U.S. Fights Off Bid to Punish UNESCO Official

[mahatmakanejeeves]

There may already be a thread on this, but I want to be certain. There are some names in the article - Navigant, Letitia Chambers - that might pop up somewhere else. You know how Republics are.

U.S. Fights Off Bid to Punish UNESCO Official

U.S. Fights Off Bid to Punish UNESCO Official
Former Congressman Accused of Giving 'Preferential Treatment' on Contract to Chicago Firm

By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 6, 2007; Page A08

UNITED NATIONS -- The United States and its key allies last week fended off a campaign by developing countries to discipline UNESCO's highest-ranking U.S. official, Peter Smith, a former Republican congressman from Vermont. Smith resigned in March after an audit found he granted "preferential treatment" to a Chicago-based consulting firm that received $2.15 million in contracts -- often without competitive bidding.
....

France's court of auditors concluded in March that Smith, as UNESCO's assistant director general for education, had repeatedly skirted U.N. procedures requiring that all contracts for more than $100,000 be subject to competitive bidding. The audit, commissioned by UNESCO, said Smith bypassed the requirement on behalf of Chicago-based Navigant Consulting by carving a nearly $400,000 deal into four separate contracts, including two valued at $99,899.
....

Smith first encountered Navigant through Letitia Chambers, a former executive director of the Commission on Higher Education who serves as Navigant's Washington director, Seguin said. Chambers did not respond to requests for comment.

[Eugene]

1. IOKIYAAR

Corruption at the United Nations and other world bodies
must be rooted out, unless Repubs or their corporate
masters get a piece of the action, it appears.

The U.S. sends Wolfie to impose good governance reforms
on the developing world. All the while the U.S. condones
and protects cronyism by its own.