From: owner-can-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca (Cdn-Firearms Digest) To: cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Subject: Cdn-Firearms Digest V10 #633 Reply-To: cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Sender: owner-can-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Errors-To: owner-can-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Precedence: normal Cdn-Firearms Digest Thursday, July 12 2007 Volume 10 : Number 633 In this issue: [UK] 'I was portrayed as one of Britain's biggest illegal gun..." South Dakota Carries Out First Execution in 60 Years "Outsiders Have Access to U.N....Program's Financial...System" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 11:24:35 -0400 (EDT) From: Bruce Mills Subject: [UK] 'I was portrayed as one of Britain's biggest illegal gun..." Subject: "[UK] 'I was portrayed as one of Britain's biggest illegal gun dealers'" http://www.bromleytimes.co.uk/content/bromley/times/news/story.aspx?brand=BMLYTOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsbmlyt&itemid=WeED11%20Jul%202007%2013%3A08%3A29%3A253 'I was portrayed as one of Britain's biggest illegal gun dealers' 11 July 2007 TODAY a gun dealer who proved his innocence slams a police investigation that left him to suffer an agonising ten-month wait in custody in two of London's toughest jails. Michael Shepherd, 56, faced 32 years in prison after being arrested in September last year following an 18-month operation by the Met police's anti-gun crime Trident squad. The raid on his house opposite a primary school in Dartford uncovered a haul of 900 weapons and about 4,000 rounds of ammunition. Officers believed they were part of a world wide illegal gun trafficking cartel and linked to north London murders. If he was convicted he would most likely have died in jail. He reveals Kent Police visited his home and renewed his firearms licence just two weeks before he was arrested for allegedly dealing illegal weapons. The father-of-two also claims Trident, a Metropolitan police initiative to tackle black on black gun crime, is failing to infiltrate the illegal gun trade. He also accuses the police of pursuing him to show the public they are winning the fight against crime involving illegal firearms. Speaking from his ransacked home, he said: "Every single one of the guns I had stored in my house, about 900 in all, are legal to own and sell. "Every one of them! It is as simple as that. About two or three weeks before I was arrested and thrown in jail I had Kent Police officers stand in that building amongst all my guns and they renewed my RFD (Registered Firearms Dealers licence). You can imagine the shock when police calmly knocked on my door with the world's media watching and portrayed me as one of the country's biggest criminal gun dealers they had ever arrested." This week Kent Police confirmed they had visited his home, stood amongst his haul of legal firearms and renewed the licence as the operation by Trident came to a dramatic end with his arrest. A spokesperson said: "Kent Police carried out all the inspections that we are legally authorised to do as a firearms dealer and certificate holder and no weapons were found that he was not allowed to have and no prohibited weapons were recovered from inside his premises." Mr Shepherd added: "Surely the visit by Kent Police is proof enough by weapons are legal. "My arrest was overwhelming at first but I knew I had done nothing wrong and I kept explaining they were welcome to check out all the guns. They were hanging on walls in the house and locked for security. "The keys were there for them to open but they just hacked them off and took them down. I was taken away under a blanket and unknown to me was being labelled Trident's biggest ever scalp. As I was held for six days they searched my house. This was there chance to show the world they are tackling illegal gun crime. What they did not realise and had they done their homework they would have, all my guns are perfectly legal. They could have asked Kent Police that. I cannot believe their investigation resulted in me spending so long in prison for something I was clearly innocent of and not to mention the tens of thousands this investigation must have cost." "Although they had me under surveillance and investigation for about 18 months they did not realise everything you could buy from me you could go in to a newsagents pick up a magazine called Gun Mart and order it from them. "They raided my mother's place in Bexleyheath. She is very ill and suffers from Alzheimer's. She had no idea what was going on, she did not know what time of day it was. This whole ordeal has been harder for my family on the outside than me. To put my mother through that is disgusting. They could have come round and gone through all my guns they did not need this big raid. It was all for show. There was no armed police when I was arrested. Why not? If I was supposed to be such a ruthless gun dealer with the biggest arms haul ever why did that not need an armed response? Last