Part 2. The UN state and the seven robbers

One day in December the telephone in Mrs Hisari's house was cut off. "I guess you'll have to pay the bill", replies the man at the telephone company. "But it isn't my bill", explains Mrs. Hisari. It's Mr. Trutschler's, the man who rented her house. Jo Trutschler, surely everybody knows who he is.

Yes, Mr. Jo Trutschler is a well-known person in Kosovo. He is the senior manager of the energy company KEK, which is the subject of many complaints for all too frequent power cuts. The telephone company contacts Mr. Trutschler. "This is not my bill", he says. "But you have been living in Mrs Hisaris house and the calls were made to Germany". "I know nothing about that". Trutschler does not concede even when he is confronted with the fact that the phone calls were made to his own home number in Bochum. He is not going to pay, and thats the end of it!

Mrs Hisari is seventy years old, a widow, and with no income. I have not been able to determine the exact salary of Jo Trutschler at the time of this event, but it is around 20,000 euros a month. Donor money. The Swedish aid agency, SIDA, supports the company where he is chairman of the board, the European Union pays his salary, and all this under the mandate of the UN, who came to Kosovo to guarantee justice, security and human rights.

So Mrs Hisari does not give up. She writes to UNMIK. So sorry, replies UNMIK, but we are not responsible for what our staff does in private. Then Mrs Hisari files a complaint against the German at the local court in Pristina. She does not have much of a choice since the bill is for DM 6,900, about one and a half annual Albanian salary.

Alas, answers the court, our jurisdiction does not cover Mr. Trutschler. You see he is working for the UN and thus enjoys immunity in Kosovo. So he can escape justice and run away from un-paid bills? Yes, so it seems...well, actually his immunity can be lifted. By Kofi Annan. But, seriously Mrs Hisari, you can't expect us to bother him with a little bill?

This incident took place in 2001. Six years later the UN is about to leave Kosovo. Their mission to build a law-abiding state is considered more or less accomplished. Kofi Annan has finished his mandate. Mrs Hisaris phone is still dead. Her firm belief nowadays is that the UN is a gang of robbers.

I have come to know that Mrs. Hisari shares her experience with too many others. This could explain why youngsters cordon off the UN Headquarters building with a ribbon that says "Crime scene - do not trespass". The source of their bitterness I intend to describe in my next article. But first, let's follow Mr. Trutschler a few more steps along the way.

There are a few UN bosses above him. The vice-governor of Kosovo, Andy Bearpark, is one of them. Doesn't he care about the UN's reputation? When the German brings shame on the mission (Hisari's bill is a serial in the press) why doesn't the UN just tell him to pay? Or reconsider if he is the right person to handle billions of aid money?

Yes, why? With hindsight you feel that this question should have been answered by a prosecutor. As a matter of fact, two years later Mr. Trutschler leaves Kosovo. And with him 4,3 million dollars, transferred to his mailbox company in Gibraltar.

When the UN auditors in New York (OIOS) try to reconstruct what actually happened they find out that the man who managed the most crisis- ridden company in Kosovo for two years lacked all qualifications for the task. His CV was forged. He wasn't an engineer, or an economist. He had not studied in Boston or in Florida and he never took a doctor's degree in Aachen. He did not have ten years of relevant business experience. (How could he possibly have managed all of that at the age of just 33?). In reality Jo Trutschler was a German small-time swindler with a couple of mailbox companies.

If you want to understand why Kosovo, after almost eight years of UN-rule and some ten billions in aid money, remains in such a bad shape you should study the Trutschler affair in detail. How did he get the job? The OIOS discovers that nobody double-checked his CV. Why not? The OIOS does not answer that question.

On the other hand UN auditors discover that Trutschler paid a good round sum of money to his successor. Money that the UN man from Canada accepted. He has no explanation to this peculiar transaction. It was a private gift, he answers when the auditors suddenly begin to ask questions. Really, 200.000 dollars, for nothing? "Well no, as a matter of fact, Mr. Trutschler loved my daughter's voice. This was a contribution to her singing career."

Let's stop the film for a while. The UN has not yet caught Mr Trutschler the thief. but has already recruited another unbelievable person in his place. Is this pure coincidence?

