KURDISTAN
NEWSLINE
August
20, 2002
WHO
IS IN CHARGE ?
Despite
the recent public scrutiny of the operations of the United Nations
Agency World Health Organization (WHO) in Iraqi Kurdistan within
the context of the Security Council Resolution 986 Oil-for-Food
Program, the organization continues in its attitude of benign
negligence and its officials being oblivious to the urgent health
and welfare needs of the community.
The
sorry state of the implementation, or rather non-implementation,
of the urgently needed projects by WHO agency reached such scandalous
level that the Exec. Director of the Iraq Program Benon V. Sevan
openly expressed his frustration, during his visit to Iraqi Kurdistan
in January this year, at the lack of any real effort by WHO and
its management to address the health issues of the community in
the region. He threatened that unless they make a determined change
in their attitude and policies, he would be forced to withdraw
the allocated funds from the agency and assign it to another agency
capable of carrying out the United Nations mandate.
In addition to the mismanaging of the medical supplies and drugs
needed for the people, causing a continuous crisis in providing
basic healthcare for a population approximately four million people
in the region, the most egregious case of WHO style of management
is the project to build a 400-bed for the citizens of Sulaimani
(a city with a population of 600,000 lacking a general hospital).
This project has been languishing in the corridors of WHO bureaucracy
for over four years without any serious effort being made to implement
the project. WHO officials continue to make false statements and
issue optimistic forecasts without any concrete steps to correct
the fundamental flaws in the management style and mindsets of
the WHO bureaucrats. The WHO officials in the region continue
to behave in an arrogant and authoritarian fashion in their dealings
with the local health officials and administrators. For example
the new WHO representative in Sulaimani, an incompetent Egyptian
national, Mahir Al Sukhen , ignores the need to liaise with local
authority officials in his conduct of WHO business.
Another
health project assigned to WHO Agency and, for which necessary
funds have been allocated for over a year, is the medical section
for the Technical Institute in Cham Chamal. The project so far
going though the same lackadaisical approach adopted by WHO officials
in the way they carry out their projects. Recently, all work came
to a standstill on this essential project, because as the WHO
officials put it“ the person in charge has gone on leave
and has taken all the relevant files with him”.
There
are several reasons for the miserable performance of WHO Agency
in Iraqi Kurdistan. The first is that there is total lack of accountability
and transparency in the way WHO officials carry out their mission
within the Iraq Program. The New York Headquarters of Iraq Program
management and the coordinating body of UNOCHI in Iraq are completely
powerless and do not exercise any authority over the way WHO conducts
its affairs. The implementation process is deeply mired in an
intense bureaucratic wrangling among WHO in Iraq, UNOCHI, WHO
headquarters in Geneva, the regional WHO office in Cairo and the
Iraq Program Management headquarters in New York. Although the
two offices of Iraq Program and WHO offices are located in the
same building in New York, they refuse to liaise with each other
as WHO claims that Iraq Program has refused to fund the staffing
of an extra person to undertake the task. So as a result all liaison
must be done between New York and Geneva, necessitating often
costly junket delegation visits between New York and Geneva in
order to sort out any serious issues.
Another
problem is the way the regional office of WHO in Cairo has exercised
its authority over the implementation of WHO operations in Iraq
in such a way that has had debilitating effect on the health issues
of Kurdistan region. The office, run by a pompous Saudi national
by the name of Al Jazzaeri, insists that all issues from personnel
appointment to project approval must by authorized by him personally.
Of course he occupies that post in perpetuity as his Saudi masters
have made sure that he is not subject to the normal United Nations
standards of term limitation and can therefore occupy that post
until his death. Consequently, huge delays ensue, nepotism in
personnel recruitment and subjugation of all the WHO activities
to the whims of the Iraqi officials in Baghdad prevail. The WHO
organization in Iraq has become a dumping ground for employing
incompetent and Kurdophobic Arab nationals, receiving huge salaries
and benefits. Their main agenda is to make sure that the full
benefits of the resources of the country do not reach the ordinary
people of the region, much to the satisfaction of the Iraqi regime.
Killing
us with Clichés— Mr. Ramiro Armando de Oliveira Lopes
da Silva, the new UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Oil-for-Food
Program has been well briefed about the health crisis and the
mismanagement of the WHO Agency. Doctors and health officials
hope that he will bring real reform to the way the health sector
is dealt with in the region. And next time there is an opportunity
to brief the Security Council and Secretary-General Kofi Annan
about the status of the Iraq Program, we urge Mr.Benon V. Sevan,
the UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the Office
of Iraq Program to give a true picture concerning the shabby way
the WHO Agency is implementing the projects under their mandate.
We need clear accountability and not fuzzy excuses for not addressing
this critical issue.
Ref: The Financial
Times July, 6, 2002: UN deal leaves Iraq Kurds at Baghdad's mercy
By
Guy Dinmore in northern Iraq and Carola Hoyos, United Nations
Correspondent