month the father-of-two was found not guilty of 13 gun related charges at the Old Bailey. Ten other charges were either dropped or the judge ordered the jury to return not guilty verdicts. Flicking through a scrapbook that his daughter, Connie, has made of newspaper reports during the time of his arrest, his sheer disbelief of what has happened is etched on his face. Mr Shepherd blasted: "This is what has given the gun community a bad name. We have been persecuted for years to the extent were people now think if they see or hear about guns it is to do with terrible murders and armed robberies. Illegal guns are dangerous and in the wrong hands people will kill with them but they will not come to someone like me to get them. I would be the first congratulating Trident if they seized 900 illegal guns but they didn't. Why would a killer buy an antique weapon from me for £2,000 when you can get a sub-machine gun or Mac 10 and Uzis for a few hundred quid off the street. Those two girls who were shot dead outside the hairdressers in Manchester were not killed by a collector's gun. The weapons were probably smuggled in the country via the ports, sold for next to nothing and then used in this tragedy. This is where the first line of defence should be centred. "I have spent 10 months in jail on remand for a crime I did not commit, all my assets were frozen and for what. It is early days and you have to consider compensation and that is a matter for myself but I can never get those 10 months of my life back." Although he faced a life sentence the Elvis fanatic, who dresses in 1950s Teddy Boy-style clothes, cannot help to crack a smile as he pores over the extensive Forensic Science Service report compiled on July 10 last year - two months before his arrest. Referring to a 32.44 pistol, purchased by an undercover cop that was supposedly an illegal firearm, author Ronald Nicholas Gibbs BSC (Hons) writes: "In my opinion, the revolvers PHG/1 (evidence ref) and PHG/2 (evidence ref) were chambered for calibres of cartridge which appear on the Home Office list of 'obsolete calibres'. In my opinion if these revolvers were possessed as curiosities or ornaments, they could be regarded as antique firearms and benefit from exemption from firearms certificate procedure." This means the gun is perfectly legal and Mr Shepherd is baffled as to why this report did not result in the investigation being dropped. Further down the report it details an antique gun the same expert conducted research in to regarding its legality claiming it could only be fired if "the trigger was pulled while hitting the hammer with a mallet." It is hardly the weapon of choice for a north London murderer or hardened gangster. Mr Shepherd added: "I read through this report produced by one of the police experts which is basically telling them that all the guns are legal and I am mystified how this raid on my house was even given the go-ahead. It is laughable. What half decent criminal would buy a gun, pull it on someone and then bash the hammer with a mallet to shoot them. "I was portrayed as conspiring with the undercover police to sell him guns to kill and that I was aware he was not a collector. I took the chap shooting twice, we talked about him having a place to shoot and how he was 'serious about clay pigeon'. How is this dealing to a man I believe is going to kill someone or commit robbery. "If you buy a car from a dealer and drive down the road and kill someone doing 100 miles per hour is that the dealers fault because he did not tell you it was illegal to drive over 70. It may be simplifying it but it is true. I should never have even been arrested, let alone held in prison and refused bail while all my assets were seized." Mr Shepherd coped with his time on remand by gaining mutual respect from inmates but said it was a time he would never forget. He was kept going by support from family and friends and by sketching drawings of his cell, the view from his barred window and his favourite stars like Clint Eastwood and Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from Pirates of the Caribbean and Buddy Holly. He spent four months in Pentonville Prison before he was transferred to Belmarsh as his trial approached, but said the 10 months on remand had a worse toll on his family than himself. During his stay he was forced to wear a green and yellow suit because he was considered a lifer and spent time in segregation. He said: "When I was arrested I kept thinking all the guns are legal, I know that for sure, so I will be released but then I was refused bail. "In prison I just tried to switch off and wait for my trial so I could be cleared. I never doubted the jury system or the fact that justice would be done and I would be cleared. "However, that did not mean prison was nice it is a very degrading place. I would have to take my boxer shorts down and lift my shirt to show I had nothing concealed on me. You had to strip and squat so they could check you out. I had to be with three people when I was allowed out of the block for