I am shocked that a branch of the United Nations is corrupt. You’re going to love the bill for it, too. How does $610 million sound?

UNITED NATIONS — A U.N. task force has uncovered a pervasive pattern of corruption and mismanagement involving hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts for fuel, food, construction and other materials and services used by U.N. peacekeeping operations, which are in the midst of their largest expansion in 15 years.

In recent weeks, 10 procurement officials have been charged with misconduct for allegedly soliciting bribes and rigging bids in Congo and Haiti. It has been the largest single crackdown on U.N. staff malfeasance in the field in more than a decade

The task force has issued a series of public and confidential reports charging that corruption has spread from U.N. headquarters — where three officials have been convicted in bribery schemes — to the far reaches of its growing peacekeeping efforts. The task force has also cast a spotlight on the United Nations’ repeated failure to take action against officials long suspected of wrongdoing, allowing them to carry out criminal schemes in one U.N. mission after another.

“The task force identified multiple instances of fraud, corruption, waste and mismanagement at U.N. headquarters and peacekeeping missions, including ten significant instances of fraud and corruption with aggregate value in excess of $610 million,” said one report by the task force, headed by a former federal prosecutor in Connecticut, Robert Appleton.

This isn’t the first time corruption has been found amongst the peacekeeping operation. There were multiple reports of “rampant” corruption in Somalia, Cambodia, and the Balkans during the 90s. In ’94 the Office of Internal Oversight Services was created but, I know shocker, it has been less than successful in holding corrupt officials accountable.

Guess how the latest investigation came about.

The latest investigations grew out of the probe into the U.N. Iraqi oil-for-food program by Paul A. Volcker, former Federal Reserve Board chairman. It comes as spending on peacekeeping operations is rising — from $2.2 billion in 2004 to $7 billion — supporting a force of more than 100,000 peacekeepers.

Volcker’s team helped uncover a bribery scheme by a U.N. procurement officer, Alexander Yakovlev of Russia. Yakovlev pleaded guilty in August 2005 to federal charges that he received nearly $1 million in kickbacks for steering contracts to favored companies

Corruption is rampant at the UN, and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. In order for their to be change, those on the top actually have to want to change it.

(Via Bill’s Blog)