“UNAT” stands for the United Nations Administrative Tribunal. I think it stands for Unnecessary Acts of Narcissistic Taxation.
I can’t quite figure out just what this little internal judicial body is supposed to do besides look after staff compliance to contracts and such, but one thing is immediately apparent: it protects its own. And it does so at the expense of the American (and other global) taxpayers.
Case in point: Benon Sevan, the former chief of the disastrous $60 billion United Nations Iraq Oil-for-Food Program but currently in hiding in Cypress, was charged with bribery and wire fraud in connection with the program by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 2007. He faces up to 50 years in prison.
His lawyers, however, are requesting $880,000 plus interest from the United Nations. And the U.N. has agreed to “abide by” the tribunal’s decision to pay them.
In 2004, the Tribunal ordered the United Nations to pay one year’s back pay to a former official with the United Nations Development Program who was accused of killing 32 people during the 1994 Rwanda genocide, including fellow UN employees.
What kind of oversight is this? Why are these people not allowed to face the music like everyone else? Why should our hard-earned tax monies go to the defense of those accused of such corruption?
It is but another sign that the United Nations has outlived its usefulness. If President Obama and the Democratic Congress critters do not understand this, as evidenced by upping our U.N. contributions from $5 billion to $7 billion in the “new” budget, it is up to us, the “little people” to educate them.
Loudly.
Clearly.
And right now.