exercise. "Two people hung themselves in prison and one kept self-harming and slashing himself there was blood everywhere. "But I gave respect to people. You have to give it to receive it. They (prisoners) all knew who I was when I arrived and they made Elvis jokes and talked about the news coverage. I had offers to sell all my guns when I got out to a few of the inmates. "I was an enhanced prisoner during my stay so I was given better jobs and I did a lot of drawing." Since his release, Mick Shepherd is still waiting the return of his 900 gun collection from the Met, thought to be worth over £250,000 and his gun licence. He still has no identification and has now been suspended from his job. Having worked for Greenwich council for over 30 years as a carpenter he bizarrely received just £2.88 per week while in prison. Upon release he was informed he would be suspended on full pay pending an investigation. He added: "It's a bit weird considering I am innocent but it's a blessing in disguise really because I have so much to sort out." The gun dealer now hopes he can get on with his life and change the tainted image of guns and shooting. He added: "Since the Dunblane and Hungerford massacre the shooting community has been persecuted, new laws have been passed and the sport is being vilified. As tragic as both these cases are they were illegal firearms in criminal hands. If someone wanted to do it again today they could. Illegal gun crime has nothing to do with the shooting community and something we cannot be held accountable for. "Shooting has always been a passion of mine and something I have pursued since a kid like my passion for Elvis and his music. It is such a shame in this country that I cannot be left to pursue my interests without being dragged through the courts and held in prison for something I was clearly innocent of. "Years ago Dartford and the surrounding area had five shooting clubs, now it has three and there is never anything illegal going on. You don't see police down there but you see hundreds at football matches so you tell me who the risk is to the public? "The government and police do not like guns but it is the illegal guns in the hands of criminals that kill." A Greenwich Council spokesperson said they were unable to discuss or divulge employment and financial details of employees. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:10:22 -0600 From: Joe Gingrich Subject: South Dakota Carries Out First Execution in 60 Years South Dakota Carries Out First Execution in 60 Years Thursday, July 12, 2007 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289038,00.html SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Elijah Page pleaded guilty to his role for the March 2000 slaying of Chester Allan Poage, thinking he would avoid the death penalty and spend the rest of life in prison. Instead, he willingly went to his death Wednesday. And, though friends and relatives said the 25-year-old was remorseful, he maintained his public silence to the end, which ultimately came quickly. Page was executed at the South Dakota State Penitentiary Wednesday night, the first in 60 years. Warden Doug Weber, who stood to the right of Page's head throughout the execution, asked if he had any last words. "No," Page replied. "Do I understand you to say that you have no last words?" Weber pressed. "Yes, no last words." Then seconds later, as the room was silent, three drugs were injected that rendered him unconscious, stopped his breathing and then his heart. Page's chest heaved a couple of times, he let out a few gasps that sounded like snores, and was silent. His eyes were closed and within minutes, his skin started to turn color. Nine minutes after the first injection, an emergency medical technician declared Page dead. "I have no breathing. I have no heartbeat. The time is 10:11," the unidentified EMT said. Dr. Brad Randall, the Minnehaha County coroner, accompanied the EMT and made the official certification of death. An autopsy was planned for Thursday morning, as it is done with all inmates who die, he said. Page pleaded guilty to killing Chester Allan Poage, 19, of Spearfish, who was -- over three hours -- stabbed, beaten with rocks and forced to drink hydrochloric acid. Last year, Page gave up his court appeals and requested to die. That was supposed to happen in August. But Gov. Mike Rounds postponed it over concerns about a conflict in state law that has since been changed. Page is among a handful of people his age or younger put to death since capital punishment was reinstated in the United States in 1979. His case also is unusual because a judge, not a jury, imposed a death sentence -- and he asked to die. Page, who was entitled to appeals that could have lasted many more years, still had the legal right to resume those petitions even moments before the execution. Page's regular visitors included attorney Mike Butler and family members. "I love him with all my heart," Page's father, Kenneth Chapman of Texas, said before the execution Wednesday. Page wore an orange prison