U.N. Audit Criticizes Former CSUMB Chief
Monterey Herald 3/21/07
The audit released this week by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization says Smith's selection of a Chicago consulting firm to reorganize UNESCO's education sector showed "preferential treatment" that violated agency financial rules.
Moreover, the report by the auditor-general of France also questioned why Smith chose Navigant Consulting, a large international consulting firm that specializes in financial, business and legal matters, for the big educational reform.
"The reasons for the selection -- other than the personal experience of the head of the Navigant team -- are not immediately apparent," the audit said.
Smith, 61, founding president of CSUMB and the top campus administrator for 10 years, said last week he would step down as UNESCO's assistant director general for education in mid-June. But his boss, UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura, made the resignation effective immediately.
Smith's departure after 21 months as the highest-ranking American at UNESCO headquarters in Paris came after months of turmoil over his reorganization of the international agency's education sector.
Much of the controversy centered on seven contracts that Smith's education sector gave to Navigant without competitive bids. The Navigant team was led by Letitia Chambers, managing director of the firm's Washington, D.C., office and former executive director of the New Mexico Commission on Higher Education.
Neither Smith nor Chambers responded to e-mail messages seeking comment Tuesday.
In his resignation letter, Smith cited intolerable working conditions at UNESCO, including a February death threat, the "demonizing" of the United States and an anonymous campaign of lies, rumors and innuendo.
Alluding to the not-yet-released audit, Smith said he agreed with recommendations that changes were needed in UNESCO procurement procedures.
A UNESCO spokeswoman in Paris told the International Herald Tribune on Tuesday that Matsuura agreed to make the changes recommended by the audit to tighten the agency's contracting procedures.
The 55-page audit said the fees paid to Navigant on the various contracts, which mostly came from regular UNESCO program funds, "were not negotiated in any verifiable manner."
The audit noted that Smith was pleased with the consultant's work, but it didn't evaluate "the content of the reform and the choice made."
The report said Navigant got the contracts between June 2005 and August 2006 despite its thin educational background. Most members of the consulting team had backgrounds in different areas, including energy, the military and international governance, the report said.
"The decision not to consult any other company, if only for the sake of comparison, is unexplainable," the audit said.
Even when a few other companies were notified about some later contracts, the process wasn't aimed at "effectively finding actual competitors," the audit said.
In all, the audit said, the costs of the consulting work were high and the results -- while perhaps valuable from a management standpoint -- dealt very little with activities UNESCO "is required to carry out in the field of education."