EXCLUSIVE - U.N. agency punished Somalia whistleblowe, Somalia Food Aid Bypasses Needy, U.N. Study Says

LONDON (Reuters) - The United Nations Ethics Committee has upheld complaints by a former employee of the U.N. Development Programme who said he suffered retaliation from the UNDP for alleging that its Somalia programme was corrupt.
The man, Ismail Ahmed, was transferred to another office without proper visa support, and the UNDP Somalia office later told a potential employer not to hire him because of his "silly non-proven accusations", Ethics Committee Chairman Robert Benson found in a report seen by Reuters.
A new UN Security Council report says that as much as half the food aid sent to Somalia is diverted to a network of corrupt contractors, radical Islamist militants and local UN staff members, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
The report outlines such serious problems that it recommends Secretary General Ban Ki-moon open an independent investigation into the World Food Programme's operations in Somalia, the paper said, noting diplomats had shown it the as yet unpublished document.
Ahmed has identified one of the main authors of the retaliation as Eric Overvest, a Dutch national who is now in charge of the UNDP office in earthquake-stricken Haiti.
Ahmed's case has been supported by the U.S.-based Government Accountability Project (GAP), a non-profit organisation which backs whistleblowers in exposing corruption.
"A retaliator in Dr. Ahmed's case was promoted and transferred to Haiti, where he was the Country Director for UNDP at the time of the devastating earthquake there," GAP said in a statement issued to Reuters.
"The move is a cause for concern as the ability of UNDP to monitor the disbursement of aid in Haiti has been severely compromised by the chaotic aftermath of the disaster."   Continued...
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