jumpsuit. Leather straps bound his body and arms, and a sheet covered the lower half of his body. Page had intravenous tubes in both arms. "He blinked but he showed no emotion whatsoever," said media witness Bill Harlan, a reporter with the Rapid City Journal. "It was very clinical. It was a very bright room," he said. Dottie Poage, the victim's mother, said she was proud of the prosecutor, the state, the penitentiary staff and the governor. "Elijah Page had the ultimate penalty for the ultimate crime," she said. "I'm proud to be an American." Lawrence County State's Attorney John Fitzgerald, the prosecutor in the Page case, said justice has been served. "Mr. Page has paid with his life for the crimes he committed," Fitzgerald said. "His debt to the state of South Dakota is now paid in full." Death penalty protesters, far outnumbering supporters, gathered outside the penitentiary, displaying signs with sayings such as "Choose life for Page" and "End the death penalty." Two death penalty supporters' signs said "Justice" and "Remember Chester." Besides Page, Briley Piper, 25, of Anchorage, Alaska, also pleaded guilty to killing Poage and was sentenced to death. A third man, Darrell Hoadley, 26, of Lead, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. According to testimony, the three killed Poage so there would be no other witness to the theft of a Chevy Blazer, stereo, television, coin collection, video game and other items from Poage's home in Spearfish. Dottie Poage said she took her children to church and taught them faith, morals and trust. She said her son came across three people that he wanted to be friends with. "Who would ever do something like this to a friend?" she said. "He was already looking up to God when he was young. God maybe even knew then that Chester would be taken at an early age." Rick Mowell, Lawrence County sheriff, said Poage's death was the most violent, tortuous death he has seen in his 35 years of law enforcement. The last person execution in South Dakota was April 8, 1947. George Sitts was electrocuted in Sioux Falls for the Jan. 24, 1946, slayings of state criminal agent Thomas Matthews and Butte County Sheriff Dave Malcolm near Spearfish. For his last meal, Page requested steak, jalapeno poppers, onion rings, a salad, lemon iced tea, coffee and ice cream. Besides Piper, South Dakota's death row includes Charles Rhines and Donald Moeller. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:19:03 -0600 From: Joe Gingrich Subject: "Outsiders Have Access to U.N....Program's Financial...System" Cc: Gilles Duceppe MP , Jack Layton MP , New Democratic Party , Peter MacKay MP , Prime Minister Harper Subject: "Outsiders Have Access to U.N. Development Program's Financial Management System" Outsiders Have Access to U.N. Development Program's Financial Management System Wednesday, July 11, 2007 By George Russell http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288970,00.html The United Nations Development Program, already mired in controversy for its dealings with North Korea, now faces another scandal involving the people who spend its $5.2 billion annual budget - and shut down its computerized financial management system yesterday when confronted by FOX News about their activities. The new scandal involves UNDP's headquarters financial unit, where checks are signed and purchase orders are approved for its sprawling operations world-wide. Since the last week of June, FOX News has learned, investigators from the United Nations' watchdog Office of Internal Oversight Services, or OIOS, have been probing the financial unit for evidence of hiring irregularities and violations of UNDP financial rules. And already there are some themes similar to the six-month battle over UNDP operations in North Korea: evidence of unauthorized personnel working in sensitive positions that - according to its own regulations - should only be held by UNDP staff; payments with puzzling authorizations that total nearly $2 million; service providers whose employees may violate important UNDP rules and regulations. FOX News has also learned from UNDP insiders that critical files may have disappeared out of reach of investigators. This was coupled with dramatic, sudden, and secretive shut-downs of UNDP's computers in the wake of FOX News email queries Tuesday about the situation. Indeed, something like a covert scramble began within UNDP on Tuesday in the wake of the arrival of the FOX News questions. At first, a UNDP press spokesman declared that there had been a delay in receiving the questions, directed to the top echelon of UNDP officials, due to a computer shutdown. But by that time FOX News had already received telephone confirmation of receipt of the emails from the office of UNDP administrator Kemal Dervis, the organization's CEO. Those emails included copies of the questions sent to the three top UNDP officials under Dervis. Just two hours later, however, at 3:37 p.m. on Tuesday, UNDP employees told FOX News that there was a sudden shutdown of UNDP's computerized financial