New Paper Citation for Southern Innovator Issue 1

Launched in 2011, Southern Innovator's first issue on mobile phones and information technology proved highly influential, profiling the work of a new generation of innovators. It has been cited in books, papers and strategic plans.  

Southern Innovator Issue 1: Mobile Phones and Information Technology.

"What a tremendous magazine your team has produced! It's a terrific tour de force of what is interesting, cutting edge and relevant in the global mobile/ICT space... This is great, engaging, relevant and topical stuff." Rose Shuman, Founder & CEO, Open Mind and Question Box, Santa Monica, CA, U.S.A.

Citation in Using Mobile-Enabled Devices for Engagement and Monitoring of Patient with Chronic Disease: Hypertensive Case in the International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 10, Issue 4, April 2019 (ISSN 2229-5518).

Southern Innovator's profile and reach was global. Read more here: Shortlisted For Infographics Storytelling Book | 2014 

Visual Storytelling: Infographic Design in News published by Images Publishing.The proof flats for inclusion in Visual Storytelling: Infographic Design in News.

Team | Southern Innovator Phase 1 Development (2010 - 2015)

Work began in 2010 to develop what became the United Nations magazine Southern Innovator. A highly talented global team of international development and design professionals based in New York and London collaborated with an Icelandic studio to create an innovation media brand inspired by the mobile and information technology revolutions showcasing global South innovators. It was launched in 2011 at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Cosmas Gitta, Editor-in-Chief: "Dr. Cosmas Gitta is a senior UN consultant and the former Assistant Director for Policy and UN Affairs at the UN Office for South-South Cooperation, where he oversaw the convening of various intergovernmental and interagency forums as well as the preparation of related reports and studies, including the biennial reports of the Secretary-General on the state of South-South cooperation. He was Editor-in-Chief of the magazine Southern Innovator and an e-newsletter, Development Challenges, South-South Solutions, both of which are media to share information on development related innovations with partners around the world. He was for many years Managing Editor of Cooperation South, a print and electronic development journal promoting collaboration among developing countries. Mr. Gitta holds a PhD in international and comparative education from Columbia University and he has lectured on human rights education at his alma mater, and on a range of other subjects at various campuses of the City University of New York." (From Integral Leadership Review)

Read more of Dr. Gitta's work here: Cooperation South, Getting Connected: Information and Communications Technology for Development, Number 1, 2001, United Nations Development Programme, ISSN-0259-3882.

Zhou, Yiping, and Cosmas Gitta. "Designing the Future: South-South Cooperation in Science and Technology." Cooperation South (2000).

Forging New Technology Alliances: The Role of South-South Cooperation Juma, Calestous, Cosmas Gitta, Allison Disenso, and Audette Bruce. Cooperation South Journal (2005).

The authors: Forging New Technology Alliances: The Role of South-South Cooperation Juma, Calestous, Cosmas Gitta, Allison Disenso, and Audette Bruce. Cooperation South Journal (2005).

Getting Connected: Information and Communications Technology for Development (2001).

David South, Editor and Writer: David South is the founder and senior partner for David South International and David South Consulting. He has worked around the world for the United Nations and has led a number of groundbreaking projects for major institutions. Clients have included the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH)/Institute of Child Health (ICH)/National Health Service (NHS), Harvard Institute for International Development, UNICEF, World Bank, USAID, and the Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine, among others.

He has worked for, or side-by-side, with many high-level senior professionals and executives. These experienced professionals had roles under close public scrutiny and needed to show the impact of their work to a tight deadline.

He has been the editor for the United Nations magazine Southern Innovator since 2010. He also researched and wrote the influential United Nations e-newsletter Development Challenges, South-South Solutions (2007-2014). He has over two decades’ experience in media and journalism (developing strong relationships with many top journalists and media professionals), health and human development, and the role innovation plays in transforming major organisations while getting the most from people tackling complex problems in challenging environments.

Audette Bruce, Managing Editor

Sólveig Rolfsdóttir, Graphic Designer and Illustrator 

Eva Hrönn Guðnadóttir, Graphic Designer and Illustrator

ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-1052

© David South Consulting 2020

Update on Tuesday, September 1, 2020 at 10:25AM by David South

Report Citation for Development Challenges, South-South Solutions: March 2013 Issue

Reading Programs in the Digital Age: The Case for Print/Digital Format Neutrality (Worldreader Global Insights: 2017).

Content from e-newsletter Development Challenges, South-South Solutions and Southern Innovator are shared online by global South bloggers. Most recently in Cameroon: 

ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-1052

© David South Consulting 2020 

War, Peace and Development | May 2018

Preface

It could be said the world and the global order both stand at a crossroads. Countries have never been so connected as they are today because of the communications revolution that began in the 1990s. The trade linkages brought about by the most recent phase of globalization (post-1980s) have dramatically increased prosperity for some regions and countries, China being the most obvious example. But, as we are reminded on a daily basis, the environment is stressed, with species depletion and pollution being the most extreme signs of this stress. And war and civil strife are still with us.

In 2015, the United Nations launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 15 years after it had launched the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000. Both sets of goals attempt to benchmark progress on improvements to human well-being and to give countries and the international community a road-map to what is most important. The eight MDGs have been followed up with 17 SDGs (and many views on how effective such a strategy really is). It seemed as good a time as ever to reflect on what role I have played in this period, as well as to look forward to what will happen over the next 12 years (2030).    

The Quotes

"The United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members."

“We must build a new world – a far better world – one in which the eternal dignity of man is respected.” 

US President Harry S. Truman

"It has been said that the United Nations was not created in order to bring us to heaven, but in order to save us from hell." 

UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold at University of California Convocation, 13 May 1954.

"Today continuing poverty and distress are a deeper and more important cause of international tensions, of the conditions that can produce war, than previously."

"The stark and inescapable fact is that today we cannot defend our society by war since total war is total destruction, and if war is used as an instrument of policy, eventually we will have total war."

"The grim fact is that we prepare for war like precocious giants, and for peace like retarded pygmies."

Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson

"A shift is necessary toward lifestyles less geared to environmentally-damaging consumption patterns."

"We may get to the point where the only way of saving the world will be for industrial civilization to collapse."

Maurice F. Strong, Former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations; Founder of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 

"a super-crate, to ship a fiasco to hell"

"a sinister emblem for world power"

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright 

The First Development Phase 

From its founding, the United Nations was constructed around the highest human aspirations after two devastating World Wars, while also drawing fire from its critics and skeptics (American architect Frank Lloyd Wright being one of the more biting).

In January 1949, US President Harry Truman set forth a challenge for the remainder of the 20th Century. The wealthy nations must aid the poorer ones to become wealthier and more democratic: in short, to become like the United States (Starke 2001: 143). The means of accomplishing this was to be international development, and its tool, foreign aid. 

Development as defined by President Truman at the start of the first international development period of the 20th century meant “nothing less than freeing a people from want, war, and tyranny, a definition it is hard to improve on even today (Starke 2000: 153).”

I grew up in the Canada of the 1970s and 1980s. For most of that time, the charismatic and internationally-minded Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was in power. Canada's profile and role in the United Nations and international development was high at this time, in particular in 'peacekeeping' missions.

Peacekeeping holds a special place for Canadians. An innovative initiative from then-Ambassador to the United Nations and later Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson in the 1950s (he received the Nobel Peace Prize for it), Canada has since had a long history with peacekeeping missions.

When I served with the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve in the early 1980s, we trained not only for war with our Cold War foe the Soviet Union, but also for peacekeeping missions. In fact I nearly went on one if not for my acceptance to study at the University of Toronto in 1985. Otherwise, I would have been off on a peacekeeping mission that year.

This phase of international development and the United Nations was framed by the Cold War and its tensions and limits: the world divided between opposing ideologies and economic systems and travel between these two worlds (Communism versus free markets and democracy) was severely restricted. 

And when I graduated in 1989 from the University of Toronto, all this fell apart very quickly. The First Phase of International Development had come to a swift end. 

Above: Pierre Trudeau, John Turner, Jean Chretien and Prime Minister Lester Pearson. Photographed 4 April 1967. Source: Digital Library of Canada. Below: David South photographed at Hillcrest High School, Ottawa, Canada, 1985.

The Second Development Phase

In 1997, I was hired to head the communications office for the UN/UNDP Mongolia mission. It was a pivotal time in international development. With the forces of 'globalization' unleashed (and China's rapid rise already well underway), the UN was clearly also in a period of great change and stress. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and its trading system (Comecon), pitched former Communist countries into severe crisis. Comecon locked-in Soviet Union satellite allied nations (including Mongolia) into a reciprocal arrangement of trade links and subsidies. The Mongolia I arrived in in 1997 was a country in turmoil. Poverty was widespread, food was difficult to get, unemployment was very high, families were falling apart under the stress of the crisis, and people's health was poor, with very high rates of alcoholism and STDs. 

This second phase of international development can be characterized by the international response to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the adjustment to the rapid changes brought about by the forces of globalization. The communications revolution was getting underway at this time as the Internet began to arrive, even in Mongolia, which had been cut-off from full relations with the Western world during the period of Communism. Mobile (cell) phones were around but still a luxury item used by wealthy businessmen or senior government officials. International aid and development was primarily in the domain of large international institutions and bilateral donors. 

UN/UNDP Mongolia played an important role in helping to stabilize Mongolia during the late 1990s and to put in place the foundations for recovery from crisis (called "one of the biggest peacetime economic collapses ever" at the time). Mongolia eventually, briefly, became the fastest growing economy in the world by the second decade of the 21st century.

In the 1990s, the UN was being challenged to think and do things differently and to respond to the communications revolution. This presented a great opportunity to use the Internet and computing to communicate in new ways; to innovate and experiment. Despite its crisis, Mongolia was able to embrace these new ways and was called a "role model" for the wider United Nations by 1999 (the end of my assignment in Mongolia).   

United Nations identity card circa 1997.

UN head of communications for Mongolia, David South (seated front row centre), 1997-1999.

The Third Development Phase

With the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, it could be argued, a third development phase had begun. The turn of the century was also during the so-called 'Dotcom Bubble' when investment in the Internet economy was peaking, and China was on the cusp of being accepted into the WTO (World Trade Organization) and getting set for another period of rapid expansion and growth. Both phenomenon were fueling greater trade and connectivity, especially between the countries of the so-called "global South".

The MDGs were an attempt to guide and focus development at the international and national level by setting forth eight goals as a challenge. But, just as these internationally agreed goals were being rolled out, something was quietly happening away from New York. In China, it was clear the country had done something truly remarkable: following its own development goals and plans, China lifted the largest number of people in human history out of poverty in the shortest space of time. Those who are students of history will know how stunning an accomplishment this is: China was once a country held up as a poster child for poverty, political instability, frequent famines, human misery and global isolation. China had been the country featured in the charity and famine appeals pleading for relief and aid, just as the countries in Africa and Southeast Asia were to become.

China's growing export power was also powering globalization. And liberalized trade was powering growth for many countries in Asia and Latin America. This increasing export trade and global connectivity was creating new wealth for many countries and growing the middle classes of the so-called 'global South'. At the same time, the Internet revolution was being joined by the mobile technologies revolution. These communications tools were making it possible to connect with people who had been frozen out of global markets, while simultaneously creating whole new digital economies employing people and creating new wealth.

Beginning in late 2006 after working around the world in various UN missions on assignments related to the MDGs, I began an exciting new opportunity with the then-Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (SSC) (now the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation - UNOSSC).   

From 9-11 December 2017, I participated in the Workshop on Innovations in Service Delivery: The Scope for South-South and Triangular Cooperation held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Hosted by the a2i (access to information) division of the Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Office, the implementing unit for Digital Bangladesh, it was convened by the Government of Bangladesh and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC). Senior Partner David South is third from the left on the panel. Photo: Yoko Shimura

21 Years of Creating International Change | 1997 - 2018

Timeline

Early to Mid-1990s: Covering the United Nations as a Journalist. Stories included the Canadian peacekeeping mission in Somalia (Somali Killings Reveal Ugly Side of Elite Regiment and Does the UN know what it's doing?), debates over the response to the conflict in the Balkans (Peaceniks Questioning Air-Raid Strategy in Bosnia), and what constitutes appropriate food aid (Aid Organization Gives Overseas Hungry Diet Food). In 1993 I covered the World Health Organization's Canada-wide roll-out of the Healthy Cities initiative in the feature Taking Medicine to the People: Four Innovators in Community Health for Canadian Living magazine. In 1996 I covered, from Port-au-Prince, the Canadian UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti for Id Magazine (Haiti Turns to Free-Market Economics and the UN to Save Itself).

