FEATURE : Questions linger on UNDP boss

What you need to know:

  • Generally, the ordinary person out there has largely been left in the dark after the government issued a terse statement on the expulsion.
  • The Foreign Affairs ministry said in a statement Tuesday that Ms Awa Dabo, a Gambian national and daughter of the country’s former Vice President Bakary Bunja Dabo, had “poor relations with her work colleagues and UNDP management.”

Dar es Salaam. She was given 24 hours to leave. The shocking, swift expulsion of the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) last week leaves a lot of questions ranging from the reason for the delicate decision to what it forebodes for the future of Tanzania’s relations with the international body.

Generally, the ordinary person out there has largely been left in the dark after the government issued a terse statement on the expulsion.

The Foreign Affairs ministry said in a statement Tuesday that Ms Awa Dabo, a Gambian national and daughter of the country’s former Vice President Bakary Bunja Dabo, had “poor relations with her work colleagues and UNDP management.”

According to the statement, the government decided to act “after noticing a slowed performance of the agency.”

Ms Awa Dabo headed the UNDP in Tanzania since 2015.

Because she was a very senior official of a key development partner of the government, covering democratic governance and aid coordination, Ms Dabo’s expulsion quickly drew huge public interest, and is still a subject of debate in the social media.

Apparently, the Foreign Affairs ministry statement did not help much to stave off speculation that there is more to her dismissal than meets the eye.

“The foreign ministry appeals to the UNDP to remind its staff that their priority is to work with the government to achieve the goals stated in the Developemnt Vision 2025, a Five Year Development Plan and Sustainable Development Goals state in the 2030 agenda,” read part of the statement.

Internal wrangles

But insiders say the expulsion of the UNDP boss was the culmination of internal wrangles and bitter exchanges among some senior staff of the UN body that have persisted for over a year now.

Ms Dabo who took charge of the UNDP office in Tanzania in August 2015, is said to have been a target of a clique of UNDP staff who accused her of mistreating staff.

Investigations by The Citizen have established that the staff squabble have persisted for over a year now to the extent of drawing police investigators to personal threats between workers, that had degenerated into a criminal nature.

And extensive police investigations are said to have uncovered several communications of the UNDP boss, which the government was uncomfortable with and regarded as interference country’s internal affairs.

Investigators are believed to have stumbled on some sensitive documents, which roped the UN boss into the tricky post-election political crisis in Zanzibar.

She is accused of filing to the UN headquarters, a disturbing report on the Zanzibar election. The government feels the report was anti-establishment, and that she had crossed the legal mandate of the UNDP boss.

Deteriorating relations

People who were investigating her alleged that because of her deteriorating relations with colleagues, several reports and actions that were not consistent with national interest were leaked to Tanzania’s Permanent Mission to the UN, which blessed a proposal to remove her from the country.

But other sources within the UNDP office in the country say following the 2015 General Election, which witnessed the emergence of several incidents of violations of human rights, the expelled UNDP boss filed to the UN and development partners, a report that tainted the image of the country.

That report is believed to be one of the reasons some key development partners demanded tough conditions for support, and went further to question some issues, which the government felt had crossed the UNDP mandate in the country.

“Awa is one of the UN heads who are uncompromising. If you remember well during the 2015 General Election, she planned to give NEC (National Electoral Commission) special computers to help in vote counting, but NEC rejected saying it was not ready to use that kind of technology,” said an impeccable source, who is privy to the goings-on.

As one of the key partners in the 2015 General Election, particularly on the Zanzibar side, Ms Dabo is said to have prepared and filed to the UN and development partners, a telling report on alleged irregularities in the Isles election.

Not only that, our source noted that Ms Ado was accused of siding with opposition leaders who lost the 2015 General Election but felt cheated; she is believed to have coached them on how best they could seek recourse with international bodies.

Last August, Civic United Front (CUF) presidential candidate Seif Sharif Hamad went on an international tour in the US, Europe, Canada and to the UN to complain about irregularities in the October 25, 2015 General Election in Zanzibar.

Following his complaints, the Liberal International wrote the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to request sanctions against the Zanzibar and the Union government.

This is said to have left the government on the defensive when its commitment on promotion of good governance and democracy came to question.

And sources say the government is now blaming that report on decisions by some development partners to withhold funds for several development projects that were supposed to be given through the UNDP.

“She is not a citizen of this country, noone would have tolerated any form of meddling in internals affairs like that,” said a government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the highly sensitive nature of the matter.

The expulsion took a new twist later after an MP demanded an explanation from the government.

Mbozi MP Paschal Haonga wanted the government to explain the actual reasons for expelling the UNDP boss, and giving her 24 hours to leave the country.

However, the chairman of Parliament, Mr Andrew Chenge, blocked debate on the issue saying the government was the top authority in diplomatic issues, and that the National Assembly cannot question the expulsion.