Probe: Ex-watchdog showed favoritism
UNITED NATIONS --The one-time chief of the United Nation's internal watchdog agency showed favoritism in recruiting and promoting two employees when he headed the agency, a U.N.-appointed probe concluded Wednesday.
The investigation cleared Dileep Nair of sexual misconduct or accepting improper payments when he was chief of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, as the U.N. Staff Union had claimed. Nair, of Singapore, retired a year ago and denied all the charges against him.
Yet the two investigators who led the probe said Nair didn't cooperate with them and that his office refused to provide "potentially relevant" evidence, even long after he stepped down. The U.N. Staff Union also never provided details of the anonymous sexual allegations it had leveled against Nair.
The charges caused particular controversy at the United Nations because the Office of Internal Oversight Services is responsible for upholding the integrity of the world body.
According to the investigators, Jerome Ackerman and John Vanderstar, Nair appears to have showed favoritism in two hiring decisions, and may have improperly influenced a third.
He "presumably selected the person he thought to be the best candidate but, in doing so, appeared to bypass the process in place to guide and inform his decision making," the report said.
It said there was no evidence of "regrettable anonymous allegations" that one employee paid off Nair or that he engaged in improper sexual behavior with another.
In a statement, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the matter was now closed. He acknowledged the report's negative findings against Nair but did not address them.
Nair, who receives a U.N. pension, cannot be punished in any way.
"The investigation report and Mr. Nair's comments were thoroughly reviewed by the Secretary-General," Annan spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. "He took note of the findings and conclusions of the report, as well as Mr. Nair's comments."
Nair and his lawyers did not cooperate with the investigation. He did, however, review the report when it was finished and rejected its findings that he may have influenced any hiring decisions.
"I am confident anyone reading these comments will realize the thinly veiled self-serving nature of the allegations and wonder what the fuss has been all about," he said in a letter.
Nair was also implicated by the committee investigating allegations of misconduct in the world body's defunct oil-for-food program in Iraq.
An investigation led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker said Nair paid an employee with money from the $64-billion program although the staffer's work was not directly involved in the plan. Nair denied he did anything wrong in that case as well.
