UN corruption in Kosovo

From the Wall Street Journal:

An American-backed drive to curb misconduct at the United Nations is faltering, blighted by bureaucracy and accusations of retaliation against whistle-blowers.

Story of James Wasserstrom, a 25-year veteran of the UN and a former .N official in Kosovo who become a whistle-blower last year and was placed under investigation by the UN because of that:

In February of last year, Mr. Wasserstrom, the American whistle-blower, began making reports to New York about mismanagement and possible corruption in Kosovo’s energy sector on the part of senior U.N. officials in the formerly Serbian-controlled region.He provided no concrete evidence of graft. But in communications with the Office of Internal Oversight Services, the U.N.’s main investigative unit, Mr. Wasserstrom passed on information relating to a proposed new power plant known as Kosovo C. This included claims that U.N. officials were taking kickbacks. He says he had “no way of knowing if the information was true or not, but it was at the very least very worrying and needed to be investigated.”

At the time, Mr. Wasserstrom was the head of a U.N. office in Kosovo that monitored the electricity utility and other publicly owned enterprises. He also alleged that the U.N. Kosovo mission was colluding with local politicians to undermine the independence of publicly owned enterprises.

The OIOS declined to comment on the outcome of an investigation into the corruption and mismanagement concerns raised by Mr. Wasserstrom.

At the same time that OIOS was looking into Mr. Wasserstrom’s allegations, the U.N.’s personnel department in Kosovo announced what it said was a long-scheduled decision: Mr. Wasserstrom’s job was about to be eliminated.

Facing unemployment, he signed a contract to work as a private consultant for Kosovo’s main airport and the region’s telecommunications agency. Senior U.N. officials in Kosovo — the same people he wanted investigated — accused him of violating procedure and placed him under investigation for conflict of interest.

Detained at the Kosovo border by U.N. police in June last year, Mr. Wasserstrom says he had his American passport seized and car searched. His apartment in the Kosovo capital Pristina was also searched. Investigators sealed off his office, confiscated his computer and placed a “wanted poster” at entrances to the U.N. mission’s Kosovo headquarters. It featured a mug shot of Mr. Wasserstrom and an order barring the American from the premises. Official U.N. documents on the matter reviewed by The Wall Street Journal confirm this account.

“They treated me like a common criminal,” says Mr. Wasserstrom. After an investigation lasting nearly 11 months, he was cleared earlier this year of any wrongdoing. Mr. Wasserstrom in the meantime filed a retaliation complaint with Mr. Benson’s Ethics Office in New York. The U.N. says that 45 people similarly complained of retaliation over the 12 month period up to this July and that 18 of these cases warranted preliminary review.

In a letter to Mr. Wasserstrom in April, Mr. Benson said that while some of the measures taken against him “appeared to be excessive” and involved “investigative failures,” a detailed study of his treatment by U.N. investigators “did not find any evidence that these activities were retaliatory.”

Mr. Benson says he’s not allowed to comment on individual cases. The OIOS, which investigated Mr. Wasserstrom’s claims, says that retaliation is a “very specific type of conduct” and differs from other forms of mistreatment. In response to written questions, it did not address Mr. Wasserstrom’s case directly but noted that “abuse of authority and harassment” can also flow from “interpersonal problems” and other issues unrelated to retaliation.