United Nations Won’t Tolerate Corruption -Secretary General

The United Nations Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon today (November 3, 2015) declared that the UN will not tolerate corruption.

“Member States must now improve the functioning of the Office of the President of the General Assembly (GA) to make it more robustly organized, including the budget supporting the President’s activities. We need greater transparency and accountability. This is essential”.

Addressing the GA at the UN headquarters in New York on the revitalization of its work, he said “today I will speak about a most serious matter that strikes at the prestige and reputation of this General Assembly.

“Throughout my tenure, I have made it clear that the United Nations should embody the highest level of integrity and ethical standards”.

Expressing his shock at the recent very serious allegations against Mr. John William Ashe, the President of the 68th session, he charged that the General Assembly to draw larger lessons from this incident – and act with resolve

That is why I have taken note of the intent of the United States Attorney to get to the bottom of the very serious allegations about the propriety of the conduct of the President of the 68th session, he stated.

In this vein, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon disclosed that he had taken a number of specific steps to address, head-on, the important issues that have been raised.

For example he mentioned that, “I have requested an internal audit by the Office of Internal Oversight Services of the interactions between the United Nations and the entities mentioned in the criminal complaint. I have asked OIOS to audit any funds received from these entities, as well as any funds disbursed by the United Nations to them. I have also requested OIOS to determine whether, during the course of the audit, other matters arise that merit further audit”.

By this effort, the Secretary General explained that “we can build on a tradition of responding to problems with systemic solutions”, saying that it is critical to learn from any unfortunate incident or terrible event.

In addition, the Secretary General announced that he had established an internal Task Force, chaired by the Chef de Cabinet, to review the arrangements for the Office’s financing and staffing. The Task Force will recommend ways to promote enhanced transparency and accountability.

Aside these measures, he said, he had also requested the heads of UN entities mentioned in the criminal complaint that may have engaged with the entities involved in the criminal complaint, to advise him about what they are doing to look into the matter.

My office and I personally, will continue to be in close contact with the Office of the President of the General Assembly to ensure the complementarity and coherence of these efforts.

Regarding the appointment of the next Secretary-General, Mr. BanKi-Moon revealed that in its most recent resolution on revitalizing the Assembly’s work, Member States have set out important measures concerning the process for selecting one.

These include a joint letter from the Presidents of the General Assembly and Security Council to start the process of soliciting candidates; the circulation of the names of individuals who have been submitted for consideration; and the convening by the Assembly of informal dialogues or meetings with those candidates.

Since 2002, the President of the General Assembly is elected three months in advance, whilst the members of the Security Council – non-permanent members - and the Economic and Social Council will now be elected six months in advance of their terms, he said.