports of waste, corruption or embezzlement within internal organisations;
- becoming a watchdog of many of the internal surveillance units within the international organisations which are presently unable to stem the tide of waste and embezzlement (last week‚s indictment in New York of a very senior former UNDP official on fraud charges [which fraud was carried on for some six years] of over USD 1.5 million is prime evidence of such shortcomings).
To learn more about CUNMA, visit its temporary web site at : www.firms.findlaw.com/cunma/ (where you can join an e-mail discussion group on UN reform), or e-mail the secretariat at: cunma@justicemail.com, or fax: +4122-840-9099.
CUNMA is always interested to hear from those, in full confidence of course, who may have information evidencing fraud, corruption, or waste within international organisations. |
