The UN's BOA Constrictor?

“BOA” at the UN stands for “Board of Auditors,” which under normal circumstances might be a code phrase for the stuff of eye-glazing tedium beyond compare. But in the UN universe of evasions and cover-ups, audits have their thrills. In recent years, UN audits of various kinds –depending on who does them, and who gets hold of them — have in some cases served as windows on a UN wonder-world of abuse, bribery and fraud; or in other cases, one more way of smothering scandal.

Just such a titanic struggle is now being played out at the UN in the context of the latest scandal, involving Cash for North Korea’s Kim Jong Il. Having first promised last Friday a no-holds barred, outside audit of the entire UN system, the UN’s new Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has since been backing off into what is now looking like Ban’s first cover-up.

Here, for the truly intrepid, is a link to the UN summary of a press conference today by UN Controller Warren Sach, in which reporters were attempting the Mission Almost Impossible of trying to figure out what’s really going on. For anyone confused about who will end up auditing who, and when and how, the bottom-line is that the UN has quite possibly arrived at the point where whatever else Ban does, a thorough, outside and entirely indepent audit of the entire auditing UN auditing system(s) would be a good idea… Oh, and just in case you missed it, the AP has a story on the latest UN scandal out of World Meteorological Organization in Geneva.