UNDP-gate: Ban Ki Moon calls for sweeping audits
Wow. The WSJ (and the U.S. State Department) get results. Yesterday I mentioned their expose of the UNDP's (Underwriting Nork Dong Production) naive, unmonitored cash transfers into North Korea's coffers in the name of development.
Today, Ban Ki Moon cooked up a bombshell of his own:
"The Secretary-General will call for an urgent, system wide and external inquiry into all activities done around the globe by the U.N. funds and programs." So said Mr. Ban's spokesman after the Secretary-General met with Ad Melkert, associate administrator of the United Nations Development Program. The key word here is "external." Concerns about corruption in the U.N.'s Oil for Food program bubbled for years before Mr. Annan finally agreed to set up the independent Volcker Commission.All activities worldwide. Big news.
Plus UNDP's Melkert says sure,go right ahead and audit us.
Somewhere, behind the 'stache, John Bolton is smiling. I like to think he had a hand in this.
Can I get an amen?