1997: Begin a two-year assignment as head of communications for the UN/UNDP Mongolia mission (1997-1999). Called "one of the biggest peacetime economic collapses ever", I was thrown into the deep end as part of the UN's efforts to rescue Mongolia from this severe crisis. I established the award-winning UN/UNDP Mongolia Communications Office (a high-profile and lively hub staffed by media professionals) and quickly developed and launched the award-winning UN Mongolia Development Portal (www.un-mongolia.mn) (called a "role model" for the United Nations). I developed and launched the mission's first newsletter, Blue Sky Bulletin, as well as the first Mongolian Human Development Report, the Mongolian AIDS Bulletin, the UN's and Mongolia's first online magazine, Ger, while overseeing the country's largest bilingual online and offline publishing operation. In Starting from Scratch: The Challenge of Transition, I document the challenge to re-start Mongolia's data collection after it was wiped off the mainframe computers that once stored it during the Communist period (a cautionary tale for our times if there ever was one!). In Freedom of Expression: Introducing Investigative Journalism to Local Media in Mongolia, I give an account of a workshop for Mongolian journalists keen to learn more about the discipline of investigative journalism and how important it is in a democracy. In Partnership for Progress: UNDP in Mongolia, I painted a picture of Mongolia's country conditions in 1997, what was at stake, and how the UN was responding.  

1998: Develop and launch Mongolia's first web magazine, Ger. Lead two international media tours of the country, one in 1997 (Scandinavian media), and the other in 1998 (women journalists). Many stories were generated from the two international media tours and were compiled in books published by UNDP, including  In Their Own Words: Selected Writings by Journalists on Mongolia, 1997-1999 (ISBN 99929-5-043-9). Read an example story here: The Milk of Kindness Flows in a Peculiar Land A Steppe From Nowhere by Leslie Chang (The Asian Wall Street Journal, 15 August 1998). 

1999: Publish many books on Mongolia's development, including In Their Own Words: Selected Writings by Journalists on Mongolia, 1997-1999 (ISBN 99929-5-043-9) and the Mongolian rock and pop book (ISBN  99929-5-018-8). Whilst working for a UK-based international development consultancy, I prepared papers for the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID), for various UN agencies including UNCTAD and UNAIDS, and coordinated the preparation of the report and launch strategy for the World Bank's Task Force on Higher Education.    

2000: My work in Mongolia is covered and cited in various books published after 1999, including Wild East: Travels in the New Mongolia by Jill Lawless (ISBN 97814-5-964-5783), Modern Mongolia: From Khans to Commissars to Capitalists by Morris Rossabi (ISBN 9780-5-209-38625), and Dateline Mongolia: An American Journalist in Nomad's Land by Michael Kohn (ISBN 9781-5-7143-1554). Ukraine. Work on the strategic re-launch of the UN Ukraine web portal and advise on the communications strategy for the UN Resident Coordinator. This is also the year in which the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were launched and the new development portal reflected this in its structure and content. 

2001: Begin work on the development of the award-winning GOSH Child Health Portal for the National Health Service (NHS). As part of the NHS' Modernisation Plan, it was called a "role model" for the NHS and one of the “three most admired websites in the UK public and voluntary sectors,” and was developed and launched under heavy public and media scrutiny. Each stage of the Portal's development would coincide with a high-profile media launch. For example, the Hospital's 150th birthday celebrations included Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and pop star Madonna.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2001 joint winners.

2002/2003: Win the Childnet Award in 2003 for the Children First website. 

2002/2003: Win the Cable & Wireless Childnet Award in 2003 for the Children First website.

2004: South Africa. Work at the University of Pretoria for UN South Africa on a digital communications and marketing strategy for a youth volunteer organization.  

2005: Turkmenistan and Mongolia. Work for UN missions on an MDGs communications strategy and on the country programme review.

2006: Turkmenistan. Work for UNICEF. Begin working for the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (SSC) in New York. 

2007: Research and write UN e-newsletter Development Challenges, South-South Solutions for UNDP's Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (SSC). Sample Stories:

Computing in Africa is Set to Get a Big Boost

Ring Tones and Mobile Phone Downloads are Generating Income for Local Musicians in Africa

Dynamic Growth in African ICT is Unlocking Secrets of SME Treasure Trove

Grassroots Entrepreneurs Now Have Many Ways to Fund Their Enterprises

Trade to Benefit the Poor Up in 2006 and to Grow in 2007

Business as a Tool to Do Good

Social Networking Websites: A Way Out of Poverty

Creative and Inventive Ways to Aid the Global Poor

Innovation from the Global South

Youth Surge in the South A Great Business Opportunity

Web 2.0 to the Rescue! Using Web and Text to Beat Shortages in Africa

Mobile Phones: Engineering South's Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

2008: Research and write UN e-newsletter Development Challenges, South-South Solutions for UNDP's Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (SSC). Sample Stories:

Cyber Cities in the South: An Oasis of Opportunity

Nollywood: Booming Nigerian Film Industry

Illiterate Get Internet at the Touch of a Button

The South Has a Good Story to Tell

Insects Can Help in a Food Crisis

New Weapon Against Crime in the South

Urban Youth: A Great Source of Untapped Growth

Innovative Mobile Phone Applications Storm South

Computer 'Gold Farming' Turning Virtual Reality into Real Profits

Mobile Phones: New Market Tools for the Poor

Reader response experiment begins with crowd-powered news website NowPublic. Initial proposal for the development of book or magazine on innovation. Awarded grant for Cuba study tour by BSHF. 

2009: Research and write UN e-newsletter Development Challenges, South-South Solutions for UNDP's Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (SSC). Sample Stories:

Debt-free Homes for the Poor

DIY Solution Charges Mobile Phones with Batteries

Cashing in on Music in Brazil

Solar Powered Village Kick-Starts Development Goals

Rebuilding After Chinese Earthquake: Beautiful Bamboo Homes

Making the World a Better Place for Southern Projects

Growing a Southern Brand to Global Success: The Olam Story

Afropolitan: African Fashion Scene Bursting with Energy

Diigtal Mapping to put Slums on the Map

Adjust e-newsletter content based on reader responses. Begin posting content on Twitter platform.

2010: Begin development of the new global magazine Southern Innovator with the UN's Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (SSC) and a design team in Iceland led by Solveig Rolfsdottir. The magazine was produced to the UN's design standards, as well as abiding by the UN's Global Compact. With production in Iceland, the magazine could be designed and laid out using 100 percent renewable energy sources.

Develop and launch the new branding for David South Consulting and its website, davidsouthconsulting.com, all designed by one of Iceland's top graphic designers and illustrators, Solveig Rolfsdottir. 

2011: Launch the first issue of Southern Innovator Magazine at the GSSD Expo in Rome, Italy.

It is called “a terrific tour de force of what is interesting, cutting edge and relevant in the global mobile/ICT space…”. Launch www.southerninnovator.org website (now www.southerninnovator.com) and social media including Twitter account @SouthSouth1.

To avoid censorship and interference, Southern Innovator's editorial operations were based in London, UK and its design studio was based in Reykjavik, Iceland (a high-ranking country in the World Press Freedom rankings and a former top place holder in the UNDP Human Development Index). Using a women-led design studio, it developed a design vision that could communicate across borders using clear graphic design and high-quality images. For example, when it launched in 2011, infographics were rare in development publications and at the UN; now they are commonplace. It also tried to be as  ‘green’ as possible. The studio was powered on 100 per cent renewable energy (in particular, geothermal energy); the hard copy of the magazine is printed on paper from renewable forests.

2012: Launch second and third issues of Southern Innovator Magazine at the GSSD Expo in Vienna, Austria.

Called a "Beautiful, inspiring magazine from UNDP on South-South innovation.”

With 201 Development Challenges, South-South Solutions stories posted on the NowPublic platform, a total of 336,289 views by 2012 had occurred, according to the NowPublic counter.

2013: Launch fourth issue of Southern Innovator Magazine at the GSSD Expo in Nairobi, Kenya.

Called “fantastic, great content and a beautiful design!” and “Always inspiring.”.

2014: Launch fifth issue of Southern Innovator Magazine at the GSSD Expo in Washington, D.C. U.S.A. The Twitter account @SouthSouth1 called “ one of the best sources out there for news and info on #solutions to #SouthSouth challenges.” Final issues of e-newsletter Development Challenges, South-South Solutions published.  

The two publications proved influential on a number of fronts, being early to draw attention to the following: the rising use of mobile phones and information technology in development, the world becoming an urban place, innovative food solutions including the nascent insect food sector (now a big thing), altering perspectives on what is possible in Africa, the use of data science to innovate development, and tracking the growing number of technology hubs and the fast-growing start-up culture in the global South. The publications were cited for shaping the new strategic direction adopted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (the UN’s leading development organisation) and its first youth strategy, and the development of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As the world’s first global innovator magazine, Southern Innovator’s design had to be appropriate for a diverse audience. It has drawn praise for being both “beautiful” and “inspiring”, while its use of sharp, modern graphic design and infographics inspired others in the UN to up their game when it comes to design.

The Southern origins of sustainable development goals: Ideas, actors, aspirations by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Bhumika Muchhala (SDG Resource Centre).

2015: Develop scale-up plan for Southern Innovator Magazine.

South-South cooperation and innovation have now become the key methodology for the UN’s delivery of its programmes and projects. In 2015, China pledged US $2 billion to “support South-South cooperation” and called for the international community to “deepen South-South and tripartite cooperation”. In development parlance, they have been “Mainstreaming South-South and Triangular Cooperation” in their plans.

The current policy vogue for innovation in developing and developed countries can trace its roots back to some of the early work done by these two publications (and which was further amplified by the annual Global South-South Development Expo (GSSD Expo), which often would feature innovators from the two publications, spreading the innovation message around the world). Both publications had set out to inspire and “champion a global 21st century innovator culture”. And they have done this, as can be seen from concrete evidence and anecdotal responses from individuals and organizations alike.

UN Bribery Scandal

After the arrests in 2015 related to the unfolding UN Bribery Scandal (read more on this here: The Strange Saga of "South-South News"), the budget for the UNOSSC was suspended pending the outcome of two internal audits conducted by the United Nations (Statement Concerning the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation). The second audit can be found online here: https://www.scribd.com/doc/307245166/OIOS-Audit-of-Ng-South-South-News-OIOS-Cut-Out-Ban-Photo-Op-with-Ng-at-UNCA-Ball.

UNDP (the United Nations Development Programme) had the following to say about the UNOSSC's senior management up to 2015 under the Directorship of United Nations Envoy for South-South Cooperation, Yiping Zhou, calling it "unsatisfactory":

"The United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) is an independent entity created by the General Assembly in 1974, General Assembly resolution 3251(XXIX), to support cooperation among developing countries.

UNOSSC receives its mandate and policy framework from General Assembly decisions and resolutions. UNOSSC also serves as the Secretariat of the High-level Committee (HLC) on South-South Cooperation, a subsidiary body of the General Assembly.

UNOSSC is hosted by UNDP and, as is the case with similar entities, is expected to follow UNDP rules and regulations, including those pertaining to financial and HR management. UNOSSC is likewise subject to UNDP’s oversight and due diligence instruments.

UNDP’s Office of Audit and Investigation (OAI) recently published an Audit of UNOSSC which rated the Office ‘unsatisfactory’.

The Audit makes 16 recommendations with the objective of improving UNOSSC’s effectiveness in the areas of: governance; programme and project activities; and operations." Excerpt from Statement (5 May 2016)

The retirement in 2016 of Southern Innovator's Editor-in-Chief, Cosmas Gitta, meant the magazine lost its strongest advocate within the UNOSSC and thus was not included in the next budget post-audits.

The US investigations by the F.B.I. (Federal Bureau of Investigation) leading to arrests and subsequent court trials from 2015 onwards, were joined by Australian authorities in 2018. These revelations and confessions paint a picture of a high-level, multinational criminal conspiracy to launder money and pay bribes at the United Nations that also included the collusion and aid of various senior UN officials at the time. Not only do these revelations offer new context to Southern Innovator's attempts to gain future support from the UNOSSC, they explain why Southern Innovator faced extensive obstruction, deception and unethical and unprofessional behaviour during this time, despite the documented success of the magazine and its associated e-newsletter to reach and inspire readers, while shaping UN strategic policy on innovation (Strategic framework of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperatio, 2014-2017).   