When the UN auditors draw their conclusions they borrow an expression from James Bond. UNMIK had equipped Trutschler with a licence to steal", they write. All normal scrutiny was disabled and the audit was a joke. High officials were vested with virtually unchecked authority, but were never called to account for their actions.

The diagnosis published in 2003 was alarming and was confirmed soon thereafter. Without ado the persons who employed Trutschler were able to leave the UN country with excellent recommendations and a considerable fortune in their pockets. Vice-Governor Andy Bearpark, who never took action against the German, was even entrusted with the reconstruction of Iraq.

Not even Jo Trutschler was brought to justice in Kosovo. That he was punished at all was pure coincidence. Justice in Germany got their claws into Trutschler when they discovered that he purported to be a doctor! A German doctor! For that foul deed and for other cases of criminal deception he got 42 months in prison.

UNMIK was also tried in the verdict. "The clear lack of control mechanisms" it says, makes it easy for people without specific qualifications to get positions they would not have been able to find elsewhere. It is often enough to know someone who knows someone else, and so on..." So, considering that an open box of treasure makes the thief bolder, the court deliberated upon a verdict somewhat more lenient for Trutschler.

"Those who do not leave Kosovo with their pockets full of money are either dumb or saints" says Y.
"Kosovo is a rubbish heap for lethargic politicians and an El Dorado for thieves" says X. Some steal openly, impudent as children. Soon they will probably pull their trousers down and defecate in the street" says N.
"I have participated in quite a few UN missions but none as rotten as this one" says Z.

These four individuals come from different countries and have (or had) central positions in UNMIK. But no one had a better insight than Marie Fucci, in 2003-2004 head of the Kosovo Trust Agency, the umbrella organization responsible for public and socially owned enterprises.

The man in the street is worse off today than when the UN or the Western diplomats arrived, bringing amounts of money hitherto in Kosovo," Fucci says.

"The beneficiaries of donor support, who should have been the population, were instead the local mafias, some in local government, and cowardly and incompetent international administrators, who never ran anything in their lives but scared."

Large sums of taxpayers' money have been wasted on activities that have nothing to do with re-invigorating the Kosovar economy but with lining the pockets of the nomenclature of Kosovo and the UN, Fucci maintains.

She re-calls that half her working days were spent dealing with anti-corruption agencies, most of them not too competent either." Until she became persona non grata.

Marie Fucci blames the UN, but adds that it was not the only agency responsible. "If it weren't for the large flow of money from donors like the EU and USAID, financed by their countries' tax-payers with minimal accountability, much of the corruption would not have been possible."

"Corruption" is a relative concept. It was not until I had really dug deep into some real cases that I began to understand the depth of the damage. I cannot depict this understanding by stapling adjectives. So please be patient. Here comes The tale of the seven robbers or as many methods to plunder Kosovo. Some are well known, others I have tracked down myself.

The first profiteer we will call Bo Olsson. He is of the modest kind and frequently found. In his native country, he was perhaps an ordinary office clerk. In Kosovo he emerges as an international top consultant at the telephone company PTK. As a matter of fact the position should have been publicly announced. "But I knew an Albanian in Bangkok who knew the Austrian boss in Pristina", explains Bo Olsson. And what did he do in Kosovo? "Gave advise on how to organize and then I helped formulating some job vacancies."

"He was not worth even a third of his salary" they tell me at his work place. Thats for sure. His salary was some 11,000 euros a month. How, could you guess? Oh, yes. It was determined by marauder number two:

Her name is Lema Xheme. She belongs to the category of local talents who have been appointed company managers by UNMIK. Since she is Albanian her salary as manager is set according to local level, 1,000 euros a month, but nothing prevents her from hiring personal advisers" from abroad at ten times that amount. She brings in half a dozen, says Olsson. Dear reader, you have most probably already seen through the plan. Correct: When Mrs Xheme and Mr. Olsson both end up in custody (on suspicion of corruption) she can deposit a bail of fifty thousand euros, but he can't.

How many Olssons are there in Kosovo? Inga-Britt Ahlenius, head of the UN audit in New York, has investigated the UNs methods of hiring staff. Between the years 2003 and 2005 there were 403,792 applications for 1,758 positions in the UN. This means 229 applicants per job. According to UN regulations the candidate's abilities shall be tested in stages. A very detailed study of the UN mission in Uganda shows that six out of ten vacancies are filled up the Bo Olsson way: the person gets the job by knowing someone, with no double check on formal merits and without the vacancy having been announced.

