UN’s second-in-command makes public her financial disclosure statement

Following the example of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, his deputy today released her financial disclosure statement for 2006-07 to the public after submitting it for review to an outside financial auditing company.

A confidential review of the statement of Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the firm hired by the UN to examine such documents, found that no further action is required regarding her compliance with the UN Financial Disclosure Programme.

The disclosure statements apply to about 2,000 UN personnel and were one of the initiatives aimed at creating greater accountability put in place during the tenure of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who also submitted the form but never made its contents public.

Under the programme, which is administered by the UN Ethics Office, public disclosure is not required and is done so on a voluntary basis.

This past January, in a speech in Washington D.C. to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Mr. Ban said he was making his statement 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.

Ms. Migiro’s statement, which covers the period between 1 February 2006 and 31 January 2007, has been posted on the Secretary-General’s website with certain personal details removed for security reasons.

It indicates that Ms. Migiro and her husband, Cleophas Lukanazya Chitende Migiro, own two houses and a plot of land in their native Tanzania, as well as stock in a cement company. They also maintain several bank accounts containing more than $10,000.

In 2006, Ms. Migiro also received salary and expenses from the Government of Tanzania for her work as Member of Parliament and Foreign Minister of that country. She states that she has resigned from both posts as well as from her position in the central committee of a Tanzanian political party.