Report: U.N. Climate Projects Swamped with Fraud, Corruption Allegations

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres looks on during the opening of the UN Human Rights C
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty
Simon Kent

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is facing allegations of fraud and corruption linked to the multibillion-dollar Global Environment Facility, the Financial Times revealed Tuesday.

The claims of gross financial mismanagement come just 12 months after the U.N. investigated – and cleared –  itself of any and all allegations relating to “fraud, misappropriation of funds, systemic corruption, gross nepotism, and sexual misconduct” in regard to the work of the U.N.’s embattled agency for Palestinian “refugees.”

Now a copy of a draft report by UNDP’s office of audit and investigations seen by the Times, dated November 2020, describes “financial misstatements” worth millions of dollars across UNDP’s portfolio of GEF-funded projects around the world.

The report also pointed to problems including signs of “fraudulent activities” at two country offices and “suspicions of collusion among the various project managers” at another, without naming the countries.

“Issues identified by the audit could seriously compromise the achievement of the objectives of the audited entity,” the report said.

The GEF was set up in 1991 as part of the World Bank to help fight environmental challenges such as deforestation, species conservation and pollution.

It has since split out to become an independent organisation and disbursed more than $21bn in 170 countries, including $7bn in projects managed by the UNDP.

The claims of misconduct at the UNDP are not the first allegations of impropriety linked to the U.N.’s climate work.

The U.N.-backed, South Korea-based, Green Climate Fund, the world’s largest climate finance institution, has faced a recent wave of internal misconduct complaints, including allegations of sexism and harassment in the workplace, the FT reported in August.

“The words ‘climate’ and ‘corruption’, people see these as two different worlds, but there is a lot of overlap,” said Brice Böhmer, the head of climate governance integrity at Transparency International, the global anti-corruption group.

Stories of greed and mismanagement are commonplace at the globalist United Nations.

On Christmas Eve last year, Breitbart News reported the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) cleared itself of suspicions the organization had misused U.S.$ 1.2 billion in donor funds across the Middle East in the space of one year.

Then in March this year it was revealed allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation in U.N. peacekeeping and political missions was on the rise, with allegations against civilian personnel nearly doubling in just 12 months.

The United Nations has long been in the spotlight over allegations of child rape and other sexual abuses by its peacekeepers, especially those based in Central African Republic and Congo. But the March figures demonstrated again sexual misconduct spans the entire U.N. system.

In October more allegations of corrution and sexual assault by U.N. personnel were aired when UNICEF became the third U.N. agency to begin an internal inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as claims of rape by U.N. workers threaten to define the globalist organization in the field.

Breitbart News reported the children’s fund said it was “appalled that people who identify as UNICEF workers have reportedly committed abuse against vulnerable women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”

It added that once the internal inquiry is complete, “There will be serious consequences for any staff who have been found to have sexually abused people.”

Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com

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