The Hindu Business Line : UN sets an example

CLOSE on the heels of publication of my article, "Safeguards must against misuse" (Business Line, January 3), arguing for safeguards against possible misuse of funds meant for the relief of tsunami victims, the UN has also found it necessary to sound a similar note of caution and take steps to devise a knave-proof system, as part of its public accountability, for keeping track of the utilisation of billions of dollars of donations coming its way.

The UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs has inducted a team of financial experts to put in place, according to a report of the interview of the Under-Secretary General to The New York Times on January 9, sufficient safeguards "so that member states and the members of the public who contribute to the relief program can follow the progress of the money as it works its way to those in need, through the Internet."

One of the surviving Big Four accounting firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers, is donating its services and collaborating in the efforts to design the public tracking system so that "every citizen can track which dollars are going to what program in which country."

The UN has decided to form an external advisory group, composed of representatives of the firm and other financial experts, to evaluate complaints and allegations along with United Nations auditors. One of the tasks entrusted to the group is to deal promptly with allegations of mismanagement of the relief funds so that the UN can launch an immediate investigation and take other remedial action. Internet users will have access to full particulars from day to day showing "where the money is coming from, how much money is being given, as opposed to pledged, which organisation is doing what, and which money has been spent where".

The UN has become sensitive to the need to guard against malfeasance in the background of its tarnished record in running the Oil-for-Food programme in Iraq, the dimensions and ramifications of which had been exposed in my article "Iraq Survey Group's chance discovery: Oil as weapon of mass corruption" published in this paper on October 15, well before it became widely known.

The Indian public is entitled to detailed information on similar lines on the use of donations to the Prime Minister's and Chief Ministers' Relief Funds.

B. S. Raghavan

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