2016: Many books have been published citing stories from the e-newsletter Development Challenges, South-South Solutions and Southern Innovator Magazine. They include: Beyond Gated Communities edited by Samar Bagaeen and Ola Uduku (Routledge: 2015), Chile in Transition: Prospects and Challenges for Latin America's Forerunner of Development by Roland Benedikter and Katja Siepmann (Springer: 2015), Export Now: Five Keys to Entering New Markets by Frank Lavin and Peter Cohan (John Wiley & Sons: 2011), Innovation Africa: Emerging Hubs of Excellence edited by Olugbenga Adesida, Geci Karuri-Sebina and João Resende-Santos (Emerald Group Publishing: 2016), New Directions in Children's and Adolescents' Information Behavior Research edited by Dania Bilal and Jamshid Beheshti (Emerald Group Publishing: 2014), A Sociological Approach to Health Determinants by Toni Schofield (Cambridge University Press: 2015). 

Many papers have been published citing stories from the e-newsletter and the magazine. They include: Afro-futurism and the aesthetics of hope in Bekolo's Les Saignantes and Kahiu's Pumzi by Mich Nyawalo, Journal of the African Literature Association, Volume 10, 2016, Issue 2, Autonomous Systems in the Intelligence Community: Many Possibilities and Challenges by Jenny R. Holzer, PhD, and Franklin L. Moses, PhD, Studies in Intelligence Vol 59, No. 1 (Extracts, March 2015), Decoding the Brand DNA: A Design Methodology Applied to Favela Fashion by Magali Olhats, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina Florianopolis, 2012, Edible Insects and the Future of Food: A Foresight Scenario Exercise on Entomophagy and Global Food Security by Dominic Glover and Alexandra Sexton, Institute of Development Studies, King’s College London, Evidence Report No 149, September 2015, Evaluation of Kenyan Film Industry: Historical Perspective by Edwin Ngure Nyutho, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Nairobi, 2015, Evaluation of the Regional Programme for Africa (2008-2013), UNDP Independent Evaluation Office, 2013, High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation Seventeenth Session: Framework of operational guidelines on United Nations support to South-South and triangular cooperation: Note by the Secretary-General, 22-25 May 2012, New York, The New Middle Class and Urban Transformation in Africa: A Case Study of Accra, Ghana by Komiete Tetteh, The University of British Colombia, 2016,Propagating Gender Struggles Through Nollywood: Towards a Transformative Approach by Nita Byack George Iruobe, Geonita Initiative for Women and Child Development, 17 July 2015, Reberberation: Musicians and the Mobilization of Tradition in the Berber Culture Movement by TMG Wiedenkenner et al, The University of Arizona,  2013, Recasting ‘truisms’ of low carbon technology cooperation through innovation systems: insights from the developing world by Alexandra Mallett, Innovation and Development, 5:2, 297-311, DOI: 10.1080/2157930X.2015.1049851, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2015, "Slam the Slums": Understanding architecture through the poor by Malini Foobalan, November 26th, 2009, Song Lines: Mapping the South African Live Performance Landscape: Report of the CSA 2013 Live Mapping Project Compiled by Concerts South Africa, Samro Foundation, 2013, Strategic Framework of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, 2014-2017, Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Office for Project Services, 27 to 31 January 2014, New York, Wearing Your Map on Your Sleeve: Practices of Identification in the Creation and Consumption of Philippine Map T-shirts by Pamela Gloria Cajilig, paper presented at the 6th Global Conference (2014): Fashion: Exploring Critical Issues, Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom, 15th to 18th September 2014,  Young Girls' Affective Responses to Access and Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Information-Poor Societies by Dania Bilal et al, New Directions in Children's and Adolescents' Information Behavior Research, Library and Information Science, Volume 10, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2014,Youth Empowered as Catalysts for Sustainable Human Development: UNDP Youth Strategy 2014-2017, United Nations Development Programme, Bureau for Development Policy.

Testimonials

“The e-newsletter Development Challenges, South-South Solutions proved to be a timely and prescient resource on the fast-changing global South, tracking the rise of an innovator culture driven by the rapid adoption of mobile phones and information technology … 

“In 2010, work began on the development of the world’s first magazine dedicated to the 21st-century innovator culture of the global South. My goal was to create a magazine that would reach across countries and cultures, meet the UN’s standards, and inspire action. Southern Innovator was the result. Mr. [David] South played a vital role in the magazine’s development from its early conception, through its various design prototypes, to its final global launch and distribution.  

“Both the e-newsletter and magazine raised the profile of South-South cooperation and have been cited by readers for inspiring innovators, academics, policy makers and development practitioners in the United Nations and beyond.

“I highly recommend Mr. [David] South as a thoughtful, insightful, analytical, creative and very amicable person who has the unique ability to not only grasp complex problems but also to formulate a vision and strategy that gets things done. … ” Cosmas Gitta, Former Assistant Director, Policy and United Nations Affairs at United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) in UNDP 

“I think you [David South] and the designer [Solveig Rolfsdottir] do great work and I enjoy Southern Innovator very much!” Ines Tofalo, Programme Specialist, United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC)

2017: Invited to speak at the Workshop on Innovations in Service Delivery: The Scope for South-South and Triangular Cooperation in Dhaka, Bangladesh.  

2018:

Stories

Aid Organization Gives Overseas Hungry Diet Food: Diet Giant Slim-Fast Gets Tax Write-off for Donating Products

Somali Killings Reveal Ugly Side of Elite Regiment

Does the UN Know What it's Doing?

State of Decay: Haiti Turns to Free-Market Economics and the UN to Save Itself

Opinion: Canada is Allowing U.S. to Dictate Haiti's Renewal: More News and Opinion on What the UN Soldiers Call the "Haitian Vacation"

Starting from Scratch: The Challenge of Transition

Philippine Conference Tackles Asia's AIDS Crisis

Lamas Against AIDS

UN Contest Winner in "State of Total Bliss"

A UNDP Success Story: Grassroots Environmental Campaign Mobilizes Thousands in Mongolia

Freedom of Expression: Introducing Investigative Journalism to Local Media

Traffic Signs Bring Safety to the Streets

Eco-cities Up Close

Smart Cities Up Close

Stories: Development Challenges, South-South Solutions | 2007

Stories: Development Challenges, South-South Solutions | 2008

Stories: Development Challenges, South-South Solutions | 2009

Stories: Development Challenges, South-South Solutions | 2010

Stories: Development Challenges, South-South Solutions | 2011

Stories: Development Challenges, South-South Solutions | 2012

Stories: Development Challenges, South-South Solutions | 2013

Stories: Development Challenges, South-South Solutions | 2014 

Books + Publications

A Steppe Back?: Economic Liberalisation and Poverty Reduction in Mongolia

Blue Sky Bulletin Newsletter UNDP Mongolia | 1997-1999

Human Development Report Mongolia 1997

In The Interests of the Exploited?: The Role of Development Pressure Groups in the UK

In Their Own Words: Selected Writings by Journalists on Mongolia, 1997-1999 

Innovations in Green Economy: Top Three Agenda

Lima to Delhi: What Can Be Learned on Urban Resilience?

Mongolia Update - Coverage of 1998 Political Changes

Mongolian AIDS Bulletin 

A Partnership for Progress: UNDP in Mongolia 1997

Pax Chaotica: A Re-evaluation of Post-WWII Economic and Political Order

The Sweet Smell of Failure: The World Bank and the Persistence of Poverty

Southern Innovator Magazine Issue 1: Mobile Phones and Information Technology

Southern Innovator Magazine Issue 2: Youth and Entrepreneurship

Southern Innovator Magazine Issue 3: Agribusiness and Food Security

Southern Innovator Magazine Issue 4: Cities and Urbanization

Southern Innovator Magazine Issue 5: Waste and Recycling 

Southern Innovator and the Growing Global Innovation Culture: Background Paper

South-South Cooperation for Cities in Asia

UNDP in Mongolia: The Guide | 1997-1999

UNDP Travelling Seminar: Environment and Development | Mongolia 1998

What is the Next Agenda for the Next 21 Years?: The Fourth Development Phase?

Update: I will publish this in the new year after the holidays. Keep checking back for this post.

Further Reading

Peacebuilding: The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1997-2017 by David Chandler, Palgrave, 2017

ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-1052

© David South Consulting 2018

Investigative Journalism: Haiti Assignment | 1996

Former colleague from Canada's Id Magazine, photographer Phillip Smith (now an epic web guru/Digital Product Developer based in Palo Alto, California), was going through his archive of photo journalism and dug up the following two photographs from our Haiti assignment in 1996. The stories from that assignment can be read here: http://www.davidsouthconsulting.com/stories/2015/6/12/state-of-decay-haiti-turns-to-free-market-economics-and-the.html

Reporting from Port-au-Prince, Haiti for Id Magazine in 1996.

© David South Consulting 2018 

The Strange Saga of "South-South News" | May 2018

Bribery: Business as Usual?

"We will be asking: is bribery business as usual at the UN?", US Attorney Preet Bharara, October 2015

"If proven, today's charges will confirm that the cancer of corruption that plagues too many local and state governments infects the United Nations as well.", US Attorney Preet Bharara, October 2015

"Corruption at any level of government undermines the rule of law and cannot be tolerated. But corruption is especially corrosive when it occurs at an international body like the United Nations. By paying bribes to two U.N. ambassadors to advance his interest in obtaining formal support for the Macau conference center project, Ng Lap Seng tried to manipulate the functions of the United Nations. The sentence handed down today demonstrates that those who engage in corruption will pay a heavy price and serves as a reminder that no one stands above the law.", Acting Assistant General John P. Cronan, May 2018

"It is important to send a message, to the people at the UN itself and to other institutions in this country, that perverting the decision-making or attempting to pervert the decision-making through bribes will not be tolerated.", US District Judge Vernon Broderick, May 2018

"South-South staff found him to be 'humble, very happy to host a meeting and become closer to the U.N.,' said Inyang Ebong-Harstrup, deputy director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, a division of the U.N., who met Mr. Ng in August when she traveled to Macau." The Wall Street Journal;(9 October 2015)

It is a story that has it all: the gambling sin-bin of Macau, human and sex trafficking, bribery, corruption, money laundering, spies, and, if they are to be believed, naive UN officials hiding behind their laissez-passer passports who knew nothing about all of this but were happy to take the money for a five-star conference and a trip to China (and a free iPad). How the UN ended up in this quagmire leaves many puzzled and perplexed. Then there is a so-called "21st century" media service that really is a "conduit" for bribery and money laundering (and possibly fake news), and who to this day is still reporting from the United Nations.

May 2018 saw the ending of one chapter in the ongoing corruption saga surrounding the executives of South-South News and their alleged bribery and money laundering conduit targeting the United Nations (UN). On 11 May 2018 Ng Lap Seng was sentenced to 4 years in prison for being the ring leader of an elaborate, multi-year, multinational scheme to bribe UN officials and launder money into the United States.

On 28 February 2018 Jeff Yin received a seven-month prison sentence related to the corruption scandal that first erupted in September 2015, with the arrests in New York (home of the UN's global headquarters) of his boss, Macau casino owner and businessman Ng Lap Seng and assistant, Yin, by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). Foreign Policy called the case one of "The Worst Corruption Scandals of 2015". Read the US Justice Department Docket here: https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/fcpa/cases/ng-lap-seng-and-jeff-c-yin.

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York at the time, Preet Bharara, released a flowchart showing how the alleged bribery scheme targeting the United Nations worked. A series of court trials followed for the various co-conspirators, including senior executives and board members for South-South News, culminating in the 27 July 2017 conviction of the alleged ring leader of the scheme, Macau casino billionaire Ng Lap Seng, on six counts "for his role in a scheme to bribe United Nations ambassadors to obtain support to build a conference center in Macau that would host, among other events, the annual United Nations Global South-South Development Expo". He used the news service South-South News as a "conduit for bribery and money laundering" at the United Nations, according to the FBI, something admitted to by various co-conspirators in court and under oath.

"South-South staff found him to be 'humble, very happy to host a meeting and become closer to the U.N.,' said Inyang Ebong-Harstrup, deputy director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, a division of the U.N., who met Mr. Ng in August when she traveled to Macau." The Wall Street Journal (9 October 2015)

Despite being delisted by the UN Global Compact on 9 April 2015, the United Nations took money from the Sun Kian Ip Group. The United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) ran a High-Level Multi-Stakeholders Strategy Forum from 25-26 August 2015 funded by the Sun Kian Ip Group.

Carving Up the UN Cake in Macau

"Cheers!" From left to right in top photo: Ng Lap Seng, "kingpin of the international slave prostitution trade" and associated with the Wo On Lok triad. From right of photo: Yiping Zhou, Director of the UNOSSC, President of the UN General Assembly John William Ashe, and Ambassador Francis Lorenzo of South-South News during the Macau High-Level Strategy Forum in 2015. The bribery/money laundering/trafficking/influence operation network at the United Nations was broken up by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) with arrests in October 2015.

