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Erik Solheim, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, listens to the audience at a symposium on World Environment Day in New Delhi, India, on June 5 2018. (Reuters)
(Saumya Khandelwal / Reuters)
The UN chief of the environment resigned on Tuesday after receiving the results of an audit that revealed he had spent nearly $ 500,000 on trips in less than two years.
The UN's Executive Director for the Environment (UNEP), Erik Solheim, former Norwegian diplomat, said in a statement that he had received the final reports on the audit of his trip by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) of the United Nations. .
"I sincerely hope that it will be in the best interest of the American environment and the United Nations as a whole," he said.
The audit has not yet been published by OIOS, but the Guardian reported in September on an audit project that it was traveling 529 days out of a total of 668 days and had spent $ 488,518. The audit would have been particularly critical of his frequent flights, including a weekend trip between the United States and France. She found that such trips "presented a reputational risk to the organization, in particular [given] that UNEP is supposed to be the leader in environmental sustainability. "
He also concluded that he had "no regard for the rules and regulations in force" and claimed unjustified expenses. The audit stated that Mr Solheim had not justified the 76 days of travel to Oslo and Paris, and that he had been criticized for allowing two directors to work informally from Paris instead of UNEP headquarters in Nairobi.
Solheim said at the exit that he had paid back the money and made changes where the rules had been broken.
"If the administrative rules have been neglected, I accept personal responsibility and offer my unwavering commitment to fine tune a process that prevents them from ever reoccurring," he said at the time .
Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday in a statement that he was grateful for the services rendered by Solheim "and acknowledged that he had played a leading role in bringing the world's attention to critical environmental challenges, including plastic pollution and circularity; action for the climate; the rights of environmentalists; the biodiversity; and environmental safety. "
Guterres said Deputy Executive Director Joyce Msuya would be interim director during the launch of the successor recruitment process, which will include discussions with member states.
HALEY: NO TO THE GLOBAL COVENANT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
The United Nations has been a central arena in the international fight against environmental regulations for years, while the United States has responded significantly. In May, the United States rejected support for a proposal to integrate international environmental law into a legally binding treaty in the UN. The Pact for the Environment would consolidate what he called the "fragmented nature of environmental law" and "codify it".
In a statement to Fox News, US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said: "When international agencies attempt to force America to make vague commitments to from the environment, it clearly means that citizens and businesses in the United States will be forced to pay a large bill without significant benefits.The proposed global compact is not in our interest and we oppose it. "
Ben Evansky of Fox News contributed to this report.
