Corruption at the U.N.

It seems to me that the U.N. is a complete waste. This organization has become a cesspool of unethical behavior and managerial incompetence. The most recent example is the long overdue guilty plea of an ex-procurement official that was finally hauled off to jail after Secretary General Kofi Annan withdrew his diplomatic immunity. The official--Alexander Yakovlev--reportedly solicited a bribe from a French company that bid unsuccessfully on an oil-for-food contract. The report found no evidence the company paid the desired bribe; however, it found that $1.3 million had been wired to a bank account Yakolev controlled on the Caribbean island of Antigua since 2000. According to CNN,

"More than $950,000 of these payments came from various companies or persons affiliated with such companies that collectively won more than $79 million in United Nations contracts and purchase orders," the report found.

Furthermore, the oil-for-food program's former chief, Benon Sevan, is accused of receiving more than $147,000 in kickbacks. CNN reports,

The panel's report concluded that Sevan "corruptly derived substantial financial benefits" from a company that purchased Iraqi oil under the program. The money was used to shore up Sevan's "precarious" personal finances from 1998 to 2002, the report concluded. In his resignation letter, Sevan called his management of the program "transparent" and denied any wrongdoing. But Volcker said investigators had "reasonably sufficient evidence" for their findings. "In these cases, we clearly believe that standard has been met, and our conclusions are obviously significant and troubling," said Volcker, the former chief of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank.

I realize the world needs some diplomatic organizational structure wherein policy issues can be debated and consensus acheived. But, the long-standing policy of diplomatic immunity for these bureaucrats has lead to arrogance, self-righteousness, and corruption. I, for one, am happy that it's getting a big black eye because it sorely needs a generous slice of humble pie. How anyone can take a bureaucratic body like the U.N. seriously when it behaves in such a way--not to mention some of the other inexplicable things it does, like allowing genocidal regimes like Sudan to hold the leadership on the human rights commission--I'll never know.