Board of Auditors and ACABQ slams SHa Zukang and DESA for illegal use and hiring of consultants

A recent report of the Board of Auditors on Financial Reports for period ended 31 December 2007, strongly denounced DESA's DPADM (Division) as out of control and using illegal means to hire consultants from "selected countries".

The report is a clear call to Sha Zukang to change the corrupt ways in which DPADM and other DESA divisions were operating during 2007 (and earlier). This also is a direct indictment of Guido Bertucci at the helm of DPADM as well as the Technical Cooperation Division with Marie Oveissi and Furio De Tomassi, which were directly involved in corrupt practices of hiring consultants under the DESA technical cooperation portfolio. 

This report also shows the direct involvement of Catherine Pelluso on her capacity of Executive Officer in which she endorsed and initiated most of this irregular practices and contracts.

Here is a quote from the report:

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Consultants and experts

32. Administrative instruction ST/AI/1999/7 refers to the need to rely on a central roster of candidates of consultants and contractors. The Board observed that the Department of Economic and Social Affairs did not have a common roster of consultants that its divisions could rely upon. 

The Board noted that those divisions have indicated that consultants are recruited on the basis of objective information aimed at taking into account the adequacy of their skills and professional experience. The Board also noted that there was a tendency to re-hire consultants instead of hiring new ones, and that between 2004 and 2007 most consultants
originated from three European countries. 

The same administrative instruction also stated that external consultants should be hired only in cases where in-house expertise is not available. During its hearings with the Audit Operations Committee, the Advisory Committee was informed that to date, the Board had not examined whether the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and other departments had conducted a search for in-house expertise prior to hiring external consultants. 

The Committee recalls General Assembly resolution 53/221 and other relevant resolutions, and in this regard encourages the Board to examine this matter further.