This past Sunday, the head of a United Nations organisation that is being investigated for questionable investments tendered his resignation to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Former Norwegian Minister of Justice and Public Safety Grete Faremo served as the Undersecretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Project Services from August 2014 until her resignation in January 2016.
Contents
Un Agency Chief Resigns After Probe Into Its Investments
Their stated goal is to supply “infrastructure, procurement, and project management services for a more sustainable world” from their Copenhagen headquarters.
The New York Times stated that the agency made “a perplexing series of financial errors” that allegedly resulted in $25 million in losses, and that very day, Faremo tendered his retirement.
What went wrong with UNOPS’ ambitious impact-investing initiative? was the title of an article published on Devex, the media platform for the global development community, on April 16 by Brussels-based writer Ilya Gridneff.
A Singaporean firm received tens of millions of dollars in loans from the agency, according to the story, so that it could create a blueprint for the construction of over a million low-cost dwellings in six other countries. There has been no progress on the housing project and the UNOPS is owed millions of dollars, the report added.
The agency is “taking steps to recover all unpaid sums regardless of the source of activities,” a spokesman told Devex.
The internal watchdog of the United Nations had been looking into the dealings.
An announcement of Faremo’s resignation was made by U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Sunday. Danish reform expert and former special adviser to the secretary-general Jens Wandel will take over as interim director of the agency, he added.
Secretary-General Dujarric expressed his appreciation for Ms. Faremo’s “commitment and committed service to the organisation” in a statement.
Last Words
When asked whether Guterres had requested Faremo’s resignation, he declined to go beyond the statement. Thanks for reading our article Un Agency Chief Resigns After Probe Into Its Investments.
