UN says probe uncovered failures in Sudan

February 11, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The United Nations disciplined staff and blacklisted at least one contractor after a 2006 audit uncovered a string of failures in its “contractual and administrative” systems in Sudan, a spokesman said on Monday.

The comments followed a report in the U.S. Washington Post newspaper at the weekend that said an internal audit found staff of the U.N. Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) had squandered tens of millions of dollars in funds through waste and mismanagement.

The paper, citing audits seen by its reporters, said waste came from “renting warehouses that were never used, booking blocks of hotel rooms that were never filled, and losing thousands of food rations to theft and spoilage”.

The story was widely used by media outlets controlled by Sudan’s government, which has often had a stormy relationship with the U.N. over its stance on Darfur and other issues.

The UNMIS spokesman declined to comment on specific accusations of mismanagement.

But he said the U.N. had compiled a report in 2006 based on an enquiry and the inconsistencies cited in the article had been fully addressed and disciplinary measures had been taken.

One contractor had also been struck from a list of approved U.N. vendors as a result of the probe, he said.

The U.N. expanded its operations in Sudan and changed its structure in 2005 to take on a new job of monitoring the Comprehensive Peace Agreement — the deal that ended a two-decade long civil war between Sudan’s north and the south.

Sources in the U.N. said the failures identified in the internal investigation had taken place during the initial start-up phase. One staff member, who asked not to be named, said staff had been under pressure to set up a huge amount of infrastructure from scratch.

The staff member added said the items of expenditure criticised in the audit were dwarfed by UNMIS’s total budget for the fiscal year 2005/6 of just over $800 million.

(Reuters)