More on the Wo On Lok Triad

From The United Nations and Transnational Organized Crime by Ernesto Savona and Phil Williams (Routledge, 2012): "Triads are involved in a whole range of criminal activities, including extortion, drug trafficking, prostitution and gambling. They also have extensive overseas networks, which allow them to engage in transnational criminal activity with great ease. ... prostitution and pornography and trafficking in children is controlled predominantly by the Wo On Lok." (Page 17). 

Books detailing the relationship between Ng Lap Seng and South-South News.

Background

The "21st century" media service South-South News (which still exists) was founded in 2010 by Ng Lap Seng and Ambassador Francis Lorenzo with US $12 million. According to the FBI, Seng did this with the objective of bribing UN officials, laundering money into the United States - bringing US $4.5 million into the US in cash over a period of two years - and lobbying for the building of a new UN facility in Macau for the annual Global South-South Development Expo (GSSD Expo) - a "Geneva of Asia". The new facility would cost US $3 billion and be built by Ng Lap Seng's construction company.

Macau has been called by a former UN official in charge of the organisation's anti-human trafficking work a world centre of modern human slave trafficking. Ng Lap Seng, in a 2010 assessment by International Risk Ltd., was found to be "characterized in the media as a 'Macau Crime Lord' and kingpin of the international slave prostitution trade".  

Ng Lap Seng's Sun Kian Ip Group was barred from the UN's Global Compact, according to The Wall Street Journal, and Seng was flagged up as a person not to do business with, including by Interpol. Despite this track record and multiple warning signs, both South-South News and the United Nations took money from Ng Lap Seng. The UN has clear rules regarding due diligence for income sources and has rules against bribery, corruption and human and sex trafficking in all its forms.

One of the co-conspirators in the scheme was former UN General Assembly President John Ashe. He died due to a weightlifting accident before he had to testify in a New York court room. According to Farrukh Khan, Program Manager on Climate Finance at the UN Secretary-General's Office, Ashe played a key role in the negotiations for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Other Co-Conspirators and Charges:

John W. Ashe, President of UN General Assembly: Filing False Income Tax Returns

Heidi Hong Park (Piao), Global Sustainability Foundation - Finance Director: Conspiracy to Commit Bribery

Shiwei (Sheri) Yan, Global Sustainability Foundation - Founder and CEO: Conspiracy to Commit Bribery

Francis Lorenzo, Deputy Permanent Respresentative to the UN for the Dominican Republic: Bribery

Sources: Foreign Policy, Stanford Law School, US Justice Department, The Wall Street Journal.

Update: As the net has widened, others have also been charged and associated with the original plot to bribe UN officials and launder money. They are: 

Jeff Yin, aide to Ng Lap Seng. South China Morning Post: Ex-aide of Macau billionaire Ng Lap Seng, jailed by US in fallout from UN bribery scandal, blames 'traditional' Chinese upbringing

Ying Lin, Air China. Reuters: Ex-Air China employee wins dismissal of U.S. smuggling charge

Roger Uren, formerly of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service. The Sydney Morning Herald: Charges loom for ex-intelligence official Roger Uren after ASIO raid

Julia Vivi (Vivian) Wang, Vice President, South-South News. Law 360: Woman Who Helped Bribe Top Diplomat Cops To FCPA Counts. WKZO: Chinese-born executive pleads guilty in U.N. bribery case . Stanford Law School: Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Clearinghouse. Case Information: United States of America v. Julia Vivi Wang.

Timeline: In the Headlines

Final Report on Discreet Due Diligence Investigation into Ng Lap Seng: "Macau Crime Lord" and "kingpin of the international slave prostitution trade."

2012

September

South-South News: 2012 South-South Awards Launched At The United Nations; Award To Recognize Heads State, Celebrities And Performers In New York City

The South-South Awards were attended by Francis Lorenzo, President of South-South News, Yiping Zhou, Director of the UNDP Special Unit for South-South Cooperation, and H.E. Amb. John Ashe, President of the High Level Committee on South-South Cooperation (13 Sept. 2012).

November

"Adam Rogers, Coordinator of the World Alliance of Cities Against Poverty, accepts an award from Yiping Zhou, Director of the UN Office for South-South Cooperation, for WACAP’s 'Special contribution'". (Vienna, November 26, 2012)

2013

From left to right: Achim Steiner, Head of UNEP, John Ashe, President of the UN General Assembly, Yiping Zhou, Director, UNOSSC.

From left to right: John Ashe, President of the UN General Assembly, Achim Steiner, Head of UNEP, Yiping Zhou, Director of UNOSSC. In 2015 John Ashe was arrested by the FBI and "charged with tax fraud for failure to report or pay income taxes on the over $1 million he received in bribes in 2013 and 2014." In 2006, the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs heard testimony alleging the awarding of a prize to the Secretary-General secured the post of Head of UNEP. In 2016, a UNDP audit rated the UNOSSC headed by Yiping Zhou "unsatisfactory". In November 2013 "More than $450 million was pledged between investors, green businesses, governments and other parties at the 2013 Global South-South Development Expo as hundreds of participants exchanged Southern-grown ideas, solutions and technologies throughout the week-long event." announced jointly by Ashe, Steiner and Zhou in Nairobi, Kenya.

2014

June

UN News: UN concert 'sets stage' for new global development agenda

UN General Assembly (UNGA) President John Ashe was arrested by the FBI in New York in 2015 and "charged with tax fraud for failure to report or pay income taxes on the over $1 million he received in bribes in 2013 and 2014."

2015

March

USA News Online.com: South-South Cooperation and Chinese Sun Kian Ip Group Signs [sic] Cooperation Agreement

July

CIA allegedly worked with Macau casinos to spy on China: read the report

The report, uncovered by the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests the CIA was using Macau casinos to entrap Chinese officials who may have been gambling with public money 

August

Macau Daily Times: UN Holds High-Level Strategy Forum in Town for South-South Cooperation

September

ABCNews: FBI Arrests Chinese Millionaire Once Tied to Clinton $$ Scandal

UNOSSC Director Yiping Zhou retires.

Google image search.

October

News24: UN Looks at Donations Linked to Bribery Scandal

South China Morning Post: UN rejects US$15 million donation from Macau billionaire Ng Lap Seng pending bribery investigation 

The New York Times: Former U.N. President and Chinese Billionaire Are Accused in Graft Scheme

The Wall Street Journal: U.N. Team Had Cleared Group at Center of Bribery Case: Officials met in April with Ng Lap Seng, didn't detect any problems

"South-South staff found him to be 'humble, very happy to host a meeting and become closer to the U.N.,' said Inyang Ebong-Harstrup, deputy director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, a division of the U.N., who met Mr. Ng in August when she traveled to Macau." The Wall Street Journal (9 October 2015)

Ethixbase: U.N. Team Had Cleared Group at Center of Bribery Case

The Wall Street Journal: Nonprofit Ties Scrutinized in U.N. Scandal: Alleged role of two nonprofits in bribery case sheds light on interlaced relationships between diplomats and privately funded groups

Jhon William Ashe, Presidente saliente de la Asamblea General de la ONU preso por corruption

The Sydney Morning Herald: Australia-China social queen Sheri Yan arrested for bribery

Vice: Feds Say Former UN General Assembly President Lived Large Off Chinese Bribes

Telegraph: United Nations officials charged with accepting massive bribes from China businessmen

Agence France-Presse: Corruption charges dampen launch of new UN global goals 

People Daily: Ban orders probe into bribe claims as FBI cites Kenya

United News of India: US charges expected in UN corruption probe involving Macau developer - source

"Adam Rogers ... said Ng made hosting the UN event possible. He called today's reports linking a bribery probe involving UN officials 'upsetting,' saying he believed the developer's motivations were to simply facilitate an important meeting." (United News of India, October 6, 2015)

"Adam Rogers ... said Ng made hosting the UN event possible. He called today's reports linking a bribery probe involving UN officials 'upsetting,' saying he believed the developer's motivations were to simply facilitate an important meeting." (United News of India, October 6, 2015). (Source: Google image search). It has been awhile (five years) since Canadian national Adam Rogers (far left in Google image search) has publicly discussed his role in organising the Macau event with known sex trafficker and convicted briber Ng Lap Seng.

The WACAP Network (World Alliance of Cities Against Poverty) was coordinated by Adam Rogers. Pictured in this Tweet by WACAP is Ng Lap Seng - "kingpin of the international slave prostitution trade" - seated at the High-level Forum in Macau, August 2015.

According to the US Department of Justice, Ng Lap Seng-funded South-South News and the High-Level Multi-Stakeholders Strategy Forum held from 25-26 August 2015 (also funded by Ng Lap Seng through the Sun Kian Ip Group Foundation) were both used “in a scheme to bribe United Nations ambassadors to obtain support to build a conference center in Macau that would host, among other events, the annual United Nations Global South-South Development Expo.”

Despite being delisted by the UN Global Compact on 9 April 2015, the United Nations took money from the Sun Kian Ip Group. The United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) ran a High-Level Multi-Stakeholders Strategy Forum from 25-26 August 2015 funded by the Sun Kian Ip Group. Casino owner and event funder Ng Lap Seng was convicted of bribing UN ambassadors and his news service, South-South News, was used as a “conduit for bribery and money laundering”. He is believed to be associated with the Wo On Lok triad, which is involved in “prostitution and pornography and trafficking in children”, and Seng is characterised as a “kingpin of the international slave prostitution trade” in risk assessments. 

November

Nikkei Asian Review: U.S. prosecutors allege Ng paid bribes until arrest

"Ng is charged with paying $500,000 in bribes to former United Nations diplomat John W. Ashe, primarily to get him to push for the construction of a "multibillion dollar" U.N. expo center in Macau for the benefit of Ng's Sun Kian Ip Group."

"Statements and briefs filed by the prosecutors indicate Ng's financial activities in the U.S. surged this year in the weeks before and after an Aug. 25-26 U.N. conference in Macau at which some 200 delegates endorsed the construction of a "South-South Expo" center in the city."

"Ashe played a prominent role at the Macau meeting both as chairman of the U.N. South-South Steering Committee for Sustainable Development and as co-chairman of Ng's Sun Kian Ip Group Foundation, which sponsored the event."

"Francis Lorenzo, who has been charged with acting as a middleman for Ng's alleged bribes, played a similar range of roles at the Macau meeting. He was there as executive president of the South-South steering committee and the International Organization for South-South Cooperation, president of the Sun Kian Ip Group Foundation and deputy U.N. ambassador for the Dominican Republic. Around 20 U.N. ambassadors attended the meeting."

"The Sun Kian Ip Group Foundation donated $1.5 million to the U.N. Office for South-South Cooperation to help finance the Macau meeting and another one held in Dhaka in May; the foundation earlier this year offered the U.N. office a further $13.5 million but U.N. officials have said that will not be accepted as the organization has launched multiple reviews of its ties to the foundation following the arrests of Ng and Ashe."

December

Draft Audit Report | Office of Audit and Investigations (No. 1580, December 2015): https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20270645-unngosscdraftauditicp

The UNOSSC Director during the scope of the audit was Yiping Zhou.

The UNOSSC Deputy Director during the scope of the audit was Inyang Ebong-Harstrup.

2016

March

Courthouse News: United Nations Bribery Scandal Snares Gala VP

PassBlue: John Ashe, Ex-UN Diplomat Facing Criminal Charges, Goes Begging

April

Reuters: U.N. news outlet at center of bribery case defends its intergrity

Macau Business Daily: Audit uncovers trail of 'support'

"Local billionaire Ng Lap Seng made use of five non-government organisations (NGOs) which are all affiliated to his real estate investment firm Sun Kian Ip Group to interact with six departments of the United Nations in various ways – such as sponsoring their events and funding staff travel – discloses the latest published internal audit report by the Office of Internal Oversight Service (OIOS) of the United Nations (UN).

The internal audit report, which was undertaken at the request of the Secretary-General of the UN and was released over the weekend, presents evidence that the local businessman’s attempts to curry favour with the UN could date back to 2008, when one of his NGOs was listed as a participant in the organisation’s Global Compact initiative.

According to OIOS, the five NGOs that Ng was using to interact with UN bodies are the Global Sustainability Foundation, International Organisation for South-South Co-operation, World Harmony Foundation, South-South News and Sun Kian Ip Group Foundation."

"The UN audit body stated in the report that Sun Kian Ip Group had offered iPads to all participants for a co-sponsored event titled ‘High Level Multi Stakeholder Strategy Forum on South-South and Triangular Co-operation’ in the Special Administrative Region last August.

