[WSIS Edu] UNESCO scandal / EDUCATION sector

[Dr. Francis MUGUET]

FYI

It is not impossible that this scandal is going to have consequences on
UNESCO policies and WSIS implementation, specifically concerning
Education.


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http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/20/news/unesco.php

  American official at Unesco quits amid auditing rebuke
By Alan Riding
Tuesday, March 20, 2007

PARIS: The highest-ranking American official at the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization resigned just days
before an official audit reported that he had violated Unesco's rules by
granting seven contracts to an American consulting firm without an open
bidding procedure.

The official, Peter Smith, who had served for 21 months as assistant
director general for education at Unesco's Paris headquarters, said in a
letter dated March 12 that he was resigning because of a "threat against
my life, the inadequate support and follow-up to that threat, and a
negative climate in the workplace."

He said that he would step down when his contract ended on June 17. But
last week, Unesco's director general, Koichiro Matsuura, accepted his
resignation with immediate effect.

Smith, a 61-year-old former president of California State University,
Monterey Bay, who represented Vermont in the U.S. House of
Representatives as a Republican from 1989 to 1990, has reportedly left
France and could not be reached for comment on the audit, which was made
public Monday.

The report by France's Cour des Comptes, an independent accounting body
that supervises the French government and is also Unesco's external
auditor, was requested last fall by Unesco's executive board after staff
members had complained about contracts worth $2.1 million granted by
Smith to Navigant Consulting, a Chicago-based firm.

Among its findings, the Cour des Comptes said that the reasons for
selecting Navigant "are not immediately apparent." It noted that the
"restricted bidding procedure" used "was conducted in a way that
rendered it ineffective."

It said that "incomplete" information on the bidding procedure was
provided to Unesco's contracts committee. It concluded that "the fees
payable on the various contracts were not negotiated in any verifiable
manner."

A Unesco spokeswoman, Sue Williams, said that Matsuura had agreed to
implement the 55-page report's recommendations for tightening Unesco
contract procedures. She said that any further response to the report
would come from the 58-nation executive board, which would meet here
next month.

The case represents something of an embarrassment to the United States,
which ended a 19-year boycott of Unesco in 2003 amid pledges to
accelerate reforms of the organization. At the time, with the Bush
administration giving priority to Unesco's work in education, it was
considered logical for an American to head up its education department.

"It's a blow to the United States because it always spoke of moralizing
Unesco," said an ambassador to Unesco, who asked not to be named because
of his country's ties with the United States.

Unesco officials said that, after Smith took up his post in June 2005,
he immediately embarked on reorganizing the education department. But
diplomats said that they were surprised early last year when he called
an informal meeting of ambassadors to discuss his plans. At the meeting,
they said, the presentation was made, not by Smith, but by Letitia
Chambers, managing director of Navigant's Washington office.

In his resignation letter, Smith made no direct reference to Chambers,
but he noted that, in his reform plan, "the products developed by our
staff with Navigant Consulting were essential elements of the overall
effort."

He said that he agreed with changes recommended by the organization's
external auditor. However, much of his letter was devoted to praising
his department's work and complaining about internal resistance to the
reforms. "There is a small group who have worked steadily since the
unveiling of the reform recommendations," he wrote to Matsuura, "to kill
the reforms by discrediting me, attacking you and demonizing America."

He also recalled that on Feb. 9 he received a written death threat, to
which he felt Unesco responded inadequately. Williams, the Unesco
spokeswoman, said that the French police had investigated the death
threat and recommended to Smith that he not discuss it publicly.


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http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items07/090207-4.html

UNESCO - a scandal comes from America
By Charles Perera

The corridors of the UNESCO are bristling in muted chatter with a
scandal about men, money and mistresses that is new to its nearly sixty
year history. In an atmosphere charged with angry emotion an anonymous
note prepared by more radical of senior staff members goes its round
within the precincts of this Noble Institution. It denounces the
proposed reforms which put the principles themselves of the United
Nations seriously into question. The 58 member Executive Board elected
last October itself taken by surprise, called for an immediate
investigation on the strange consultation contracts entered into by
Peter Smith, the Deputy Director General of UNESCO in-charge of the
Education Sector.

Mr. Peter Smith recruited at the beginning of 2005, was a former
Republican Congressman, from Vermont before he became the founding
President of a small University in the State of Monterey Bay in
California. His appointment marked the return of United State of America
to the UNESCO decided by George Bush in 2002, who was seeking support of
the United Nations before his army adventured into Iraq. No sooner than
he came he was able to create displeasure among the specialist in
Education who came under his management.

