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----- Original Message -----
From: Joe Brewoo <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Friday, August 25, 2006 2:19 pm
Subject: Vote buying in UN Security Council by any other form
To: [log in to unmask]
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AFRICA FEST 2006: Saturday, August 26 @ Warner Park
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<span><p><div style='background-color:'><DIV class=RTE>So does anyone
have the right to accuse any of the so called developing or
underdeveloped countries for being corrupt????????????????????? What is
corruption by the way??????????</DIV>
<DIV class=RTE> </DIV>
<DIV class=RTE>Joe</DIV>
<DIV class=RTE>
<P align=center><FONT size=-1><B>www.ghanaweb.com: General News of
Friday, 25 August 2006</B></FONT><BR>
<CENTER><B><FONT size=+2>Bribery@UN: Has Ghana Ever Sold Her
Vote?</FONT></B></CENTER>
<P><B>Vote buying in UN Security Council by any other form:
Study</B><BR>New York - Developing countries that succeed in winning a
seat on the UN Security Council may reap economic benefits from rich
countries, particularly the United States, that are willing to buy their
votes, a Harvard study says.<BR><BR>Foreign aid receipts to those
countries may increase in time of conflict and political crises around
the world because the main payer - the United States - would need their
votes in the 15-nation council, two Harvard economists say.<BR><BR>'On
average, a non-permanent member of the council enjoys a 59- per-cent
increase in total aid from the United States and an 8-per- cent increase
in total development aid from the United Nations,' the study
says.<BR><BR>In dollar terms, the study says a developing country
serving on the council expects to receive during its tenure an
additional 16
million dollars from the US in foreign aid and 1 million dollars from
the UN. The aid may increase in time of crises: 45 million dollars from
the US and 8 million dollars from the UN.<BR><BR>The study says a
country's strategic interests have a causal impact on the way foreign
aid is distributed, which explains why aid for poverty alleviation does
not always work, since humanitarian concerns are not a priority when
governments decide on their aid package.<BR><BR>The study titled, 'How
much is a seat on the Security Council worth? Foreign aid and bribery at
the United Nations,' is to be published in October in the Journal of
Political Economy. An advanced copy was given to Deutsche
Presse-Agentur, dpa.<BR><BR>Their authors, Ilyana Kuziemko and Eric
Werker, respectively from Harvard University and Harvard Business
School, use mathematical formulas and government data on foreign aid to
make
the case of vote buying and bribery in the UN political body, whose
decisions are binding.<BR><BR>They say results of their study on the
voting practices and the amount of foreign aid received by council
members lends 'strong support to the bribery hypothesis.'<BR><BR>The
study names no countries. It says previous empirical studies by other
authors show a 'political component to the allocation of foreign
aid.'<BR><BR>The council is composed of five permanent members: the US,
Russia, China, France and Britain which hold veto power over UN
resolutions, and 10 countires elected for two-year terms - usually
referred to as non-permanent or elected members.<BR><BR>The elected
members are mostly developing countries. But others like Germany, Japan,
Spain, Canada and Italy belong to the developed world, which disburse
financial assistance to poor countries.<BR><BR>The study says aid
payments to
elected Security Council members increase sharply during their two-year
term and drop almost immediately as soon as they complete their
tenure.<BR><BR>'The sharp increase challenges the notion that the
correlation is being driven by an unobserved, secular change in a
country's international influence or diplomatic savoir-faire,' the study
says.<BR><BR>It says the elected members are 'willing to trade their
vote for favours: they promote another country's interests in the
Security Council in exchange for development aid from a UN agency over
which the other country has influence.'<BR><BR>It said the United States
may send aid payments directly or funds from the UN Children's Fund
(UNICEF) to the elected council members. The US is the largest financial
contributor to UNICEF, which has been headed by an American. The current
UNICEF executive director is Ann Veneman, a former US secretary of
agriculture.<BR><BR>The authors of the study said they investigated key
events in the Security Council and international diplomacy since the
founding of the world organization in 1945 as a basis for their charges
of corruption in the UN system.<BR><BR>The 10 elected seats in the
council are divided among the world's five regions, which decide each
year which countries should run for the seats. The UN General Assembly
elects new council members, usually in October, by a two-thirds majority
of vote.<BR><BR>The current elected members are Argentina, Denmark,
Greece, Japan and Tanzania, whose two-year terms will expire December
31. The other five are Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia with terms
running until next December.<BR><BR>Venezuela, which is opposed to US
policies around the world, is campaigning for a seat in the coming
October election in the General Assembly. The United States is opposed
to Venezuela and has urged Guatemala to run.<BR><BR>
<HR width="100%">
<FONT size=-1><B>Source</B>: Deutsche
Presse-Agentur</FONT></DIV></div></span>
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