The third kind of marauder is related to the previous two but is more impudent. More environmentally adapted, you could say. His name is Gavin Jeffery and he is the managing director of the same phone company PTK. Bypassing the finance manager without further ado he engages an acquaintance from London. The latter stays for nine months, mostly plays poker on the internet according to his colleagues, and enjoys 16,000 euros a month, plus an office car, plus - yes, it's true - an extra sum to be able to rent a car during weekends! (I did not think this was true until I saw the contract with my own eyes). Is it rude of me to remind you that the budget this money comes from is also the source for supporting the one million Kosovans living on less than 78 cents a day?

The fourth kind of marauder goes for larger preys so he is willing to run some risks. Like the Briton Roger Reynolds, another UN boss within the same company PTK. He finds a partner called Norway Invest and pays three hundred thousand euros up front to its owner Owe Johansen for a promised contract. A contract that could be worth up to ten million& It is said that Norway Invest will extend the emergency phone network. Thereafter Reynolds says thank you UN for the confidence placed in me and goes on to work for the Norwegian company where he enjoys a salary of 20,000 euros a month - of Kosovo money appropriated by himself.

Hey! Can you really do that? the Kosovo press clamours. Oh yes, it is perfectly all right, says Vice-Governor Andy Bearpark. There is no conflict of interest in this.

Now might be the be time to cheer you up a bit: Not everything is black in Kosovo. Even in the most evil tales there are good fairies. In Kosovo the fairies speak Italian and drive Alfa Romeos. And what luck, they actually arrive in time. One morning two black cars halt at Norway Invest and eight sad individuals step out. They (policemen from Guardia di Financa) need an hour or so to find out that this director Johansen, who for more than a year has been negotiating a gigantic contract with the UN, is not even allowed to run a sausage stall in Norway. He is a criminal, is not allowed to run a business, with liabilities of more than one hundred thousand euros and a little asset of three euros. Exit Johansen. But Kosovo never recovers the three hundred thousand.

When corruption is the size of six digits (in euros) it is local. When it grows to seven digits then the UN is involved" claims Albin Kurti, leader of the youth movement Vetëvendosje, who threatens to run the UN out of Kosovo.

Unfortunately he is right. As an example: for the assignment to improve the miserable energy supply in Kosovo, the UN entrusts the Irish company ESB International. The electricity company KEK makes a loss of 70 million euros a year, delivers five to six power cuts a day and manages to charge for every second kilowatt only. The Irish stay for three years, collect some 10 million euros in consultancy fees and leave KEK in about the same shape as when they arrived. No, Kosovo cant complain. In the secret contract there was nothing about enhanced performance. ESB got paid for&being there.

This contract is disloyalty to principal" says a lawyer. The principal is the people of Kosovo, he claims. And the disloyalty is brought about by the United Nations, who forced this contract through and then prolonged it in spite of protests from the locals. My friend the lawyer is a melancholy man. In his dreams he sees two black Alfa Romeos outside the UN headquarters. But he knows that will not happen.

And, I think to myself, nor will the Icelandic Government ever be held responsible. The Icelanders are plundering the airport" warns a UN economist in a letter to OLAF (European Anti-fraud institute). Yes, they do, and with the silent consent of the UN bosses.

It is said that pure charity was the reason why ICAA (Icelandic Civil Aviation Authority) gracefully undertook to supervise Pristina airport.

Someone has to do that too. Kosovo is not formally a state and hence not allowed to run an international airport. Apart from lending its licence, the ICAA is contracted to polish the airport working routines, supervise the activities and upgrade the airfield, all to get it duly licensed. How kind, such solidarity... But after a while locals start asking why the benefactors never finish. How long can it take to put up a fence around the airport? Six months? After three years it still hasn't been fixed.

What locals do not know is that the Icelanders have no reason to hurry. They have already cashed in close to 15 million euros in consultancy fees and daily allowances. And they will get more. (The amount corresponds to a quarter of the countrys health care budget). The secret contract between the UN and Iceland does not state any deadline for the ICAA. The contract is prolonged one year at a time. In addition, Iceland levies extra charges on procurements provided. Each time the airport orders a computer system or a consultancy work is arranged, an extra 15 percent rattles into the cash box in Reykjavik.

