U.N. Development Program says it plans to improve management and increase transparency and accountability
Associated Press
June 6, 2007
UNITED NATIONS: The U.N. Development Program will improve its management and increase transparency and accountability through greater financial disclosure and better information on the Internet, the agency's deputy administrator said Wednesday.
The announcement came as the development agency is facing scrutiny over possible distribution of counterfeit money to an employee in North Korea over 12 years ago, reports that its staff and vehicles were involved in diamond-smuggling in Zimbabwe and a decision to not renew a number of staff contracts in Myanmar.
"As we work in increasingly more dangerous and challenging environments, the need for stronger oversight and accountability has even become more important," UNDP Associate Director Ad Melkert told a news conference.
Melkert said steps it is taking include making sure that Web sites at the program's offices abroad have a uniform structure so the media and the public "can find out what we do in the country, where money comes from, what we spend it on and what we aim to accomplish."
He said that having all that information on UNDP's Web site will help cut the 30 days the agency now takes to respond to information requests from the public. He estimated that this goal would be accomplished in the coming year.
Melkert said financial disclosure is another step toward transparency and accountability.
"A number of categories of staff will be required to file financial disclosure statements," he said. This comes in addition to measures already taken at the undersecretary-general level.
"I am happy to inform you that both the UNDP administrator and I have completed our financial disclosure statements this year as part of the overall U.N. procedure," Melkert said.
He opposed making these disclosure forms public, which is what Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently did.
