Corruption case spotlights FAO office that 'does not exist'
CAIRO — The FAO “clandestine” office in Riyadh occupies a floor at the Saudi ministry of Agriculture and in Kafkaesque fashion is known only as “the Unit” to officials from the Kingdom and the team of national and international staff who work there despite the UN agency saying it does not exist, a whistleblower says.
The managers running the secret office, such as Abdallah Oihabi, a Moroccan who was fired as FAO programme coordinator in the Kingdom for harassing an employee who refused to give a bribe to a Saudi official, like to play down the fact that they are working with money donated to FAO by the Saudi government.
While FAO has acknowledged receiving substantial funding from Saudi Arabia, much of it hustled by former DG Jacques Diouf, the FAO website page for Saudi Arabia says the agency has no office in the Kingdom.
http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/index/en/?iso3=SAU
“There is no FAO office in this country,” according to the official page. That fiction is nourished by the managers running the operation remote from Rome headquarters.
“They try to be far from FAO,” the whistleblower, Ahmed ElObeidy, told Italian Insider. “They usually mention that the fund is originally Saudi and Saudis are free to do what they want with their money.” About 10 people, international and national staff, worked in the phantom office when Mr ElObeidy was there.
“They never give me an FAO email account. They asked me to give them contacts data to prepare a business card, but they gave it to me two weeks before leaving.”
He added that “Oihabi was crazy if I contact the Technical Officer or any FAO officials. He wanted to separate the Unit from FAO.”
Last year Mohamed Abubakr (Sudanese) was appointed as FAO Programme Coordinator to replace “Oihabi”. Abubakr was previously Chief Technical Advisor.
Nevertheless, the office that officially does not exist is kept under strict control by the FAO regional one, which officially does, in Cairo.
“A consultant from Cairo Office informed me at that time that Oihabi contacted by phone the secretary of the Assistant Director General every day for keeping everything under control,” the whistleblower added.
The ADG at the time was Mohamad Ibrahim Albraithen, Assistant Director-General, Regional Representative for the Near East.
His successor, Saad Alotaibi, also from Saudi Arabia, left the Cairo post after a young Japanese consultant jumped to his death from the FAO Cairo office building after suffering a nervous breakdown that did not receive prompt attention.
“Oihabi rewarded some staff in Cairo Office by inviting them to the Office in Riyadh to participate in training etc,” the Whistleblower added.
FAO sources said the affair is just the tip of the iceberg of graft involving the FAO in the Middle East, much of it allegedly involving ”bent” Moroccans and Tunisians who have been involved in blackmailing local officials caught in “honey traps.”
Unorthodox use of office space is not unusual at the FAO. The agency offered a suite of offices to the IPS agency in Rome, ensuring a flow of uncritical news about its activities, as well as desk space for the EFE correspondent at FAO, whose salary is paid by the agency for the same purpose.