Peter Smith was charged with a mission to find ways and means to improve
the Education Sector. He began by hiring a Washington based American
consultant agency Navigant Consulting. It was a surprise choice as the
company is specialised in reorganising of Industries, Banks and
Insurances, without even a Paris based Office. It was his personal
contact Letitia Chambers who was put in charge of the project at that
end, and her commuting expenses itself have enhanced the cost of the
contracts. Peter Smith apparently wanted only her and nobody else to
handle the project.

The seven consulting contracts with the Navigant Consulting between
June, 2005 and August 2006 for a handsome sum of 2,14 million Dollars
entered into without calling for tenders was in breach of the financial
regulations of the UNESCO. Peter Smith had insisted to go ahead with the
seventh contract with the same team, despite the UNESCO Committee of
Contracts, evaluated the proposals for the seventh contract as vague,
and in no way different from the mediocrity of the previous stage of the
project.

The Navigant Consulting had the exclusive right of use of the enormous
budget at their disposal without challenge or control. It was this
procedural drift that caused the Executive Board in October, 2006 to
request Mr. Philippe Séguin of the External Audits of UNESCO since 2006,
to investigate the procedures that had been followed to select the
Navigant Consulting Company. The investigation is also to determine why
Koichiro Matsura , the Director General of UNESCO had all along
supported the decision of his Deputy Director without putting the
project before the Executive Board , as it should have normally been done.

Some of the Member States consider the reforms proposed by the Navigant
Consulting are inconsistent and detrimental to the cause of UNESCO, in
that a number of operational sections is to be reduced in favour of
administrative services.

Another allegation brought against Peter Smith is that he has sidelined
the UNESCO Literacy Programme, the priority project of UNESCO since
1945. Not favourable to suggestions or criticism of his single minded
plans and projects, he retaliated against the critics by having them
transferred out
from the UNESCO Head Quarters to Beirut, Lagos, Dakar and Bangkok,
without finding it necessary to give them any explanation..

Another initiative of Peter Smith that made an outcry at the time was
transferring 200,000 dollars from the UNESCO budget reserved for the
literacy projects in Mauritania, Iraq and Palestine to finance a
conference hosted by Laura Bush and the White-House for half a day in
New York, on the
18 of last September. The First Lady participated as the Honorary
Ambassador of the United Nations Literacy Decade.

Several Diplomats were also shocked to learn that between July,2005
and2006 the University of Monterey Bay had paid to Peter Smith 157,932
Dollars while he was already employed in the UNESCO. The rules of ethic
bars an International Civil Servant from receiving a salary for any
other employment. However, on the 15 November, 2006 the California
Faculty Association a University Trade Union has filed legal action ,
claiming that the payment was illegal.

Searching his past some have found that the University of Peter Smith
had been dragged in to justice by three of its Staff Members for
discriminatory action against them for reason of their racial origin. An
arrangement had been made to pay them 2.5 million Dollars to stop legal
proceedings. The scandal does not help to enhance the already low
prestige of America.


(References: Protégé de Bush fait scandale à Paris by Patrice Piquard in
Capital January,2007 and California Faculty Winter 2007)
Easynic - your perfect web partner
	


http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ian_williams/2007/03/dogs_dont_bark_for_the_gop.html

American conservatives love to go after the UN, even on the most dubious
charges. So why aren't they doing so when a Republican is involved?

Sherlock Holmes aficionados will remember the story about the dog that
did not bark. It sprang to mind this week as I strained to hear the
deafening sound of silence from the usual suspects - the Murdoch/Fox
hunters - who are so well trained to bay at the first hint of a UN
corruption story.

Consider. A senior official of a UN agency that Washington banned for
many years because of its alleged corruption and anti-American bias has
just resigned, shortly before the auditors closed in with a devastating
report. The official is a former legislator from the party currently
running his government back home - and currently mired in nepotism and
corruption scandals. Nominated by his President, once ensconced in the
agency's offices, the official sliced and diced consultancy contracts
into segments smaller than $100,000 so that he could award them on a
no-bid basis to an influential company back home. To do so, he used
funds totaling over $2m earmarked to combat illiteracy in Africa, and
even used half a million at one point for a sycophantic reception in
honour of the spouse of the president who nominated him. These charges
were made in the French press three months ago, and have been
circulating among the knowledgeable ever since - even though those who
raised questions about the official found themselves transferred from
Paris to plum postings like Zimbabwe.

Wow. Are the Foxes hunting? Is the Wall Street Journal op-ed page about
to declare war on someone and demand US withdrawal from the UN?

No. The sound of silence is deafening. Why? Elementary, my dear Watson.

The official concerned is former American Republican Congressman Peter
Smith, nominated by President George W Bush to go to UNESCO and reform
the organization after 19 years of American boycott. UNESCO is based in
Paris, and the auditors are those used by the French government.

The company that was the beneficiary of Smith's Halliburtonesque
contracting practices was Navigant, a big Washington company whose
website, you will notice, does not claim any educational expertise at all.

