| Americans called a good father a bad official One of the heads of the UN procurement service, Alexander Yakovlev, resigned. He is suspected of committing “misconduct in office,” and the UN is conducting an internal investigation. It began last week after the US television network Fox News accused Mr Yakovlev of allegedly helping his son get a job at a firm supplying equipment to the UN. Previously, his name appeared in the materials of the American Volcker commission investigating allegations of corruption within the UN humanitarian program “Oil for Food”. Then no violations were found in the work of Alexander Yakovlev.
Yesterday Mr. Yakovlev's phone at the UN was not answered. As his colleagues told Vremya Novostey, Mr. Yakovlev took a leave of absence on Monday and sent his resignation letter on Tuesday evening. Already on Wednesday morning it was satisfied. His office is sealed.
Alexander Yakovlev is a citizen of Russia. One of these days he will turn 51 years old. This is a career international official who has worked at the UN since July 1985. The salary of an employee of this level is 130-150 thousand dollars per year without deduction of taxes. Until 1991, UN workers with Soviet passports paid a significant portion of these salaries to the state, but no such rule now exists.
As the UN explained to VN yesterday, the accrual of Mr. Yakovlev’s pension depends on the results of the investigation. The UN staff rules provide for the possibility of depriving an employee of a pension: if material damage has been caused to the UN, then it has the right to recover the pension savings of the violator. “For me personally, he is not guilty,” one of Alexander Yakovlev’s colleagues told VN. “Accusations in the press are one thing, but there is also a presumption of innocence.”
On June 1, another low-ranking official, Joseph Stefanidis, was fired from the UN (for violating the rules of competition when awarding contracts). Previously, accusations were also made against UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (his son worked for the Swiss company Cotecna, which inspected humanitarian cargo for Iraq), but were dropped. Andrey ZLOBIN |
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