management system -which coincided with an emergency senior staff meeting that took place in the 21st floor office of UNDP's No. 2 official, Ad Melkert. (Melkert himself was traveling outside the country; the meeting was chaired by Melkert's chief of staff, Tegegnework Gettu.) FOX News was unable to learn what took place in the emergency meeting, or how long it lasted. But at 6:22 p.m., much - but not all - of UNDP's computer systems came back on line. With one significant exception. The portions of UNDP's proprietary financial software system that deal with personnel assignments, personnel records, and access to financial tasks, remained blocked to almost everyone who normally uses those parts of the system, until at least 2 a.m. The sudden cloak of secrecy was significant, because the new internal investigation centers precisely on the central financial bureau at the heart of UNDP where that financial software is used - a bureau that is directly under the supervision of the agency's top-most officials. It is known as the UNDP's Office of Finance and Administration (OFA), which is headed by UNDP's No. 4 official, Comptroller Darshak Shah, a 10-year UNDP veteran. OFA, with 84 employees, is responsible for managing the cash flow of the entire UNDP - an organization with more than 8,000 employees whose budget grew from $4 billion to $5 billion between 2000 and 2004, and is expected to grow by another 40% by 2015. Whatever money UNDP has flows out of OFA to its operations in 190 countries world wide - and to a network of suppliers who provide everything from consultants to foodstuffs to train locomotives for development projects around the world. Financial controls at OFA are supposedly tight - under UNDP rules, only full-time staff members are supposed to have access to the UNDP's proprietary financial accounting and disbursement system, known as ATLAS. But that is the rule that is now being violated. All of which deepens the drama now surrounding UNDP and its relationship with a job placement agency known as Professional Financial Temporaries, Inc.-or PRO-FIT, as it calls itself on its website, www.accountancyatprofit.com. According to UNDP payment records obtained by FOX News, PRO-FIT has received more than $1.9 million in payments from UNDP since January 2005 alone. Those payments cover the salaries, benefits and other expenses - plus, of course, profit - for PRO-FIT for a variety of employees who are working at UNDP in the Office of Finance and Administration. Those employees' salaries are not paid by UNDP, but by PRO-FIT itself, which also hires and fires the personnel. The full number of PRO-FIT employees in the department is not known, though some UNDP insiders place it as high as 31 - or more than a third of the staff. Most are in lower-level clerical or accountancy jobs, but at least several perform functions such as financial disbursement which are supposedly performed only by regular U.N. staffers. At least seven of the 31 outsiders have log-ins that allow them to operate within the agency's ATLAS financial system as the equivalent of regular UNDP personnel, in violation of UNDP regulations. FOX News has obtained ATLAS user IDs for the PRO-FIT employees that confirm their presence in the financial software system, and their roles, which include the ability to approve certain types of financial transactions and move financial deposits within the UNDP's worldwide system. Along with the IDs, FOX News has obtained copies of PRO-FIT hourly time-sheets filled out by OFA workers and transmitted to PRO-FIT's Manhattan fax number. Moreover, FOX News has obtained OFA data recording scores of UNDP payments to PRO-FIT since January 2005. Significantly, none of the payments hit the threshold of $100,000 that is a benchmark for oversight by higher levels of UNDP management. But in a significant number of cases, the monthly totals for the payments easily exceed the $100,000 threshold. And the totals for 2005, 2006, and so far in 2007 all exceed that mark handily. (Among the items paid there is a particularly unusual one: an invoice numbered 00040679, and dated April 26, 2006. It notes "placement fees" totaling $12,715 for an individual named Fatima Ba - a name almost identical to that of Administrator Dervis personal assistant, Fatimata Ba. Questioned by FOX News about her possible relationship with PRO-FIT, Fatimata Ba would only say that she "did not know" if such a relationship existed, and referred FOX News to the UNDP press office.) PRO-FIT founder and president Alvin Galland declined to answer any questions from Fox News. (An associate who answered PRO-FIT's telephone said that Galland "was about to go on vacation.") There is an even deeper mystery involving PRO-FIT - how it came to provide such sensitive, and possibly forbidden, services to UNDP that insiders say stretch back more than a decade, without any competitive rebidding of the contract for those services. (PRO-FIT itself, according to its website, was founded in 1996.) Under UNDP regulations, all competitive contracts must be put