Secretary-General makes public his financial disclosure statement

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today released his financial disclosure statement for 2006 to the public, honouring a promise he made on taking office, after submitting it for review to an outside financial and auditing company.

A confidential review of Mr. Ban’s statement by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), hired by the UN to examine the disclosure statements submitted by Organization staff, found that no further action is required of the Secretary-General regarding compliance with the UN Financial Disclosure Programme.

Under that programme, which is administered by the UN Ethics Office, public disclosure is not required and is done so on a voluntary basis. The disclosure statements apply to about 2,000 UN personnel and were one of the initiatives aimed at creating greater accountability put in the place during the tenure of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who also submitted the form but never made its contents public.

The Financial Disclosure Programme is administered by the UN Ethics Office. Public disclosure of statements is not a requirement of the Programme and is done so on a voluntary basis.

Earlier this month, in a speech in Washington D.C. to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Mr. Ban said he was submitting his statement for review and making it public “to set an early example” of his goal as Secretary-General to promote “the highest standards of integrity and ethical behaviour” at the UN.

Mr. Ban’s statement, which covers the period between 1 January and 31 December last year, has been posted on the Secretary-General’s website with certain personal details removed for security reasons.

It indicates that Mr. Ban and his wife Yoo Soon Taek own an apartment and two other lots of land in the Republic of Korea between them, as well as three checking bank accounts, each containing more than $10,000. The couple have no stock options and during the year did not make any profit of more than $10,000 from the sale of personal property.

In 2006 Mr. Ban also received a salary from the Government of the Republic of Korea for his work as that country’s Foreign Minister for most of the year.