United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon responded Thursday through a spokesman to harsh criticism of his leadership by the New York-based institution's former chief auditor, dpa reported.
Inga-Britt Ahlenius of Sweden, who was undersecretary general of the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services until last week, wrote in her final report that Ban had interfered with her efforts to root out corruption by preventing her from hiring staff and by running his own internal investigations.
Ban's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said that the UN chief had discussed the report in a meeting Thursday with senior advisers, and that they were studying the report: "Where there is room for improvement we will take action. Where there are inaccuracies - and there are significant inaccuracies - we will set the record straight."
"Your actions are not only deplorable, but seriously reprehensible. ... Your action is without precedent and in my opinion seriously embarrassing for yourself," Ahlenius said in her 50-page, confidential end-of-assignment report to Ban, which was reported Tuesday by the Washington Post. "I regret to say that the secretariat now is in a process of decay."
Nesirky said that Ban "said he believed in collective leadership. Leadership comes from teamwork. He said he did not expect his senior advisers would always agree with him. He had always welcomed constructive criticism. But as public servants, there are rules and procedures. In this case, a trust, a bond, had been broken" by the leaking of the report.
Ban was elected secretary general in 2007, following a damaging scandal over widespread corruption in the world body's management of the Iraqi oil-for-food programme under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.