Prosecutor: UN chief blocked me from top job

An accomplished former US prosecutor is taking United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon to a tribunal, accusing him of blocking his appointment to the world body’s top investigative post.

Robert Appleton claims he was the victim of discrimination based on gender and nationality.

The dispute over Mr Appleton’s appointment is the latest salvo in a high-stakes fight within the organisation over how to fix the UN’s long-troubled internal watchdog agency.

UN associate spokesman Farhan Haq said Mr Ban’s office could not comment on matters before the tribunal.

Mr Appleton’s 76-page application to the UN Dispute Tribunal, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, said Mr Ban’s refusal to hire him was a breach of the UN Charter and General Assembly resolutions.

Mr Ban appeared to be ignoring UN rules that require filling vacancies based on experience and qualifications “because of the applicant’s gender and nationality. This is the essence of discrimination endorsed by the very officials whose job it is to enforce the organisation’s policies prohibiting such conduct”, Mr Appleton wrote.

He is seeking one million dollars (£630,000) in damages and up to about 500,000 dollars (£314,000) in lost wages and benefits.

Mr Appleton headed the UN’s special white-collar fraud unit known as the Procurement Task Force, that operated with great success from 2006 to 2008. It found 20 significant corruption schemes, leading to several felony convictions and sanctions against dozens of UN sellers.

The task force was set up in the wake of the scandal over £1.1 billion fleeced from the oil-for-food programme that had been aimed at easing Iraqi suffering under UN sanctions.

During two global recruitment rounds in 2008 and 2009, an internal hiring panel selected Mr Appleton from among about 70 applicants as the sole qualified and suitable candidate to serve as permanent head of the investigation division within the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services, or OIOS.

The outgoing head of OIOS, Inga-Britt Ahlenius of Sweden, who stepped down last month after five years, had left the position unfilled from mid-2006.

She recalled in a confidential report last month to Mr Ban, which severely criticised his leadership, how she tried unsuccessfully nine times since late 2008 to fill the job by persuading Mr Ban to appoint Mr Appleton.

Mr Ban refused to approve Mr Appleton’s appointment as permanent head of the investigation division based on his new policy requiring all senior-level appointments to be chosen from among a field of three qualified candidates that reflected a degree of geographical diversity and include at least one woman.

During the second round, she said, particular emphasis was placed on trying to meet Mr Ban’s requirement that there be at least one female candidate. She said two women were selected for interviews, but they did not make the final cut.

Mr Ban and his senior advisers have tried to contain the damage from Ms Ahlenius’ leaked 50-page “end-of-assignment” report by telling reporters in a series of news conferences and statements that shes failed to comply with his new hiring policy.

Consultants found the OIOS’ investigation division to be ineffective after the UN-sanctioned investigation into the oil-for-food programme led by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker in which Mr Appleton, a former supervisory federal prosecutor at a branch office in Connecticut, had served as the special counsel.