The local developer contributed US$1.5 million (MOP12 million) to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the event, which was attended by a number of UN Secretariat staff, OIOS said.

The report reads that the proffered iPads all had 64GB capacity and were engraved with the logo of the organisers on the back.

‘They received the iPads at the registration desk upon arrival, where they were informed that the forum was a ‘paperless event’; all documents relating to its meetings or presentations had been pre-loaded in the device for their use,’ OIOS wrote, adding that ‘there was no attempt by the organisers to take back the iPads’ when the event was concluded.

According to the audit department, three UN staff members who attended the forum only handed over the devices after the commencement of the audit. In particular, one from the Global Compact Office stated to the audit body that he kept the iPad for himself."

"The UN audit also found that Ng’s self-owned news outlet South-South News had funded travel for a staff member of the UN Department for General Assembly and Conference Management for two seminars in Hong Kong and Macau last April and August, respectively. The two seminars were both on the topic of ‘South-South Co-operation’.

Another staff member of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) was funded by the news company to participate in a high-level meeting in Hong Kong in April 2012. The audit report stated that the UN-Habitat later signed a memorandum with South-South News as a media partner for co-operation on the ‘World Urban Campaign’ in July 2012.

South-South News had actually been accorded media accreditation and provided office space in the UN secretariat by the UN Department of Public Information since 2010, the report claimed."

"Recent leaks from the Panama Papers have disclosed that such a company of the local businessman was established in the British Virgin Islands in May 2010, indicating the news outlet had sponsored UN events on at least three occasions."

"In the report, OIOS highly criticised the lack of due diligence checks by UN departments in selecting their partners, allowing the organisation to be involved with parties ‘whose interests may be at odds with those of the UN’.

‘Various resolutions of the General Assembly have recognised the importance of developing partnerships with the private sectors, NGOs and civil society… However, engaging in partnerships requires that a robust due diligence process is established and consistently applied to ensure that the attendant risks are mitigated,’ the audit body said.

‘The above instances of non-compliance with due diligence requirements exposed the organisation to the risk that it could get involved with external parties whose interests may be at odds with those of the United Nations – particularly its integrity, independence and impartiality,’ it concluded."

South China Morning Post: Prominent Hong Kong politicians and businessmen named in new round of Panama Papers leaks

"Ng Lap Seng, Macau businessman charged by US authorities with bribing former United Nations leaders - Owned a BVI firm that ran South-South News, which had been granted the right to be stationed in the UN headquarters despite its lack of journalistic track record."

May

Reuters: Auditors rebuke U.N. development agency after U.S. indictments

August

The Wall Street Journal: Former Air China Manager Charged with Smuggling in U.S. for Chinese Military: Suspect is associate of Macau billionaire in U.N. bribery scheme

The Wall Street Journal: U.N. Bribery Probe Uncovers Suspected Chinese Agent: U.S. officials look into Beijing businessman's ties to indicted Macau billionaire

2017

June

ABC News: ASIO investigation targets Communist Party links to Australian political system

The Sydney Morning Herald: China's Operation Australia: Payments, power and our politicians

July

Financial Times: Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng convicted in UN bribery case: Tycoon paid inducements to promote 'Geneva of Asia' project in Macau

The Sydney Morning Herald: Charges loom for ex-intelligence official Roger Uren after ASIO raid

Global Investigations Review - Just Anti-Corruption: UN bribery trial heats up with tales of extramarital affair and cash bag carried across Manhattan

AP: UN ambassador testifies he didn't know what 'bribe' meant

"Lorenzo testified Ng paid him up to $50,000 monthly to push the ambitious multibillion-dollar project along and funneled another $300,000 to former U.N. General Assembly President John Ashe, who was charged in the case before he died last year in an accident at home.

Over several days, Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Zolkind elicited from Lorenzo an unsavory depiction of the ease with which Lorenzo and Ashe accepted and sometimes solicited tens of thousands of dollars to supplement modest salaries as ambassadors.

Within months of meeting Ng in late 2009, Lorenzo testified, he agreed to supplement his $72,000 salary at the U.N. with $20,000 a month as president of Ng’s new not-for-profit, South South News.

“Did you have any experience in media or in news reporting?” Zolkind asked.

“No,” Lorenzo said."

December

Macau Business: MB Aug | House of Cards

"The political endeavours of Macau tycoon Ng Lap Seng over the years have seen his business empire grow across the continents, but at the ultimate price - behind bars." 

Macau News Agency: Macau in 2017 | The case of Ng Lap Seng - Politics

"A summary of the corruption case against local businessman Ng Lap Seng." 

2018

March

South China Morning Post: Ex-aide of Macau billionaire Ng Lap Seng, jailed by US in fallout from UN bribery scandal, blames 'traditional' Chinese upbringing  

April

Macau Daily Times: Prosecutors Want Six Years in Ng Lap Seng Sentencing

Reuters: Chinese-born Executive Pleads Guilty in U.N. Bribery Case

May

ABS-CBN News: Chinese Billionaire Sentenced Four Years in UN Scandal

The New York Times: Macau Tycoon Gets 4 Years in Prison for Bribing U.N. Diplomats

News Americas: Jail for Chinese Billionaire Who Bribed Caribbean Born UN Officials

Reuters: Macau Billionaire Gets Four Years Prison for Bribing U.N. Officials

LawFuel: Billionaire Jailed for 4 Years Over Casino Bribery Role

South China Morning Post: Chinese Billionaire Ng Lap-Seng gets Four Years in US Prison for Bribing UN Officials US$1.7m to Support Plans for Macau Conference Centre

The Sydney Morning Herald: Political Donor Chau Chak Wing Behind UN Bribe Scandal, Parliament told

Channel NewsAsia: Chinese-Australian Political Donor 'Linked to UN Bribery Scandal'

The New York Times: In Australia, Fears of Chinese Meddling Rise on U.N. Bribery Case Revelation

The Australian: China's UN Power Game

The FCPA Blog: Is China Trying to Corrupt the UN? 

The United States Department of Justice: Chairman of Macau Real Estate Development Company Sentenced to Prison for Role in Scheme to Bribe United Nations Ambassadors to Build a Multi-Billion Dollar Conference Center

"The trial evidence showed that Ng bribed Ambassador Ashe and Ambassador Lorenzo (together, the “Ambassadors”) in exchange for their agreement to use their official positions to advance Ng’s interest in obtaining formal UN support for the Macau Conference Center.  As the evidence demonstrated at trial, Ng paid the Ambassadors in a variety of forms.  For example, Ng appointed Ambassador Lorenzo as the President of South-South News, a New York-based organization — funded by Ng — which described itself as a media platform dedicated to advancing the implementation of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, a set of philanthropic goals.  Ng provided bribe payments to Ambassador Lorenzo through South-South News by transmitting payments from Macau to a company in the Dominican Republic affiliated with Ambassador Lorenzo’s brother (the “Dominican Company”).  Through South-South News, Ng also made payments to Ambassador Ashe, including to Ambassador Ashe’s wife, who was paid in her capacity as a “consultant” to South-South News, and to an account that Ambassador Ashe had established, purportedly to raise money for his role as President of UNGA." 

June

ArtVoice: Judicial Watch: Russia, China may have bribed Clintons

November

The Sydney Morning Herald: Beijing's secret plot to infiltrate UN used Australian insider

"Charming and gregarious, Sheri Yan was once known for hosting soirees around the world where diplomats mingled with millionaire business executives and socialites. But her life changed forever in October 2015, when she was arrested by FBI agents in New York and accused of bribing the former president of the United Nations General Assembly, John Ashe."

"In 2012, the woman who had left China almost two decades earlier was preparing to launch her own organisation to help the UN reduce global poverty and aid development.

The Global Sustainability Foundation would, according to Yan’s pitch, be backed by 'political leaders, successful business people, and members of the world’s best-known families.'"

"When Ng set up his UN-affiliated NGO South-South News, the FBI again found evidence that the Communist Party was influencing the organisation and determining the agenda it would push as it hosted conferences and published news stories."   

Yahoo News: China wants a new world order. At the U.N., NGOs secretly paid cash to promote Beijing's vision.

"In August 2013, South South News, a U.N.-accredited nonprofit bankrolled by Macau casino tycoon Ng Lap Seng, began depositing $20,000 each month into Ashe’s bank account. Ng was already on the radar of U.S. authorities: In the 1990s, Senate investigators identified him as the likely conduit of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal donations to the Democratic National Committee and 1996 Clinton re-election campaign."

"Now almost two decades later, Ng was using South-South News, a small New York-based media outlet that covered development and U.N.-related news, as a front to pay Ashe to get his support for a project to build a U.N. conference center in Macau, according to U.S. prosecutors.  In addition to enhancing China’s power and prestige, the establishment of a U.N. conference center in Macau would present China with significant intelligence-gathering and recruitment opportunities, said one former senior U.S. intelligence official."

"The center never materialized, but court filings say that Ng was secretly being investigated as part of a counter-espionage probe of a suspected Chinese spy, and business associate of Ng’s, named Qin Fei; Ng paid to renovate Qin’s $10 million mansion on New York’s Long Island. The mansion was being converted into a conference center for South-South News, Ng’s U.N. nonprofit, said Ng’s lawyer, Hugh Mo, who denies his client had any connection with Chinese intelligence (though Qin, Mo said, was being wiretapped under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act)."

"Yan, like Ng Lap Seng, created her own U.N. nonprofit, the Global Sustainability Foundation. And like South-South News, it also received U.N. accreditation and championed the U.N’s millennium goals, an ambitious set of voluntary, country-by-country targets aimed at reducing global poverty.  Yan also arranged for bribes to Ashe to benefit three other Chinese businessmen, say U.S. court documents."

2020

February

Miami Herald: China's news organizations in the United States are really spy agencies

"China’s reporter-agents collect and analyze critical information about the United States and other countries. Bureaus then package and deliver it to their masters back home. In the process, they also repurpose it as a quasi-journalistic propagandistic product for a mass foreign audience in their newspapers and broadcasts. To audiences, it looks and feels like real news, but it’s really just a byproduct of intelligence gathering. ...

"China is willing to spend billions of dollars to promote its United Front work and support the growing network of Xinhua and CGTN bureaus around the world."

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article240696381.html#storylink=cpy

March

New York Times: U.S. Officials Push for Expelling Suspected Chinese Spies at Media Outlets

"... Trump administration officials have intensified discussions over whether to evict employees of Chinese media outlets who they say mainly act as spies. ...

"Some American intelligence officials have pushed for years to expel employees of Chinese media organizations who they say mainly file intelligence reports. ...

"Any expulsion of Chinese employees at media outlets accused of conducting intelligence work could include ones based at the United Nations," 

Further Reading

The Bro Code: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China by James Palmer, China File, February 4, 2015

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Handbook: A Practical Guide for Multinational General Counsel, Transactional Lawyers and White Collar Criminal Practitioners by Robert W. Tarun, American Bar Association, 2010

ONU: la grande imposture by Pauline Lietar

"Le bureau de la Cooperation Sud-Sud l'a trouve tres 'humble, tres heureux d'organiser une reunion et d'etre plus proche de l'ONU', declare Inyang Ebong-Harstrup, une des membres de l'equipe." 

An excellent documentary by investigative journalist Pauline Lietar provides further details on the John Ashe/Ng Lap Seng connection, as well as many other cases of UN corruption: ONU, impunité à tous les étages https://www.magnetotv.com/fr/documentary/onu/

China Digital Times: Sinopsis and Jichang Lulu: UN with Chinese Characteristics 

Official photographs of the Macau High-Level Multi-Stakeholders Strategy Forum and its participants (including John Ashe) can be found here: http://www.barbarossayilgan.com/high-level-multi-stakeholders-strategy-forum-macau-china-2015/0sxxmg0jh0ss5keym50d5p63diztpd

Statement concerning the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation

"The United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) is an independent entity created by the General Assembly in 1974, General Assembly resolution 3251(XXIX), to support cooperation among developing countries.

UNOSSC receives its mandate and policy framework from General Assembly decisions and resolutions. UNOSSC also serves as the Secretariat of the High-level Committee (HLC) on South-South Cooperation, a subsidiary body of the General Assembly.

UNOSSC is hosted by UNDP and, as is the case with similar entities, is expected to follow UNDP rules and regulations, including those pertaining to financial and HR management. UNOSSC is likewise subject to UNDP’s oversight and due diligence instruments."

Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs: Information Warfare: the Communist Party of China's Influence Operations in the United States and Japan

Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs: Spotting China's Influence Operations, with Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian

UNDP’s Office of Audit and Investigation (OAI) recently published an Audit of UNOSSC which rated the Office ‘unsatisfactory’.

