PACIFIC: United Nations denies links with alleged investor
Updated
The United Nations most senior representative in the South Pacific has denied the UN has any connection with an organisation calling itself the Office of International Treasury Control and warned people to ask lots of questions before becoming involved with it. The OITC is promising to invest a massive six billion Australian dollars in a development bank and other initiatives in Fiji, such as tourism and mahogany.
Presenter: Jemima Garrett
Speakers: Richard Dictus, the United Nations most senior representative in the South Pacific
GARRETT: Authorities in Fiji are concerned about the bona fides of the Office of International Treasury Control. A report has been prepared for interim Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, and police again warned last week that people should investigate promises carefully before committing themselves to any deals.
OITC's self styled chief of cabinet, Keith Scott was not willing to discuss his organisation's plans or bona fides on tape. He told Radio Australia by email that he'd been abused and misquoted too many times in the past by reporters.
On its website the Office of International Treasury Control says it wants to use its substantial funds to help put Pacific Island landowners back in control of their natural resources.
That's an aim that's won the support of the Viti Landowners and Resources Owners Association in Fiji. It's President, Ratu Osea Gavidi says he's still keen to go ahead with OITC plans for a development bank.
The United Nations resident coordinator in Suva, Richard Dictus, is concerned that OITC is using the United Nation's name to further its objectives.
DICTUS: It is definitely not a United Nations body, and when they visited Fiji in March last year they also did not present themselves as a United Nations body. They presented themselves as an organisation with a UN affiliation.
GARRETT: Well the organisation is claiming as you say some links with the UN, and in fact its website shows what purports to be a UN badge, and the organisation calls itself on its website, the UN Office of International Treasury Control. What is your reaction to that?
DICTUS: Well when they were in country here in March of last year we actually tried to establish contact because at that time we could not find anything concerning their claims of UN affiliation.
I still have not been able to find anything within UN records, although they are not really big news at this moment anymore, so we're not necessarily looking very hard.
But we asked them at that time to take a compact with me as the UN resident for coordinator which would be normal for a visiting UN organisation, and they never took us up on that, and therefore we've not really been able to make much progress on trying to find out exactly what they are or how they are affiliated.
GARRETT: In the past the organisation has claimed to be a secret agency, and it says that if parts of the United Nations deny its existence that's because it operates under a principle of plausible deniability. Does that sound believable to you?
DICTUS: That's absolute rubbish, that does not work in the UN. The UN is an organisation of member states, that means that all the member states at any moment of time should be able to see exactly what we are doing and with whom we are working.
So that kind of plausible deniability I really don't think that exists.
GARRETT: Members of the Office of International Treasury Control have been in Fiji recently and the organisation is looking at timber projects in Fiji and possibly other Pacific Island countries.
Does the UN or any of its agencies have any plans to invest in mahogany or timber projects in Fiji?
DICTUS: Not that I'm aware of, and I'm not aware of any further contacts that this organisation would have had in country.
As I said if they were really a UN organisation or if they worked for the UN according to the way the UN normally works I would be aware of these thing but I'm not.
GARRETT: What would you suggest to anyone thinking of becoming involved with the Office of International Treasury Control?
DICTUS: Ask questions, ask lots of questions and find out exactly what they are and see if you can establish that they are what they claim to be. I have not been able to do that myself, neither has my organisation.
GARRETT: This organisation says it's going to invest a massive six-billion dollars in Fiji through a development bank and other projects. Does that sound plausible to you?
DICTUS: Let me put it this way, if somebody walks into your country with that kind of money and that kind of offers I think you have to take it very, very seriously indeed, you need to investigate their bona fides, you need to make sure exactly that they can live up to what they promise.
There's not a country in the world that can ignore a six billion dollar investment offer when that's being put on the table. But it is something that is a very rare occurrence and it doesn't happen very frequently, so I would caution everybody to go about this with great care. But please don't ignore somebody putting that kind of money on the table either.
