Another United Nations secretary-general is submerged neck-deep in the bureaucracy that churns through Turtle Bay. How predictable.
With last year's exit of Kofi Annan, some observers saw a glimmer of hope that Ban Ki-moon would pick up the reins and embrace much-needed reforms. The U.N.'s latest imbroglio over a whistle-blower, and Mr. Ban's response, show otherwise.
At issue: the U.N. Development Program's (UNDP) alleged financial improprieties in dealing with North Korea. A UNDP employee reported what he observed as transgressions to U.N. policy. He was fired in March.
The U.N.'s own Ethics Office, established in 2006, concluded that the employee's firing was retaliatory. UNDP rejected the finding, arguing that the Ethics Office had no jurisdiction. This, because Mr. Annan, in creating the ethics division, didn't specify that its jurisdiction was systemwide.
Rather than correct this technicality, Mr. Ban sided with the UNDP, which assures it will conduct its own investigation into its now-defunct North Korea operation. How reassuring from a U.N. operation that, incidentally, has received more than a billion dollars in U.S. aide in the past decade.
So, what's the purpose of an "Ethics Office" in name only? There is none unless Ban implements a systemwide code of ethics.
Failing that, why should the United States lend its credibility to a world body that shuns ethics?