UNESCO critics claim he transferred over $200,000 from literacy projects
in Mauritania, Iraq and Palestine to bankroll the conference hosted by
Laura Bush and the White House in September last year, where Ms Bush was
feted as the Honorary Ambassador of the United Nations Literacy Decade.
The New York caterer was the beneficiaries of the children's loss.

Of course, it is possible that he is entirely innocent. But when you
consider the Oil for Food allegations, you have to wonder why some parts
of the fourth estate don't show the same restraint before going after
foreigners, liberals and globalists of various hues.

Indeed, the relative silence is an interesting contrast to the two year
furor over the Oil For Food programme. After hyperbolic talk of billions
of dollars improperly diverted, the scandal ended up as a whimper, not a
bang: The allegation is now that the former head of the programme, Benon
Sevan, received $160,000 over four years, which is claimed to have come
from a friend who bought oil from Saddam Hussein. Sevan had declared it
on his UN forms, saying it came from his aunt, and denies any
connection. (Of course, he is a Cypriot, and spent a lifetime working
for the UN, and had no known connection with the GOP - so his guilt has
been assumed from the beginning.)

But the silence is also reminiscent of the blanket over the $10bn that
the UN Oil for Food programme handed over to US occupation authorities.
Congressman Henry Waxman has been trying to find out what happened - and
has been quite successful in uncovering the serious incompetence and
corruption of the Americans who handled these huge bricks of cash. His
efforts have had less than one per cent of the publicity of the unproven
and frankly dubious Oil for Food scandal.

The lesson is clear. If you want to be corrupt in the UN, being an
influential Republican is as good as ticking the box for no publicity.


and the other view :


http://washingtontimes.com/world/20070320-095607-5953r.htm

  U.S. envoy to UNESCO quits amid turmoil
Published March 21, 2007
Advertisement
PARIS (AP) -- The highest-ranking American at UNESCO has resigned before
a key audit of contracts that his office awarded, saying opponents
thwarted his reform drive at the U.N. organization and even threatened
to kill him.
     Peter Smith, a former Republican congressman from Vermont, sent a
letter to UNESCO Director Koichiro Matsuura saying that fierce
opposition to his reforms and the "negative climate" forced him to quit.
Mr. Smith had served as associate director general for education.
     A copy of the letter, dated Monday, was obtained by the Associated
Press on Friday.
     Mr. Smith's departure was the latest bump in the U.S. relationship
with the United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization.
The United States quit UNESCO in 1984, calling it corrupt and
anti-Western, then rejoined in 2003.
     Mr. Smith, former president of California State University,
Monterey Bay, joined UNESCO in 2005 and led a reform drive of its
education sector.
     "There is a small group who have worked steadily since the
unveiling of the reform recommendations to kill the reforms by
discrediting me, attacking you and demonizing America," he wrote.
     Mr. Smith said the opposition culminated in a written death threat
in February, and that UNESCO's follow-up to the threat was "inadequate."
     UNESCO spokeswoman Sue Williams said the organization immediately
contacted French police about the death threat and that police began a
criminal investigation.
     "UNESCO considers it did everything possible under the
circumstances," she said.
     Responding to Mr. Smith's assertions that opponents sought to
thwart his reforms, Miss Williams said: "Those are his perceptions of
the situation. Reform is always a difficult process; there are always
people who are unhappy with parts of it. There has also been very
outspoken support for the reform process and its results so far."
     Mr. Smith's resignation comes before the publication of an audit
that is expected to be highly critical of how UNESCO awarded contracts
for its education sector reform.
     The audit by the French Cour des Comptes, UNESCO's external
auditor, will be released next week.
     French business magazine Capital reported that Mr. Smith awarded
seven contracts worth a total of $2 million to Washington-based Navigant
Consulting without proper oversight from UNESCO's Executive Board.
     A UNESCO education official, speaking on the condition of anonymity
because the case is pending, told the AP that the Navigant contracts
were among those being audited.
     Mr. Smith, in his letter, called these accusations an example of
the "lies, unfounded rumors and innuendo" used to discredit him

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Francis F. MUGUET KNIS/ENSTA

Pôle de Développement pour l'Information Scientifique
"Réseaux de la Connaissance et Société de l'Information"
Scientific Information Development Laboratory
"Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS)

ENSTA
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Phone: (33)1 45 52 60 19  Fax: (33)1 45 52 52 82
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Associate Publisher
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muguet at mdpi.org       muguet at mdpi.net

World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS)
Civil Society Working Groups
Scientific Information :  http://www.wsis-si.org  chair
Patents & Copyrights   :  http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair
Financing Mechanismns  :  http://www.wsis-finance.org web

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WTIS initiative: http://www.wtis.org
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