Note
An American and former UN employee blew the whistle on worrisome conduct he witnessed when working for the UN office in Kosovo. For his trouble "his U.N. public utility watchdog office in Kosovo was shut down and his U.N. contract was not renewed." A UN Dispute Tribunal agreed with him on the merits, but awarded him only a small fraction of his actual financial losses. U.S. law requires "withhold[ing]15 percent of its contribution to any U.N. agency if the secretary of state determines it is not implementing "best practices for the protection of whistleblowers from retaliation."" But "a U.S. State Department official...told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the department does not believe any withholdings are required at this time." Whistleblower James Wasserstrom says: "The U.N. and Ban Ki-moon are not serious about transparency and accountability." He's right, and if the State Department is not prepared to follow through on withholding, the UN will have zero incentive to change.