The Audit makes 16 recommendations with the objective of improving UNOSSC’s  effectiveness in the areas of: governance; programme and project activities; and operations." Excerpt from Statement (5 May 2016)

The Audit makes 16 recommendations with the objective of improving UNOSSC’s effectiveness in the areas of: governance; programme and project activities; and operations." Excerpt from Statement (5 May 2016)

UNDP Accountability: Disclosure of internal audit reports

Audit Ratings

"On the basis of its audit results, OAI assigns an overall rating for the business unit audited. OAI uses four rating categories: "satisfactory"; "partially satisfactory/some improvement needed"; partially satisfactory/major improvement needed; and "unsatisfactory". A definition of each audit rating is available below."

Audit Ratings - Definition

"A rating of "satisfactory" means that the assessed governance arrangements, risk management practices and controls were adequately established and functioning well. Issues identified by the audit, if any, are unlikely to affect the achievement of the objectives of the audited entity/area.

A rating of “partially satisfactory/some improvement needed” means that the assessed governance arrangements, risk management practices and controls were generally established and functioning, but need some improvement. Issues identified by the audit do not significantly affect the achievement of the objectives of the audited entity/area.

A rating of “partially satisfactory/major improvement needed” means that the assessed governance arrangements, risk management practices and controls were established and functioning, but need major improvement. Issues identified by the audit could significantly affect the achievement of the objectives of the audited entity/area.

A rating of “unsatisfactory” means that the assessed governance arrangements, risk management practices and controls were either not adequately established or not functioning well. Issues identified by the audit could seriously compromise the achievement of the objectives of the audited entity/area."

Reuters: Auditors rebuke U.N. development agency after U.S. indictments (3 May 2016)

How to Report Corruption and Bribery at UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)

The Office of Audit and Investigations (OAI) "provides UNDP with effective independent and objective internal oversight that is designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of UNDP's operations in achieving its development goals and objectives through the provision of internal audit and related advisory services, and investigation services."  

They can be directly emailed here: reportmisconduct@undp.org

How to Report Human Trafficking at the United Nations

To report staff of the United Nations either involved in human trafficking or facilitating human trafficking, contact 1-866-347-2423.

Key Terms and Definitions

Bribe: To try to make someone do something for you by giving them money, presents, or something else that they want.  

Bribery: The crime of giving someone money or something else of value, often illegally, to persuade that person to do something you want.

Corruption: Dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery. 

Discovery: The process of finding information, a place, or an object, especially for the first time, or the thing that is found. Part of a legal process in which the lawyers from one side in a case give documents relating to their case to the other side, before the trial begins.

Due Diligence: Action that is considered reasonable for people to be expected to take in order to keep themselves or others and their property safe. The detailed examination of a company and its financial records, done before becoming involved in a business arrangement with it.

Espionage: The practice of spying or use of spies, typically by governments to obtain political and military information. 

FCPA: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78dd-1, et seq. ("FCPA"), was enacted for the purpose of making it unlawful for certain classes of persons and entities to make payments to foreign government officials to assist in obtaining or retaining business. Specifically, the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA prohibit the willful use of the mails or any means of instrumentality of interstate commerce corruptly in furtherance of any offer, payment, promise to pay, or authorization of the payment of money or anything of value to any person, while knowing that all or a portion of such money or thing of value will be offered, given or promised, directly or indirectly, to a foreign official to influence the foreign official in his or her official capacity, induce the foreign official to do or omit to do an act in violation of his or her lawful duty, or to secure any improper advantage in order to assist in obtaining or retaining business for or with, or directing business to, any person.

Human Trafficking: Human trafficking is modern-day slavery and involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. Every year, millions of men, women, and children are trafficked in countries around the world, including the United States. It is estimated that human trafficking generates many billions of dollars of profit per year, second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable form of transnational crime. To report staff of the United Nations either involved in human trafficking or facilitating human trafficking, contact 1-866-347-2423.

Influence Operations: China's Influence Operations Are Pinpointing America's Weaknesses (Foreign Policy, October 4, 2018)

Money Laundering: The crime of moving money that has been obtained illegally through banks and other businesses to make it seem as if the money has been obtained legally.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): The Division for Sustainable Development Goals (DSDG) seeks to provide leadership and catalyse action in promoting and coordinating implementation of internationally agreed development goals, including the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UN: The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945.  It is currently made up of 193 Member States.  The mission and work of the United Nations are guided by the purposes and principles contained in its founding Charter.

UNDP: United Nations Development Programme. On the ground in about 170 countries and territories, UNDP works to eradicate poverty while protecting the planet.

UN Global Compact: A call to companies to align strategies and operations with universal principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and take actions that advance societal goals.

UN General Assembly: The General Assembly is one of the six main organs of the United Nations, the only one in which all Member States have equal representation: one nation, one vote. All 193 Member States of the United Nations are represented in this unique forum to discuss and work together on a wide array of international issues covered by the UN Charter, such as development, peace and security, international law, etc.

UNOSSC: United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (formerly the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation). The United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) is a knowledge hub providing advisory and consulting services to all stakeholders on South-South and triangular cooperation. It enables developing countries to effectively face their development challenges and harness opportunities to address them.

Wo On Lok Triad: Shui Fong (水房幫 - Lit. Water Room Gang), also known as the Wo On Lok (WOL) is one of the main Triadgroups in Southern China, operating especially in Hong Kong, Macau and Chinese communities abroad. Today it is one of Hong Kong's most active triad groups, along with Sun Yee On, 14K and the "Wo" family of triads, especially the Wo Shing Wo. It runs extortion operations, loan sharking, narcotics and the control of nightclubs, mahjong dens and massage parlours. According to police, its turf extends across Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok and Sham Shui Po.^[1] In Macau, Shui Fong is one of the "Four Major Gangs" (四大黑幫), the others being Wo Shing Yee, 14K and the Big Circle Gang.

Note:

1) This blog post provides a summary of the unfolding corruption case that targeted the United Nations from 2010 and was revealed in 2015 by US authorities. It is offered as a resource for those interested in the role played by corruption in international development and international institutions, or who are interested in case law and the application of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. If anything, the case stands as a brazen act of criminality and corruption, and, with South-South News still based out of the United Nations and still functioning as a news service, maybe proof the UN has a long way to go to walk the talk on fighting corruption.

In future blog posts we will explore what the ongoing trials have revealed about this case and the United Nations and what lessons can be learned. 

2) Some stories and legal documents have been blocked on search engines when doing name searches for various individuals. To avoid missing key stories and documents related to this case (and, if you are a journalist, wasting precious time), we will keep this blog post up-to-date as more material related to this multinational bribery and corruption plot becomes public. We believe it is unethical for a person or persons who were receiving public funds, enjoying the privileges of an international salary and post-retirement pension, to avoid scrutiny for their actions, especially when the law is broken. We also believe it is a danger to others if entities or employers retain the services of these corrupt individuals and risk unwittingly exposing themselves to future criminal prosecutions.  

Support this blog post and updates. We accept payments and donations here: https://www.paypal.me/davidsouthconsulting

Update on Friday, February 28, 2020 at 3:55PM by David South

Update and Summary as of February 2020 | '2015 United Nations Bribery Scandal'

"We will be asking: is bribery business as usual at the UN?", US Attorney Preet Bharara, October 2015

In autumn 2015 arrests by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) in New York (home of the United Nations headquarters) unveiled a multinational, multi-year scheme to launder money into the US and bribe United Nations (UN) officials, in particular to support the building of a new UN “Geneva of Asia” in Macau, China for the GSSD Expo (Global South-South Development Expo), an annual gathering organised by the UNOSSC (United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation). 

"Corruption at any level of government undermines the rule of law and cannot be tolerated. But corruption is especially corrosive when it occurs at an international body like the United Nations. By paying bribes to two U.N. ambassadors to advance his interest in obtaining formal support for the Macau conference center project, Ng Lap Seng tried to manipulate the functions of the United Nations. The sentence handed down today demonstrates that those who engage in corruption will pay a heavy price and serves as a reminder that no one stands above the law.", Acting Assistant General John P. Cronan, May 2018Foreign Policy called the case one of "The Worst Corruption Scandals of 2015". Read the US Justice Department Docket here: https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/fcpa/cases/ng-lap-seng-and-jeff-c-yin.

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York at the time, Preet Bharara, released a flowchart showing how the alleged bribery and money laundering scheme targeting the United Nations worked. A series of court trials followed (2015-2018) for the various co-conspirators, including senior executives and board members for South-South News and the Global Sustainability Foundation (see below), culminating in the 27 July 2017 conviction of the ring leader of the scheme, Macau casino billionaire Ng Lap Seng, on six counts "for his role in a scheme to bribe United Nations ambassadors to obtain support to build a conference center in Macau that would host, among other events, the annual United Nations Global South-South Development Expo". He used the news service South-South News as a "conduit for bribery and money laundering" at the United Nations, according to the FBI, something admitted to by various co-conspirators in court and under oath. On 11 May 2018 Ng Lap Seng was sentenced to 4 years in prison.

Two NGOs plus the office of the President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) were used by the co-conspirators to perpetrate the scheme, according to court records and the Department of Justice (DOJ):

1) South-South News: According to the United States Department of Justice, the executives of New York-based South-South News used the “21st century media platform dedicated to covering the stories of global development from the United Nations, governments, the private sector, and civil society” as a “conduit” for bribery and money laundering at the United Nations. South-South News executives were arrested in autumn 2015, along with former UN General Assembly President John Ashe (who was charged with “Filing False Income Tax Returns”). South-South News (which still exists) was founded in 2010 by Ng Lap Seng and Ambassador Francis Lorenzo with US $12 million. According to the FBI, Seng did this with the objective of bribing UN officials, laundering money into the United States - bringing US $4.5 million into the US in cash over a period of two years - and lobbying for the building of a new UN facility in Macau for the annual Global South-South Development Expo (GSSD Expo) - a "Geneva of Asia". The new facility would cost US $3 billion and be built by Ng Lap Seng's construction company.

“The Government identified two specific acts that the Ambassadors obtained from other UN officials: (1) a letter of support for the Macau Conference Center signed by Yiping Zhou ("Zhou"), the then-Director of UNOSSC (together with other letters of support signed by Zhou, the "UNOSSC Support Letters”);”

“At various points during the trial, the Government presented evidence that the Ambassadors used their influence over Zhou to obtain the UNOSSC Support Letters and the Pro Bono Agreement. (See, e.g., Tr. 665:4-676:23, 764:10-766:25, 1217:18-1227:16, 1314:11-1316:23, 1345:14-1350:25.) During closing arguments, the Government argued, among other things, that Ng paid bribes to obtain the UNOSSC Support Letters and the Pro Bono Agreement. (See, e.g., Tr. 3934:18-23.) At no point during trial did defense counsel object to the UNOSSC Support Letters or the Pro Bono Agreement or to the Government's reliance on those documents as evidence of official acts, nor did defense counsel request an adjournment to attempt to call Zhou or anyone else affiliated with the UNOSSC to testify.” (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. NG LAP SENG, et al., United States District Court, S.D. New York. May 9, 2018.)

"Adding soft media power to hard real estate, Ng sponsored the press organization South-South News, whose name alludes to the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation. Lorenzo collected $25,000 a month serving as president of South-South News, and was “gifted” a $3.6 million apartment in Trump World Tower near U.N. headquarters.".

2) Global Sustainability Foundation (GSDF): According to the United States Department of Justice, the executives of the Global Sustainability Foundation, whose mandate was “dedicated to supporting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”,  were arrested and charged “for paying more than $800,000 in bribes to John W. Ashe (“Ashe”), the late former Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda (“Antigua”) to the United Nations (“UN”) and 68th President of the UN General Assembly.  [Sheri] Yan pled guilty in January 2016, and was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick.” 

U.S. Attorney Bharara stated: “As she admitted in court at her guilty plea, Shiwei [Sheri] Yan bribed the President of the UN General Assembly with hundreds of thousands of dollars to further private business interests.  For her role in corrupting the United Nations, Yan will serve time in a federal prison.”

Sheri (Shiwei) Yan’s husband is Roger Uren, a former ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) employee. Australia is part of the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence sharing alliance, along with the United States, the UK, Canada and New Zealand.  

UNGA President John Ashe said at the GSDF launch in 2014, “the Foundation is being launched at the ‘sunset of the MDGs era,’ and as the SDGs era approaches. He noted the difficulty in moving from eight goals and 18 targets as under the MDGs, to the 17 goals and 169 proposed for the SDGs, and said this is where the GSDF has an important role to play.”

