Mr. Peter Smith  resigned as  Assistant Director General for Education of UNESCO, effective March 15, 2007 .  Mr. Smith had served in this position since June 2005 and was the highest ranking United States citizen at UNESCO.

Director-General Matsuura accepted Mr. Smith’s resignation shortly before UNESCO’s External Auditor, currently the Auditor General of France, submitted to the UNESCO Executive Board a Report the Board had requested some months before “on the procedures used to hire consultants for the restructuring of the Education Sector.”  The consultant contracts under review amounted to $2.1 million. 

UNESCO’s procurement procedures for contracts in excess of $100,000 require competitive bidding by contractors, negotiation of fees and subsequent monitoring of contract performance.  The External Auditors found, inter alia, that the American consulting firm “Navigant was selected without competitive bidding, was given preferential treatment and that the fees payable on the various contracts were not negotiated in any verifiable manner”.  The Auditors note that Navigant Consulting’s stated field of specialization is the provision of consulting services in financial and legal matters in compensation litigation and that “the reasons for its selection –- other than the personal experience of the head of the Navigant team -- are not immediately apparent.”Our judgment is that it was necessary and appropriate for the Executive Board to request the external audit and that upon its release the Director-General had no choice but to accept Mr. Smith’s resignation.  UNESCO’s Executive Board will discuss the Report during its April 16-26 session.

We have reviewed the audit, which confirms that essential contracting procedures were not followed and makes strong recommendations for tightening internal procedures to ensure such contracting does not reoccur.

We note that Mr. Smith’s letter of resignation is widely available on the web and that the United States National Commission for UNESCO issued a statement crediting him with contributions to reform at UNESCO.

See the attached statements issued by the Director-General and  the National Commission , a  supportive letter to  Mr.  Matsuura from Chairman Lantos of the House Foreign Relations Committee  and a summary of the audit findings and recommendations.

Click here for information on the reorganization of the Education sector of UNESCO.