UNDP WATCH: UNDP's history is full of management failures Page 1 of 7

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UNDP WATCH
"....The staff is sick and tired of the impunity extended by the office of the Secretary-General to senior
managers for their failings especially in situations where it has led to death and disability....." - UN Staff
Union

FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 2008 Should UNDP open its Financial

Records and Audits ?
UNDP's history is full of management failures
Member States only
This state of affairs is not new. Negative Donors Only
reports on UNDP’s performance go back at All Public
least a decade and a half. It is only now
becoming public knowledge. Vote   Show results

Only a very few mainstream media outlets

ever bother with extensive coverage of Votes so far: 56
Days left to vote: 3
United Nations operations and
performance. An almost exhaustive list
includes the International Herald Tribune,
The Economist, The New York Times and Censorship is UN-American
the Financial Times (UK), as well as the
more controversial Fox News Network. Even they report on the UN
only sporadically.

If it was not for people such as Russell Lee, almost nothing would be
known about the United Nations, as was largely the case before
Innercitypress came along.

Reporting on UNDP must also compete against the extensive and well
financed UNDP spin machine. Every single UNDP report will make one
or more of the following claims:

z A trusted partner in development;

UNDP Transparency Censored
z a leader in development thinking;
z connecting countries to knowledge and ideas;
z an important affirmation of the confidence partners have in
UNDP’s role and performance'
more nimble and adaptable, UNDP will be prepared for the
challenges ahead;
z Operating as an Effective and Accountable Development
Partner;
z stronger, more focused and better connected;
z seeks and achieves results, and that underscores
accountability in all that we do
looks for new and creative opportunities to help people build
Resign Now Kemal Dervis!!
better lives, through partnerships and the exchange of
knowledge;
z ensuring that our resources flow steadily behind our mission to
reduce poverty;

Amongst the many independent evaluation reports that I have in my

possession I will here repeat only briefly sections of those that I had

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UNDP WATCH: UNDP's history is full of management failures Page 2 of 7

already reported on. (The rest will become public as soon as I can
confidently attach names to the failures.):

While these programmes were well conceived, relevant and

important, they all suffered major problems for a number of reasons,
and lasting results are very few.

Poor design of the actual projects, without adequate consultations

with and ownership by the government institutions involved: Melkert the Lame Duck

z Weak programme management by UNDP and inadequate

accountability by its institutional partners, especially UNOPS;
z Inadequate transfer of technical and management expertise by
external consultants to local staff
z Inability by UNDP to quickly modify programmes to reflect the
changing political and security environment.
z the absence of an effective monitoring and evaluation system.

most programmes and projects suffered serious problems during

implementation, some had to be terminated, and there are very few
sustainable results. It seems equally evident that UNDP did not
Speak out on Herfkens Corruption
thoroughly scrutinize the proposed programmes and projects, before
accepting funding.

The relationship between UNDP and government partners was not

good at the central level during 1997-98. Both NGO’s and private
sector partners indicated that their experience with UNDP in the
execution of projects to have been negative. Experience in project
execution through UNOPS has also appeared to be costly, bureaucratic
and slow. Partners have questioned the quality of technical assistance
Eveline Herfkens belongs to Jail -
particularly that recruited through UNOPS. she should return imemdiately
Dutch Taxpayers money.

Bureaucratic procedures have been employed by both UNDP and

National partners to protect themselves and to provide excuses for
inaction.

z the impact on communities targeted by programming in this

sector has by and large been negative.
z High expectations have not been met, promised funding to
community projects has been slow to deliver at best, and often
not arrived.
z the Country Office did not adequately support the
implementation of these projects in a timely and efficient
fashion but was rather seen as slow, bureaucratic and without
transparency. if anyone else would have done
what Eveline Herfkens did, would
have long been in jail. We
UNDP must also ensure that the inputs, especially the international denounce this impunity and
advisors and consultants that are funded, are relevant, efficient, demand justice.
effective and client oriented.
U-Seek (UN Staff Union Initiative)

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UNDP WATCH: UNDP's history is full of management failures Page 3 of 7

z strongly believes that UNDP should not handle any more cost
sharing, Trust Funds and other funds on behalf of other
partners, before it has drastically improved its own
performance and efficiency.
z the shortage of resources that were made available for the
project at this central level, complicated implementation
efforts on the ground.

Posted by UNDP WATCH at 7:31 PM "...We believe that without

accountability, there is impunity.
We ask that you (Secretary
0 comments:
General) not be complicit in cover-
Post a Comment up of what happened prior to 11
Dec attack. The staff is sick and
tired of the impunity extended by
Home Older Post the office of the Secretary-General
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) to senior managers for their failings
especially in situations where it has
led to death and disability."

This is how you blow it at the UN!!

In Memoriam to Algiers Victims

http://www.un.org/events/memori
al/11december/

Blog Archive

▼ 2008 (143)
▼ March (20)
UNDP's history is full of
management failures
While Staff Council approves

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resolution on freedom...
The Cashier of the UNDP
Mafia
UNDP's Staff Union
denounces - 2.7 Billion
dollars...
Partnership with UNDP in
Africa has been a total d...
BM'nin 50 milyon $ borçlu
olduğu Türk kim?
Worst enemy of a turk ......is
a turk !!!
UN(DP) 'has become an
enemy'
World Bank President slams
UNDP: - "They Lie about...
The United Nations: Adieu
Arbour, But Will Her Suc...
Time for U.S. to reject U.N.'s
anti-democratic con...
Mark Malloch Brown joins
UNDP propaganda and
spin ...
Alweer: Afrikaanse
toestanden bij PvdA
Ad Melkert net zo fout als
Eveline Herfkens !
Het contract van Eveline
Herfkens
At UN, Developing Countries
Demand Changes to Ban'...
Scandinavian Makes Bid For
Afghanistan Envoy Role
Another Dutch in Troubles at
the United Nations!
Italian Press denounces
billions of bollars withou...
Eveline Herfkens: $225,000
Part-Time + DSA + Busin...

► February (36)

► January (87)

► 2007 (75)

About UNDP Watch

UNDP WATCH
UNDP Watch is a grouping of
United Nations Staff committed
to openness. We believe that
everyone has the right to access
information held by United
Nations. Despite a stated
commitment to openness, UNDP
i hi hl ti

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agency. Although a wealth of

information is available on some
UNDP websites, its Executive
Board operate behind closed
doors, much important
programme and administrative
information is never made
available and, as a rule,
information that is disclosed is
provided only after relevant
decisions have effectively been
taken. While UNDP has
adopted “internal policies” on
information disclosure, they in
fact operate on precisely the
opposite presumption. For the
most part, they list which
documents will be disclosed and
when, and there is a
presumption against the
disclosure of all the other
information they hold. They do
not establish right of access, the
lists of documents subject to
disclosure is limited, they do not
set out clear and narrow grounds
for refusing access and they do
not provide for independent
oversight mechanisms to ensure
proper implementation of the
policy. The UNDP WATCH is
calling for the complete overhaul
of these policies.
View my complete profile

UNDP in the News

UNDP
United Nations Development Programm
Kemal Dervis Ad Melkert
Eveline Herfkens Akiko Yuge
Bruce Jenks Darshak Shah

UNDP poverty alleviation plan for

BIMARU States
Hindu, India
MADURAI: The United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP)
has chalked out a poverty
alleviation plan for BIMARU States —
Bihar, Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan, ...

Administrator of UNDP due today

The Daily Star, Bangladesh
United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) Administrator
Kemal Dervis arrives in Dhaka today
on a three-day trip to meet high
officials and observe voter

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