Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has started a website to keep an eye on the waste of space and money that is the United Nations:
The United States is the largest member donor to the United Nations, contributing up to 25 percent of its entire worldwide operating budget (27 percent for U.N. peacekeeping activities) to the tune of billions of dollars each year. In addition, the United States hosts the U.N. headquarters in New York, including the thousands of diplomats and agency employees. Given the level of American investment and the impact of the United Nations on world opinion and events, we must make sure taxpayer money is not subsidizing activities which hurt American security, values and interests.
The evidence is not good. A slew of indictments involving fraud and abuse of U.N. funds (again, a quarter of which comes from the United States) indicates the United Nations is incapable of protecting American taxpayer investment. What’s more, the organization and its member states appear unwilling to adopt any meaningful reforms to better protect against these abuses in the future.
A few of the things he has documented on the site:
- According to internal United Nations auditors, 43 percent of U.N. procurement investigated is tainted by fraud. Out of $1.4 billion in U.N. contracts internally investigated, $610 million was tainted by 10 “significant fraud and corruption schemes.” Since 43 percent of the procurement contracts are tainted and the United States contributes up to 25 percent of all U.N. funding, it is safe to say that an amount equal to well above entire U.S. contribution in this case has been lost to corruption and waste.[
- According to leaked reports, U.N. whistleblowers, and U.S. investigators, U.N. operations in places like North Korea, Burma, Syria, Iran, Cuba, and Zimbabwe have been transferring cash and resources to these unaccountable regimes and state sponsors of terror in the name of humanitarian assistance and “capacity building.â€[
- The United Nations regularly permits countries subject to U.N. sanctions, human rights abusers and state sponsors of terror to hold leadership posts in critical U.N. programs and committees. Here are a few examples:[4]
- U.N. Security Council: Libya
- International Atomic Energy Agency General Committee: Syria, Vice-President
- U.N. Disarmament Commission: Iran, Vice-Chairman; Syria, Rapporteur
- Committee on Information: China, Kazakhstan
- Commission for Social Development: North Korea
- Commission on Sustainable Development: Sudan
- Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice: Libya, Russia
- U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF): Burma, Vice-President; China, Board
- General Assembly’s First Committee on Disarmament and International Security: Syria, Vice-Chairman
- U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Executive Committee: Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan
- World Food Programme Executive Board: Zimbabwe, Sudan
Your tax dollars at work. Time to evict the United Nations, turn that building into a casino and move the bureaucrats to Sweden. Or Iran.
UPDATE:
Saw this photo on Fark.com and wanted to share it.