up for rebidding every 36 months, but according to UNDP insiders, there are no records of the rebidding of the PRO-FIT contract within at least the past 48 months. Moreover, insider sources have told FOX News that there is no sign at all of a PRO-FIT contract in UNDP's legal files dating back for the past four years. There is at least one piece of evidence that the PRO-FIT relationship stretches back beyond 2004. It's date of registration in the ATLAS system is January 1, 1901; UNDP insiders explain that ATLAS was created in 2004 and any contracts preceding that time were given the same 1/1/1901 date. Who authorized the deal with PRO-FIT, and who has been aware of it since that time? Spending on the order of UNDP's payments to PRO-FIT usually requires approval at the highest levels of the organization. For purchases of more than $100,000, only UNDP officials with the rank of Director and Assistant Secretary General and above are allowed to grant approval, with the required agreement of a special contract approval committee, known as the Advisory Committee on Procurement, or ACP. Major purchases are also supposed to be open automatically for competitive bidding, with a rare number of exceptions. There are at least some theoretical possibilities that the PRO-FIT contract escapes some of the regular UNDP rules. Some UNDP contracts, for example, are considered long-term, and exempt from the rebidding rule. But an examination by FOX News of records of the UNDP's long term contracts, which are kept on the agency's internal website, does not include the PRO-FIT deal among them. (FOX News obtained a duplicate image of the website at the time of examination in the event of subsequent tampering.) UNDP financial rules also allow considerable authority to the organization's Chief Procurement Officer to create contracts at his or her own discretion, without competitive bidding, so long as the reason is recorded in writing. But that discretion does not extend to granting outsiders access to the UNDP financial control system, ATLAS, which is expressly forbidden under UNDP rules. UNDP's Chief Procurement Officer is Akiko Yuge, the agency's Deputy Assistant Administrator, and No. 3 official. FOX News queries to Yuge regarding the use of any discretionary authority in regard to PRO-FIT have so far gone unanswered. Similar email questions were put by FOX News to Darshak Shah, head of OFA, along with questions about his awareness of outsiders having access to his office's most sensitive financial record system. Shah acknowledged receipt of the questions, but said only that "UNDP will revert back to you soon." Additional questions sent to Ad Melkert and Kemal Dervis received no reply, beyond an advisory that Melkert was traveling until July 11. But even without competitive bidding, UNDP purchases must observe safeguards. Any contract of $100,000 or more that is approved without bidding in a unit such as the Office of Financial Administration requires the specific approval of the Chief Procurement Officer - in this case, Deputy Associate Administrator Yuge - and it also requires review and endorsement by the Advisory Committee on Procurement, which Yuge chairs. Questions to Yuge about whether the procurement committee was ever involved in reviewing PRO-FIT's contract went unanswered. The fact that outsiders have privileged access to UNDP's sacrosanct financial software is not merely a breach of its most important financial rules. It raises the possibility that outsiders whose presence is known to UNDP's senior management can enter, alter and delete data from the ATLAS record system - precisely the circumstance that the staffers-only access to ATLAS is intended to prevent. That possibility is particularly sensitive at a time when UNDP has been locked in a bitter dispute with the U.S. government over the transfer of hard currency to the dictatorial government of Kim Jong Il, and, according to the U.S. mission to the United Nations transfers of sums totaling millions to North Korean entities that have a relationship to the country's illicit nuclear weapons program. Some of the U.S. accusations have been based on data obtained from the UNDP's proprietary financial systems, samples of which were revealed to UNDP officials in closed door sessions. UNDP officials have in turn leaked stories claiming that the U.S. data samples differ from entries in those systems, with the clear implication that the U.S. information has been altered or otherwise falsified. The presence of outsiders with privileged and theoretically forbidden access to ATLAS, however, raises the possibility that UNDP itself could be altering data. The sudden shutdown of UNDP computer access in the areas involving personnel records, duties and ATLAS access IDs further underlines that possibility. If so, the issues surrounding UNDP may no longer involve just the violation of vital rules and procedures. In light of the investigations underway into the Office of Finance and Management, the issues may include obstruction of the United Nations' own system of