UN assembly approves $1.3 billion budget for Darfur force

December 22, 2007 (UNITED NATIONS) — The United Nations General Assembly early Saturday approved 1.28 billion dollars to fund the proposed UN-African Union peacekeeping force for Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region until next June 30.

It also appropriated 182.44 million dollars for a UN force to be deployed in Chad and the Central African Republic to protect civilians from the spillover of the Darfur conflict.

The assembly reaffirmed that the mandate of the Hybrid Operation is to support the implementation of Darfur Peace Agreement, said the Sudanese Ambassador to the UN, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem.

He further said the General Assembly condemned the UN general secretariat for awarding the American defense contractor Lockheed Martin for the hybrid force infrastructure without soliciting a formal bid per UN rules, the official SUNA reported.

The assembly requested the Secretary General to observe the administrative and financial rule and demanded to not renew the current contract with the US firm. Further it asked the UN accounting department to probe the contract, Abdalmahmood added.

Last November during the discussion of the UN budget, the Sudanese envoy objected to award the UNAMID infrastructure to the American firm.

Abdel-Mahmood alleged that Lockheed Martin may not even be technically qualified for the contract. He further said that contact between the UN and Lockheed Martin took place before resolution 1769.

But, UN officials said that the contract was awarded to the US company due to “limited window of opportunity to tender a construction package”. The UN triggered financial rule 105.16 which allow the UN Secretariat “to waive formal methods of solicitation in the best interest of the UN”.

The UN Security Council passed the resolution 1769 on Aug. 31 calling for the deployment of 26,000 international peacekeepers to replace the 7,800 AU force in Darfur, which is suffering the lack of funds, equipment and experience.

(ST)