Senator Tom Coburn: JUST the FACTS: United National Edition

We have been a proponent of the United States out of the United Nations and the United Nations out of the United States for a long time and this doesn't change our mind. With the US taxpayers funding nearly 1/4 of the UN budget, it is time to consider the offer of Dubai to take the UN. We think that would be a wise choice and at the same time cut our contributions to a group of Nations that love to trash the United States. Think we should offer Obama as the new head of the UN when it goes to Dubai as an additional incentive.

JUST THE FACTS: United Nations Edition
May 24, 2010

As a result of your requests, I am returning to my occasional “Just the Facts” series this week. As American taxpayers are easily the largest financial contributors to the United Nations, it is time to take a closer look at its track record:

American taxpayers provide nearly a quarter of the entire UN budget (and more than a quarter of peacekeeping operations), or about $6 billion annually. Comprehensive data on the UN spending is scarce and very difficult to obtain—even by the U.S. Congress.

Over forty percent of all UN contracts audited in 2007 were found to include fraudulent spending. Of the $1.4 billion in contracts reviewed, $630 million of it was found to include “significant fraud and corruption schemes.”

According to the Associated Press, last week “seven countries accused of human rights violations have won seats on the U.N. Human Rights Council in an uncontested election, including Libya, Angola and Malaysia.”

The UN has been regularly criticized for its lack of transparency and commitment to ethics reform. For example, an American whistleblower acting as a high ranking official for the United Nations in Kosovo was fired three years ago after assisting with an internal investigation looking at corruption. The Secretary General has refused requests from agency inspectors for key documents related to this and other ethics investigations.

The UN Environment Program, which manages the UN’s global warming initiatives, spends in excess of $1 billion annually and lacks significant transparency or oversight. According to a key task force report in 2008, it would take the program’s auditor 17 years to review identified high-risk areas. The program continues to delay efforts to bring greater transparency to its work.

Renovations of the United Nations’ headquarters in New York City, which were originally estimated to cost $1.2 billion, are now forecast to cost $2 billion. Cost overruns continue to plague the project. U.S. taxpayers will be responsible for at least $485 million.

Between 2004 and 2008, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), along with other federal agencies, contributed over $400 million to the United Nations Office for Special Projects. Yet, when serious allegations of fraud within the program prompted the attention of U.S. investigators, the program denied the United States access to key records and limited interviews with agency managers.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), whose mission focus includes global poverty, HIV/AIDS, and the promotion of democracy, receives over $200 million annually from U.S. taxpayers. Investigations by a Senate committee revealed that UNDP accounts have been used by North Korea to hide financial transactions. Worse, UNDP funds may have ended up in the hands of an entity used to sell North Korean weapons. Internal UN audits of UNDP programs have been kept from American inspectors.

In response to systemic failures of the United Nations to operate transparently, and to eliminate widespread fraud, I have done the following:

An amendment to eliminate $3 billion in annual funding for the United Nations and transfer it to a federal program that will assist family caregivers of disabled American veterans. This amendment was rejected by the Senate.

An amendment to require a yearly report on U.S. contributions to United Nations programs that will be available in a searchable online format. The Senate accepted this amendment unanimously.

Held numerous committee hearings on fraud and lack of transparency within the UN and led an investigation that exposed the UN headquarters renovation debacle.

An amendment to the budget that barred the release of U.S. funds to the United Nations until the U.S. State Department certified that the UN had become fully transparent, with an emphasis on its procurement and grant making processes. The Senate approved this amendment in 2007, by a vote 92-1. However, it was later removed by House-Senate negotiators behind closed doors.