justice. UPDATE After publication of FOX News' story, various U.N. officials have responded to some of the questions posed to them concerning OFA and PRO-FIT. Among other things, the officials state that OFA currently has 117 employees, of whom 101 are staff and 16 contracted workers. Of the 16, 10 are said to be employees of PRO-FIT, while "the other six come from three other external companies." According to U.N. Chief Procurement Officer Akiko Yuge, the contract for PRO-FIT was approved after a "competitive bidding process" in 1998. The contract was approved under an arrangement known as a Reimbursable Loan Agreement, which allows UNDP to pay outside companies for the services of temporary employees, and does not, Yuge says, require further competitive bidding. "UNDP believes that to date it has received value for money from PRO-FIT," she added. Even so, Yuge said, OFA has already changed its ways. After deciding "some time ago" to undertake a "new competitive process" for the kind of services PRO-FIT offers, she said, "the bidding process took place three months ago and is currently under review." FOX News has examined the UNDP procurement Web site where competitive bidding exercises are announced and posted. There is no record on the site of any posting for the services offered by PRO-FIT during the time period Yuge mentions. Yuge's claim about the date of UNDP's relationship with PRO-FIT is contradicted to some degree by answers provided to FOX News by OFA head Darshak Shah. He declared that "PRO-FIT has provided services to UNDP since the mid 1990s." He did agree with Yuge that the deal was finalized under a Reimbursable Loan Agreement, or RLA, "under the authority delegated in accordance with UNDP financial regulations and rules." FOX News has obtained a copy of the UNDP circular that initially announced the introduction of RLAs. Issued by the UNDP Office of Human Resources, it is dated July 27, 1999 - long after both officials say it was used in the case of PRO-FIT. Both UNDP officials claim that outside employees at OFA - including those from PRO-FIT - are not forbidden access to the ATLAS financial management system, but are restricted only to data-entry functions. "PRO-FIT employees in OFA have not been delegated certification and approval functions in ATLAS," Shah asserted. But UNDP guidelines for hiring short-term help and contractors, which FOX News has examined, explicitly cite ATLAS "access" as a form of "approving or signing authority" that must not be granted to the employee. The same guidelines cover employees under RLAs. Moreover, UNDP documents, computer log-ins and other information in FOX News' possession confirm that PRO-FIT employees perform financial approval and other tasks that are supposedly done only by UNDP staffers, as previously reported. Alvin Galland, the president of PRO-FIT, who initially declined to speak to FOX News, also responded by telephone after the originally story was published. According to Galland, his firm has had a "relationship with UNDP for 13 or 14 years," which would date it to the early 1990s. "We do have contracts, they were competitive, and they were bid," he declared. "I have had nothing but fully professional relations with UNDP." Galland declined, however, to discuss any specific details of his relationship of his contractual relations with UNDP, suggesting that any such information should come from the international agency. George Russell is Executive Editor of FOX News. ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V10 #633 *********************************** Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca Moderator's e-mail address: mailto:akimoya@cogeco.ca List owner: mailto:owner-cdn-firearms@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca FAQ list: http://www.magma.ca/~asd/cfd-faq1.html and http://teapot.usask.ca/cdn-firearms/Faq/cfd-faq1.html Web Site: http://teapot.usask.ca/cdn-firearms/homepage.html FTP Site: ftp://teapot.usask.ca/pub/cdn-firearms/ CFDigest Archives: http://www.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca/~ab133/ or put the next command in an e-mail message and mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca get cdn-firearms-digest v04.n192 end (192 is the digest issue number and 04 is the volume) To unsubscribe from _all_ the lists, put the next five lines in a message and mailto:majordomo@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca unsubscribe cdn-firearms-digest unsubscribe cdn-firearms-alert unsubscribe cdn-firearms-chat unsubscribe cdn-firearms end (To subscribe, use "subscribe" instead of "unsubscribe".) If you find this service valuable, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the freenet we use: Saskatoon Free-Net Assoc., P.O. Box 1342, Saskatoon SK S7K 3N9 Home page: http://www.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca/ These e-mail digests are free to everyone, and are made possible by the efforts of countless volunteers. Permission is granted to copy and distribute this digest as long as it not altered in any way.