Once upon a time the world was easier to understand. Italians were corrupt while Scandinavians stood for honesty. But in Kosovo, "the Viking mafia" is a concept that stands for Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic profiteers. And local Kosovans pray to Allah that some day the incorruptible Italians will catch them.

The most prominent marauder in Kosovo's black tale is also not the one it should be. It is a democratic state, France, under the socialist leader Lionel Jospin.

In the summer of 1999, as soon as it is clear that the UN will intervene in Kosovo and that a French minister (Bernard Kouchner) will head the mission, the French government sets up a special commission, Mission interministérielle pour lEurope du Sud-Est (MIESE). Mission: to avoid a repetition of Bosnia. In those days French aid amounted to 17 percent of the total assistance, with only five percent returned in the form of contracts for French companies. This time, money shall be made to flow the other way.

France will give with one hand and take back with the other", the commission determines. But there is no time to lose, you have to be the first to arrive at these "bingo markets" where "everything is excessively priced because of the emergency."

With the blessing of the French Government, the big companies are allowed to dress up their officers in the reserve as KFOR soldiers with the straight forward purpose of fencing in areas of interest and establishing "informal contacts". You have to build good-will, so don't hesitate to give a humanitarian helping hand once in a while. Yes, that is what is written. "Pour se faire une place et jouer les éclaireurs, elles n'ont souvent pas hésité à donner un coup de main humanitaire." Makes you envy the clarity of the French language.

MIESE makes sure that all available channels are exploited within the UN, EU and the World Bank, so that the mission will favour French companies. It is about formulating the procurement needs the correct way. (Unlike in Bosnia where UN launched a tender for mine clearance with dogs, not considering that the French military does not use dogs!)

And look! What a fantastic success! After three years France is in 13th place as donor country (far after Sweden) but has won more than 30 percent of the UNMIK contracts. Lets look at an example of what they did.

When Bernard Kouchner lands in Kosovo in the summer of 1999 there is no mobile telecommunication. German Siemens and French Alcatel submit one offer each. A panel of local experts select Siemens. The offer is the cheapest and it is not colonial. At a fixed lump sum the Germans promise to build a network for Kosovo. The French offer says the network would remain French property and the country code of Monaco would be utilized.

What happens? Bernard Kouchner, Kosovos legislator, head of government and head of justice, all in one person, replaces the UNMIK director of post and telecommunications, an Albanian, with a certain Pascal Copin, who in turn awards the contract to Alcatel. It is the only feasible solution, claims Copin, because only Alcatel (in a collaboration with Monaco Telecom) can provide Kosovo, not a formal state, with a country code.

Result: Seven years later Kosovo boasts the worst and most expensive telephone system in the region, concludes the European Council. Yet every time a Kosovan lifts the receiver, money rattles into French and Monegasque bank accounts, and we are not talking about small money. Close to a hundred million euros over the years, more than Swedens annual aid to Kosovo.

Well paid, you must admit, for lending a country code (0377) and for some ancillary services. But why, a naïve Swede might ask, he who thought he was helping Kosovo and not France, why couldn't UN arrange a country code for Kosovo? When the ITU, which issues country codes, is a UN organ? Kosovans were the first to ask this question. In 2002 they got the answer. They found a letter from UN man Copin to the ITU board. In the letter he asks ITU not to issue a country code for Kosovo.

Bedri Rama, at the time head of PTK, wrote an open letter to the UN. How am I going to explain to aid organizations that donate money for the basic needs of Kosovo that Kosovo assets at the same time disappear to Monaco? he asked.

"How can we explain this to different donors from whom we are seeking help for the elementary things in Kosovo's everyday life? How can we explain this to pensioners, to the many unemployed, to teachers, to professors and to our doctors who live on the edge of existence?"

An impossible question. If someone thinks that the corruption in Kosovo has grown to bizarre proportions, he should bear in mind that the human being is an animal that adapts to its environment. These Trutschlers and Johansens would not have been able to carry on the way they did unless the UN had created an adequate biotope. Because in Kosovo they were privileged in a way that not even monarchs of the Middle Ages could have dreamt about. This is the theme of the next article.

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