3) Office of the President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA): One of the co-conspirators in the scheme was former UN General Assembly President John Ashe. He died due to a weightlifting accident before he had to testify in a New York court room. According to Farrukh Khan, Program Manager on Climate Finance at the UN Secretary-General's Office, Ashe played a key role in the negotiations for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

South-South News Executives, Co-conspirators and Charges

Ng Lap Seng, Macau casino owner and founder and funder of South-South News: On 11 May 2018 Ng Lap Seng was sentenced to 4 years in prison for being the ring leader of an elaborate, multi-year, multinational scheme to bribe UN officials and launder money into the United States.

Francis Lorenzo, Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN for the Dominican Republic and co-founder of South-South News: Bribery. Admitted to his role in the bribery scheme but was spared prison because of his cooperation in providing testimony. He was ordered to do community service and to pay US $243,965 in restitution. 

Julia Vivi (Vivian) Wang, Vice President of South-South News: Money laundering (https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/file/1061036/download). She pleaded guilty to the charges on 4 April 2018.  

Jeff Yin, aide to Ng Lap Seng. On 28 February 2018 Jeff Yin received a seven-month prison sentence related to the corruption scandal.

Global Sustainability Foundation (GSDF) Executives and Charges

Shiwei (Sheri) Yan, Founder, Vice Chair and CEO for the Global Sustainability Foundation (GSF) (http://sdg.iisd.org/news/global-sustainable-development-foundation-launched-at-un/), whose purpose was “dedicated to supporting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”: Conspiracy to Commit Bribery. Sentenced to 20 months in prison. 

Heidi Hong Park (Piao), Finance Director for the GSF: Conspiracy to Commit Bribery.

John Ashe, President of UNGA 68 and Honorary Chairman of GSDF: Filing False Income Tax Returns.

The SDG Knowledge Hub posted an “Editor’s Note” in 2018 stating “In October 2015, Sheri Yan, John Ashe and several other individuals were charged in connection with a multi-year scheme to pay bribes to Ashe. The payments were delivered in part in relation to Ashe’s role as Honorary Chairman of GSDF. In July 2016, Sheri Yan was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to 20 months in prison for paying more than $800,000 in bribes to Ashe. Ashe died before he was sentenced in the case.”

President of the UN General Assembly and Charges

John W. Ashe, President of UN General Assembly: Filing False Income Tax Returns

Macau: World Centre for Money Laundering, Sex Trafficking (Sources: UNODC and US Department of State)

According to the UNODC’s (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) Regional Representative Jeremy Douglas, “Macau has for a long time been seen as a place to launder money and for organized crime to do business, and while times and methods have changed it still [is] unfortunately seen this way by many,” he told Macau Business. 

The money comes from drugs, counterfeit goods and medicines, people-smuggling, trafficking of wildlife and timber, and sex trafficking. 

According to the United States Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2019, Macau is a centre for sex trafficking.

Ng Lap Seng's Sun Kian Ip Group was barred from the UN's Global Compact, according to The Wall Street Journal, and Seng was flagged up as a person not to do business with, including by Interpol, “The International Criminal Police Organization”. Despite this track record and multiple warning signs, both South-South News and the United Nations took money from Ng Lap Seng.

Ng Lap Seng, in a 2010 assessment by International Risk Ltd., was found to be "characterized in the media as a 'Macau Crime Lord' and kingpin of the international slave prostitution trade".  He is associated with the Wo On Lok triad (a triad believed by police to be heavily involved in global sex trafficking) (https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB888439204883313500).

UNOSSC

In 2015 the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) was headed by Director Yiping Zhou and Deputy Director Inyang Ebong-Harstrup. In 2016 an audit conducted by UNDP’s Office of Audit and Investigation (OAI) found it “unsatisfactory” - the lowest rating - “A rating of ‘unsatisfactory’ means that the assessed governance arrangements, risk management practices and controls were either not adequately established or not functioning well. Issues identified by the audit could seriously compromise the achievement of the objectives of the audited entity/area.” (https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2016/05/05/statement-concerning-the-united-nations-office-for-south-south-cooperation.html). 

According to the International Civil Service Commission Standards of Conduct for the International Civil Service (2013), 

"International civil servants should share the vision of their organizations. It is loyalty to this vision that ensures the integrity and international outlook of international civil servants; a shared vision guarantees that they will place the interests of their organization above their own and use its resources in a responsible manner.

The concept of integrity enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations embraces all aspects of an international civil servant’s behaviour, including such qualities as honesty, truthfulness, impartiality and incorruptibility. These qualities are as basic as those of competence and efficiency, also enshrined in the Charter.

If the impartiality of the international civil service is to be maintained, international civil servants must remain independent of any authority outside their organization; their conduct must reflect that independence. In keeping with their oath of office, they should not seek nor should they accept instructions from any Government, person or entity external to the organization. It cannot be too strongly stressed that international civil servants are not, in any sense, representatives of Governments or other entities, nor are they proponents of their policies. This applies equally to those on secondment from Governments and to those whose services have been made available from elsewhere. International civil servants should be constantly aware that, through their allegiance to the Charter and the corresponding instruments of each organization, member States and their representatives are committed to respect their independent status."

In March 2015 UNOSSC Director Yiping Zhou signed a cooperation agreement with the Sun Kian Ip Group of Macau to “set up a multi-partner trust fund to promote the cause of South-South Cooperation” (https://usanewsonline.com/2015/03/07/south-south-cooperation-and-chinese-sun-kian-ip-group-signs-cooperation-agreement/). In April 2015 UNOSSC Deputy Director Inyang Ebong-Harstrup (https://twitter.com/inyangeh) met with the Chairman of the Sun Kian Ip Group, Ng Lap Seng, in Macau (https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-n-team-had-cleared-group-at-center-of-bribery-case-1444432560). Inyang Ebong-Harstrup (https://twitter.com/inyangid2020) moved on to work as Chief of Partnerships for ID 2020 (https://medium.com/id2020/2018-end-of-year-letter-b740a83e9df3). Yiping Zhou moved on to become the Dean of the International Silkroad Institute, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (https://archive.shine.cn/opinion/chinese-perspectives/Conference-on-Belt-and-Road-highlights-market-potentials-and-challenges/shdaily.shtml). "South-South staff found him to be 'humble, very happy to host a meeting and become closer to the U.N.,' said Inyang Ebong-Harstrup, deputy director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, a division of the U.N., who met Mr. Ng in August when she traveled to Macau." The Wall Street Journal;(9 October 2015)

More on the Strange Saga of South-South News here: http://www.davidsouthconsulting.com/blog/2018/3/4/the-strange-saga-of-south-south-news-may-2018.html

The complexities of UN-associated media outlets receiving funding from wealthy benefactors is not isolated to South-South News. Is it okay to use UN themed or associated news services to launder money into the United States and/or to donate illegally obtained funds from the countries of the global South? Whilst US authorities do not think so (thus the many court cases and prosecutions), the UN itself has not been leading on exposing these activities. In fact, the UN continues to pump out messaging on anti-corruption and ethics in development when these activities are both unethical and illegal and occuring in its name and on its premises. 

2014

PRESS RELEASE: IRIN humanitarian news service to spin off from the UN. IRIN humanitarian news service to spin off from the UN. Jynwel Foundation invests $25 million to create global non-profit media venture

2015

February

New York Times: TOWERS OF SECRECY: Jho Low, Well Connected in Malaysia, Has an Appetite for New York

2016

Devex: Will the development community face fallout from Malaysia's 1MDB corruption scandal?

"Late in 2014, just over a month before its financial relationship with the United Nations was set to expire, the humanitarian news agency IRIN found a new benefactor.

The Hong Kong-based Jynwel Charitable Foundation seemed to appear out of thin air. It did so in the form of its founder and director, Jho Taek Low, a young Malaysian financier and member of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s inner circle. Low joined U.N. officials and IRIN’s management team at a U.N. press conference to announce a gift that would secure IRIN’s future: $25 million from Jynwel to the news agency, to be delivered to IRIN over 15 years. The donation allowed the well-regarded news outlet, whose future had been in doubt, to spin off from the U.N. and relaunch as an independent, nonprofit organization.

Known for hosting lavish parties, buying luxury real estate and collecting expensive works of art, Low, through the Jynwel Charitable Foundation, has reoriented his public image around global development’s social calendar and attracted attention as an emerging-market donor and partner to high-profile development groups.

Low’s foundation sponsored the Social Good Summit in 2014 and 2015 and has given away millions of dollars, including to the United Nations Foundation, Panthera — which works to save big cats — and Keep A Child Alive, the AIDS-fighting organization co-founded by pop star Alicia Keys."

2020

April

Bloomberg: U.S. Returns $300 Million Jho Low-Linked Funds to Malaysia

 

"The U.S. returned to Malaysia another $300 million that was recovered as part of the Justice Department’s forfeiture lawsuits targeting assets that fugitive financier Low Taek Jho and his associates bought with funds allegedly stolen from the country’s 1MDB investment fund.

With the latest repatriation, the U.S. has sent $600 million back to Malaysia as part of the continuing effort to seize and liquidate the assets, including real estate, business investments, art work and jewelry, that Low, commonly known as Jho Low, his family and his cronies acquired with the money they are accused of siphoning from the state fund after it was set up in 2009."

What is the FCPA? “The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78dd-1, et seq. ("FCPA"), was enacted for the purpose of making it unlawful for certain classes of persons and entities to make payments to foreign government officials to assist in obtaining or retaining business. Specifically, the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA prohibit the willful use of the mails or any means of instrumentality of interstate commerce corruptly in furtherance of any offer, payment, promise to pay, or authorization of the payment of money or anything of value to any person, while knowing that all or a portion of such money or thing of value will be offered, given or promised, directly or indirectly, to a foreign official to influence the foreign official in his or her official capacity, induce the foreign official to do or omit to do an act in violation of his or her lawful duty, or to secure any improper advantage in order to assist in obtaining or retaining business for or with, or directing business to, any person.”

How to Report Corruption and Bribery at UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)

The Office of Audit and Investigations (OAI) "provides UNDP with effective independent and objective internal oversight that is designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of UNDP's operations in achieving its development goals and objectives through the provision of internal audit and related advisory services, and investigation services."  

They can be directly emailed here: reportmisconduct@undp.org

Key words: Money laundering, #bribery, #FCPA, #trafficking, #SDGs, #southsouthnews

Update on Saturday, March 21, 2020 at 1:28PM by David South

"We will be asking: is bribery business as usual at the UN?", US Attorney Preet Bharara, October 2015 

In 2006, a US Senate Hearing (Senate Hearing 109-957) titled the "UN Headquarters Renovation: No Accountability Without Transparency" before the Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security Subcommitte of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the United States Senate (June 20, 2006), found "... a flagrant conflict of interest.", when the Secretary-General accepted US $500,000 prize, and that "two people appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan had been on the jury, and one of the other jury members he subsequently appointed to head the UN environment program in Nairobi, Achim Steiner, ... We, to this day, have no documentation of what actually happened with the money."  

It shows there are serious concerns regarding high-level appointments and what motivates those decisions.  

US Senate Hearing (Senate Hearing 109-957), UN Headquarters Renovation: No Accountability Without Transparency.

Written Testimony Of Claudia Rosett Journalist-in-Residence, The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security, 20 June 2006.

'Quid Pro Kofi' in U.N. Furor - OK'd 500G Pal For Top Enviro Post, New York Post, May 2, 2006. Important not to become the story, especially if it involves bribery accusations.

Update on Wednesday, June 10, 2020 at 3:33AM by David South

I Spy With My Little Eye

This story from Bloomberg Businessweek has become highly contested. I have placed links below for readers to make up their own minds on these significant revelations. 

"The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies" (4 October 2018, Bloomberg Businessweek).

"Pencil Lead Sized Chinese Spying Chips".
"The security of the global technology supply chain had been compromised, even if consumers and most companies didn’t know it yet" (4 October 2018, Bloomberg Businessweek).

The “Big Hack” That Actually Happened – Chinese Military Implicated in Equifax Breach

Editorial: A year later, Bloomberg silently stands by its 'Big Hack' iCloud spy chip story

New dot connector infographic on the way! 

Update on Thursday, August 6, 2020 at 3:27AM by David South

The Docket

From a legal perspective, the '2015 United Nations Bribery Scandal' which centered around Macau casino owner Ng Lap Seng, has two key components.

1) Criminal acts that violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and tax avoidence violating US tax law.

