The head of the United Nations environment agency and his staff blew millions of shillings in unnecessary and budgeted travel expenses, according to a draft audit report.
Just 22 months since Erik Solheim took over from Achim Steiner as the Executive Director of Nairobi-based UN Environment, a not very flattering report says he pays too little attention to the environment, the regulations and the budget of his office.
And now the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), which conducted the audit, has recommended that Mr Solheim refunds the UN agency “all travel costs and related staff time not accounted for and all additional costs incurred by Unep as a result of uneconomical and inefficient decisions made by management”.
In reviewing the travel expenditure at Unep, OIOS noted that there was extensive travel by three senior managers during the period under review resulting in total travel costs of $740,893 (Sh74 million).
Some of the causes for such high expenditures included uneconomical routing for flight itineraries, opting for more expensive airlines, and implementing teleworking arrangements which were outside the existing guidelines on flexible…
