If this past week didn’t drain all of your confidence in the U.N., let me take the time to get that last drip of hope out of your system.
USA Today is reporting that the U.N. spent United State’s funds on projects that ended up shoddy and poorly done.
Two United Nations agencies spent millions in U.S. money on substandard Afghanistan construction projects, including a central bank without electricity and a bridge at risk of “life threatening” collapse, according to an investigation by U.S. federal agents.
The U.N. ran a “quick impact” infrastructure program from 2003 to 2006 under a $25 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The U.N. delivered shoddy work, diverted money to other countries and then stonewalled U.S. efforts to figure out what happened, according to a report by USAID’s inspector general obtained by USA TODAY under the Freedom of Information Act.
I’m shocked, truly shocked! Okay, no I’m not. Any dufus with prior knowledge of how the U.N. basically screws everything up could have called this one when that $25 million grant was given. When are we going to learn that the U.N. is a sink hole, the money we invest in it (about 25% of the total UN budget) goes to waste, especially when we give them free money to build infrastructure across the world.
Federal prosecutors in New York City were trying to bring civil suits against the U.N. to figure out where exactly this money went and what happened with the projects, but of course U.N. officials have immunity, so that was a lost cause. Finally, four years after the fact, the truth is being told to the public through a FOIA, not even by the U.N. themselves.
The money wasn’t just diverted to other countries, in one instance, according to a witness, it was used to renovate the guest house of a contractor on the project.
One U.N. employee told investigators that “about $10 million of USAID grant money went to projects in other countries, to include Sudan, Haiti, Sri Lanka and Dubai.” That witness said the Afghanistan country director for the U.N. Office for Project Services (UNOPS), which served as the contractor on the project for the U.N. Development Program (UNDP), spent about $200,000 in U.S. money to renovate his guesthouse. Witness names were withheld by USAID.
Of course the companies hired to work on these projects saw that the U.N. didn’t give a rip about the quality, they were called “quick impact projects” for a reason; because they were positive PR stunts intended to be completed quickly so the UN could cut a red tape in front of them and take a picture. The USA Today article lists some of the shoddy projects…
A bridge near Kandahar cost $250,000, had to be overhauled by other contractors and still was not safe. The U.N. claimed the bridge was damaged by flood, but a colonel in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told investigators that “falls between absolute incompetence and a lie; the project was improperly constructed.”
An airstrip in the southern town of Qalat, originally budgeted at $300,000, cost $749,000 and could not accommodate military planes.
A $375,000 headquarters for Afghanistan’s central bank lacked electricity or plumbing, and basement flooding destroyed stacks of local currency.
I think the fact that this story really hasn’t hit the MSM is proof that the U.N. wasting US money is kind of expected.
Alright, so if you still have confidence in the U.N. I applaud your optimism, and now it’s time to drain the rest.
There’s another story out today that says North Korea will boycott nuclear talks and restart their weapons plants. This comes just over one week after they test fired a ballistic missile which they claimed was used to launch a rocket into space. It also comes several days after the U.N. gave them a slap on the wrist for violating Resolution 1718 from 2006.
If you remember, directly after North Korea’s missile launch, the U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting to draft a solution. It was during that meeting that China and Russia voiced concerns over punishing North Korea too heavily. They said they didn’t want to sanction them because it may breakdown the six party talks. That’s despite the fact that before the launch North Korea said any response from the U.N. criticizing their launch would not be tolerated.
So Russia, China, Libya, Uganda and Vietnam all caved, they assumed that a “strongly worded presidential statement” from the council wouldn’t offend North Korea. They were wrong.
North Korea made very clear that they wouldn’t tolerate any response from the Security Council. Knowing that information it made no sense for the U.N. to deliver a weak response. If no response is going to be tolerated, you might as well go for the jugular.
The Security Council was able to get away with a weak response because China and Russia are permanent members on the Security Council, and they have veto power, they can get just about whatever they want. And their dumb ambassadors thought that North Korea wouldn’t be offended by a “strongly worded statement.”
Well, they’ve lost their chance. And now it appears that North Korea, who withdrew from the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2006, appears to be headed back to the nuclear age.
We can thank the United Nations for that. Don’t forget, they suck.
–jb
