Last year President Trump
slashed the US's UN budget
by nearly $300 million,
after the
international agency
rebuked the US,
over its decision
to move its embassy
to Jerusalem,
which had been
the capital city of Israel
since 1949.
UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres
has now accepted
the resignation
of UN Environmental Chief
Erik Solheim,
a veteran Norwegian diplomat,
after an internal audit
by the UN Office
of Internal Oversight Services
criticized the environment agency
for "a culture of scant regard
for internal controls
and existing rules"
on the use of public funds.
( Solheim is a crook ! )
This included Solheim
racking up
hundreds of
thousands of dollars
on personal flights
to Paris,
according to
the New York Times.
Those flights had
nothing to do
with the agency's work
on the Paris Accords.
The overspending
happened at a time
when resources for
combating
climate change
were shrinking.
The report also found
Solheim was
routinely absent
from the office
without accounting for
where he was, or why.
The report found
"uneconomical routing
of flight itineraries,
opting for
more expensive airlines,
implementation of
teleworking arrangements
that were outside
the existing policy
on flexible
working arrangements."
Solheim spent as much as
80% of his time away from
the agency's office in Nairobi,
and frequently took flights
to Paris and Oslo
for what appeared to be
personal reasons.
Many of the "official" trips
were also taken
during public holidays
when he apparently had
no official business there.
The audit found
that Mr. Solheim,
referred to in the audit
as “a senior manager,”
had spent 79% of his time
away from the agency’s
headquarters in Nairobi
and incurred $488,519
in travel expenses
over a 22-month period".
According to the audit,
he selected flight itineraries
that passed unnecessarily
through Oslo and Paris
and failed to account
for what he did
in those cities
for a total of 72 days.
The audit found that
the travel arrangements
were “uneconomical”
and contravened
United Nations
travel rules.
“Most of the
rerouted trips
to the two cities
were made prior to
or during weekends
or public holidays,"
the audit found.
Immediately after taking office,
in July 2016, the audit found,
Mr. Solheim flew to Paris
for a one-day meeting
but stayed for a month,
accounting for nine days
as his annual leave.
Then, he went on a six-city tour
of North and South America.
His travel costs
for the whole trip
exceeded $14,000.
Sometimes,
Solheim took flights
on circuitous routes,
or flew back to Europe
between back-to-back meetings
in the US - without any
apparent reason.
He manage to fly through Oslo
on his way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
which is only a two-hour flight
from his Nairobi office !
On another occasion,
he flew to Paris
between meetings
in Washington
and New York.
He refunded the world body
$7,022 in travel expenses
after an internal investigation
of that trip.