2) National and international security violations and implications. As came forward in evidence presented in court testimony, this was much more than a few bad actors committing crimes for self-enrichment. Further revelations by the Australian security service, ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Oganisation), showed this was a sophisticated operation with the intention of gaining control of aspects of the United Nations by bribing officials, diplomats and others. A key goal in this operation was the building of a 'Geneva of Asia' in Macau, China to host the annual GSSD Expo held by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC). 

Navigating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: The Increasing Cost of Overseas Bribery

"... corrupt payments to officers and employees of public international organizations are prohibited by the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions. Public international organizations covered by the FCPA include, among others: the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development,Inter-American Development Bank,International Maritime Organizations, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Finance Corporation, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Organization,Organization for African Unity,and the Organization of American States." (Navigating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: The Increasing Cost of Overseas Bribery by Robert C. Blume and J. Taylor McConkie)

FCPA Professor: Bribery Involving The United Nations (December 28, 2017)

"The United Nations has a number of anti-corruption initiatives. For starters, there is the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, it hosts the Conference of the States Parties (COSP) (the main policy-making body of the Convention), and the U.N.’s Global Compact states that “businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.”

Instead of looking outward, perhaps the United Nations should look more inward as several Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions ... have involved U.N. officials or U.N. programs."

Fun-loving criminals

Blue suits to orange jump suits

Mongolia Update - Coverage of 1998 Political Changes | 1999

Editor and Writer: David South

Researcher: G. Enkhtungalug

Publisher: UNDP Mongolia Communications Office

Published: February 1999

Background: Mongolia Update - Coverage of 1998 Political Changes was a one-off special edition of Mongolia Update to help explain a politically turbulent year where three governments and three prime ministers came and went. At the time, Mongolia was in the grips of a severe crisis, called one of "the biggest peacetime economic collapses ever". By 2012, Mongolia was called the "fastest growing economy in the world". It is proof the foundations for Mongolia's recovery from crisis were laid in the late 1990s. The success of the peaceful transition stands in stark contrast to many other international interventions post-2001. 

Mongolia Outlook 2012: World's Fastest Growing Economy (Publisher: Eurasia Capital), 31 January 2012.

This is an unofficial publication of UNDP. Views presented in this document do not necessarily reflect those of UNDP. Mongolia Update is provided as a service to those who are interested in the rapid changes taking place in today’s Mongolia.

A note about Mongolia Update: The Mongolia Update has proven to be one of the more popular documents produced by the UNDP Mongolia office. Since the autumn of 1997 UNDP has been able to offer two more frequently updated sources of information: the UNDP homepage and our monthly newsletter, the Blue Sky Bulletin (available from our office if you are not already receiving it). Please use the United Nations Homepage at http://www.un-mongolia.mn to keep abreast of the latest political, economic and social developments in Mongolia. Mongolia Update is an unofficial document of UNDP and is designed to periodically keep our partners outside of Ulaanbaatar apprised of issues in the country. 

A year of political divisions
Who is who in the cabinet
A government of technocrats

Background — a year of political divisions

Divisions in the ruling Democratic Coalition Government in 1998 led to the fall and rise of three governments and three prime ministers. From the beginning of 1998 cracks within the Coalition intensified. A number of Democrats were dissatisfied with the system whereby the Prime Minister and the Cabinet were not parliamentarians, but "experts" appointed from outside and perceived to be aloof from Parliament. On January 15, 1998, after several weeks of wrangling Parliament ruled that under the Mongolian constitution MPs could serve as Cabinet ministers. It was to prove a fateful decision for the year-and-a-half old M. Enkhsaikhan Government.

A faction within the Coalition Government became more vociferous, with its complaints that the Democrat’s election promises would not be fulfilled without better coordination between the Government and the Parliament. Things came to a head when the General Council of the Mongolian National Democratic Party (MNDP) called for the resignation of its own Government. The move was led by the 35-year-old Speaker of the Parliament and MNDP caucus leader Ts. Elbegdorj - a natural Prime Minister in a Government of MPs. After a joint meeting of the ruling councils of the Mongolian Social Democratic Party (MSDP) and the MNDP, Prime Minister Enkhsaikhan handed in his resignation to Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) President Bagabandi. The new Prime Minister, Ts. Elbegdorj, was sworn into office on April 23, vowing to chart the same economic course as his predecessor. While trying to form his Cabinet, Elbegdorj quickly ran into trouble.

The opposition MPRP was emboldened, exploiting the fissures in the Democratic Coalition. They started to launch attacks against the new Government. Elbegdorj’s attempts at forming a Cabinet were delayed as one candidate after another was rejected.

The Cabinet was not composed until May 28, when 28-year-old CH. Saikhanbileg became Education Minister - the fifth nominee put forward for the post. The new Government faced an opposition boycott of Parliament by the beginning of June, in the wake of the merging of a state bank with a private bank amidst charges of conflict of interest. On July 25 Ts. Elbegdorj and his entire Cabinet resigned after losing a no-confidence vote in Parliament. The Elbegdorj cabinet continued to work as an acting Government. The murder of prominent democrat and minister of infrastructure S. Zorig shocked the nation October 2. Poised to become a candidate for Prime Minister, Zorig was axed to death in his apartment by two assailants. The crime remains unsolved and grabbed international headlines in what had been seen as the most peaceful country making the transition from communism to democracy. In November the Constitutional Court ruled MPs holding Cabinet posts as unconstitutional. This effectively reversed the aforementioned Parliament decision of January 15, 1998. Throughout the year opinion polls showed a growing weariness and disillusionment creeping into the body politic over the political indecision.

By December a compromise Prime Minister was found, in the form of the mayor of the capital city, Ulaanbaatar. On December 9 Prime Minister Narantsatsralt took office. As 1998 turned into 1999, Narantsatralt was still trying to have his Cabinet approved by both the Parliament and the President.

External economic turmoil started to have its affect on Mongolia in 1998. Many thought the country could ride out the Asian crisis unscathed, but Prime Minister Ts. Elbegdorj admitted in June it was unavoidable. Copper prices, Mongolia’s largest foreign currency earner continued to plummet to record lows. Prices for cashmere and gold, major exports for Mongolia, also declined. The picture for the domestic economy had some bright spots in 1998, with inflation under control and an expansion in the informal service sectors. The Government’s Green Revolution campaign was able to significantly boost the production of vegetables by encouraging home gardening. The economy was still supported by foreign aid, which totaled US $205 million in commitments for the year.

Instability in Russia has also had an impact on Mongolia. For example, in May Russian coal miners blocked the Trans-Siberian train that passes through the capital Ulaanbaatar on its way to China. In August a severe benzene shortage prompted the reintroduction of rationing. At its worst all gas supplies for the country were pulled back to the capital, leaving many stranded and unable to drive cars and run gas-powered electricity generators. The delays were due to job actions by Russian workers. Russia accounts for 30 per cent of Mongolia’s imports and 13.5 per cent of its exports. On the plus side, foodstuffs from Russia became cheaper with the decline of the rouble.

Who is who in the Cabinet

Prime Minister R.Amarjargal, 38 year old Moscow educated economist. He graduated from Economic Institute of Moscow as an economist and a teacher in 1982 and  earned a master’s degree at Bradford University in 1994-1995. 

1982-1983, he was an instructor in Mongolian Trade Union, 1983-1990, he worked as a teacher in Military Institute, 1991-1996 has served as Director of the Economics College. He was a popular Foreign Relations Minister before resigning with the entire cabinet on July 24, 1998. A member of MNDP, he speaks fluent Russian and English.

Finance Minister Yansangiin Ochirsukh. Born in Ulaanbaatar, economist Ochirsukh graduated from the Mongolian National University and did postgraduate work at Columbia University in the United States. He worked as a lecturer and researcher at the University before moving to the Mongol Bank, where since 1997 he has been in charge of foreign exchange and reserve policy. A member of the Mongolian Social Democratic Party, he speaks Russian, English and Chinese.

Minister of External Relations Nyamosoriin Tuya, 40, was born in 1958 in Ulaanbaatar. Studied in the Institute of External Relations in Moscow, Russia in international journalism. From 1984 to1985 she studied French culture and civilisation at the Sorbon University and did a Masters degree on the " Theory of Democracy" at Leeds University, England. Ms.Tuya speaks English and French. Married with two sons and a girl, she worked as editor of the foreign programming service of Mongolian Radio. After 1996, she was working as Head of the Department for Common Policy at the Ministry of External Relations.

Minister of Environment Sonomtserengiin Mendsaikhan, 39, was born in Ulaanbaatar, and completed degrees at the Mongolian State University and the State University of Irkutsk, Russia in mathematics. S.Mendsaikhan speaks German and Russian. Married, he has a daughter. Started his career as a math teacher at an Ulaanbaatar school, he also worked as a lecturer at the Mongolian State University and later become general secretary of the Social-Democratic Party. From 1992 to1993 he worked as a manager in the Unuudur (Today) private newspaper. From1993 to 1997 he worked as a private company director, and in 1997 he was assigned as advisor to the Parliament’s Speaker.

Minister of Defence Sh.Tuvdendorj, 32, graduated from the Army Academy of Mongolia and the Otgontenger Language School. He worked as an army officer, technician and laboratory engineer at the State Telecommunications Utilisation Committee. He started a political career in 1994, working as secretary in charge of local affairs. In 1997, he was elected as general secretary of the Mongolian National Revolutionary party.

Minister of Agriculture Choinzongiin Sodnomtseren, 46, was born in Ulaanbaatar and is married with three children.After attending Mongolian State Agricultural University, he acquired a Ph.D. in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He also has a Ph.D. degree in veterinarian sciences.

While spending many years of his career on research studies, he worked as a lecturer at the State agricultural University. Sodnomtseren became later Principal and Rector of the State Agricultural University.

Minister of Health and Social Welfare Sodoviin Sonin. Born in Ulaanbaatar in 1956, S.Sonin graduated from the Medical University of Irkutsk and Mongolia’s State Administration and Management Development Institute. A doctor and professor of medicine, he has taught surgery at the Mongolian Medical University, worked at the Central Clinical Hospital and served as a department chair at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. Since 1991 he has headed the Asian Development Bank-backed Health Sector Development project. Sonin, who speaks Russian and English, does not belong to any political party.

Minister of Infrastructure, Gavaagiin Bathuu, 39, born in Hujirt county of Uvurhangai province. Married with two sons and a daughter, he graduated from the Economics Institute of Harikof, Russia as an auto engineer and economist. He speaks Russian and English. He started his career as a repairman and dispatcher at the state auto-engineering company.From 1986 to 1992, he worked at the Ministry of Infrastructure as an officer and senior officer and from 1992 to 1996 he worked as Director of Shunklai Company. Since1996 he was working as a head of the Department for Road and Transportation at the Ministry of Infrastructure.

Minister of Justice, Logiin Tsog, 47, was born in Ulaanbaatar. He graduated from the State University in Irkutsk, and from the Social Science Academy in Russia. A lawyer with high education in politics, he speaks Russian and English. He worked as the prosecutor for the department at the Ministry of Justice. From 1988 to 1989, he worked as inspector at the Mongolian Revolutionary Party’s Inspection Committee. From 1990 to 1991, he was assigned as the Head of the Standing Committee of the State Baga Hural (parliament of that time) on legal issues. From 1991 to 1996 he was general director of the "Golden Button" Co. Ltd and in 1996 he was elected as general secretary

Minister of Enlightenment A.Battur was born in 1965 in Hovd aimag. Battur is a career diplomat who graduated from Russia’s Institute for International Affairs and completed a postgraduate course at France’s Institute for International Affairs. He worked as an attaché in the Foreign Ministry between 1989 and 1992, and spent 1992 to 1996 as the cultural attaché at the Mongolian Embassy in France-where he also worked with UNESCO- before returning to senior administrative positions at the Ministry in 1996.

A member of the Mongolian National Democratic Party, he speaks English, French and Russian and is married with two children.

A government of technocrats

By January 15, 1999 Mongolia had its first complete Government in six months. All nine members of the Mongolian Cabinet have been approved and appointed. Like Prime Minister Narantsatsralt, they are not Members of Parliament. Since all nine Cabinet Ministers were chosen for their experience, many expect a more stable course to be charted for the remainder of the Democratic Coalition’s term in office (until 2000). However, the new Government might experience the same sort of complaints the Enkhsaikhan Government received, when Parliament accused those ministers of being aloof. It is also unclear if the MPRP will continue to offer a vigorous opposition. For the time being its seems the political forces have exhausted themselves and there is a genuine desire for stability in 1999. The new Government is expected to follow the same reform directions of the two previous Democratic Coalition Governments and details will emerge over the coming weeks.

ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-1052.

© David South Consulting 2018