The UN's under secretary general responsible for waging war on drugs, Pino Arlacchi, swept aside Saturday allegations of gross mismanagement by a senior ex-colleague as "completely inaccurate".
A former departmental director in the Vienna-based UN drug and crime unit UNDCP, Michael Schulenburg, had written to Arlacchi accusing him of cronyism, mismanagement, and of creating a climate of fear among his employees.
Extracts of the letter appeared Friday in Vienna's daily Der Standard.
Responding in the same paper Saturday, Arlacchi, who is Italian, brushed the charges off as the rantings of a bitter employee whose contract had been terminated, and said that the commments painted "a completely inaccurate picture".
Schulenburg, who referred to his departure as "quitting", wrote in his 11-page letter of a project in Afghanistan which Arlacchi had promised 250 million dollars (262 million euros) and which never came off, and also cited an angry letter from the Indian government over the withdrawal of funding for a large project.
Arlacchi, whose announcement of the 250 million dollar project is recorded on a UNDCP press release from the end of October, said plans had been changed due to a "complex situation" and said it was a "bureacratic oversight" that the Indian letter had not been answered.
Schulenburg had also spoken of "nebulous" payments to one Dennis Oeren, allegedly a sailor friend of Arlacchi.
Arlacchi acknowledged that payments had been made to Oeren for a project, which fell through, and reminded that it was very normal that not all projects which receive money were realised, Der Standard reported.
Arlacchi, 49, was appointed head of the drug and crime unit in September 1997 on the basis of his experience fighting the mafia in Italy.
He came in for a battering from the media last year over rumors that he was planning a "biological war" on Colombia's illicit coca crop. Arlacchi described the reports at the time as "sensational and distorted." -- VIENNA (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
