UNITED NATIONS — A portrait of Ban Ki-moon as a secrecy-obsessed U.N. chief seeking to wrest control of internal investigations emerges from a 50-page confidential memo by his former oversight chief.
The memo by Inga-Britt Ahlenius, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, describes Ban as more concerned with preventing news leaks than with releasing possible criminal evidence to prosecutors.
The Swedish former auditor general also stated that the secretary-general improperly refused to allow many of her office’s audit reports to be made public, or to allow nearly all of its confidential investigative reports, with evidence of potential criminal wrongdoing, to be referred to outside prosecutors.
U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Thursday that Ban regrets that Ahlenius’ confidential memo was leaked, but he considers her “frank thinking and advice” an important tool for improving his management.
Speaking to reporters Thursday by video conference from London, two of Ban’s top managers - Angela Kane, undersecretary-general for management, and Catherine Pollard, assistant secretary general for human resources - said the U.N. would not publicly release Ahlenius’ confidential memo.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 07/23/2010