It’s being called a tsunami that has hit the Caribbean at the United Nations (UN). So, when Caribbean ambassadors at the UN, including Barbados’ Tony Marshall, hold an emergency meeting in New York in a few days’ time, they will have a single item on their agenda.
It will be: the expected negative fallout from the shocking arrest of Dr John Ashe, Antigua’s former representative who served as president of the General Assembly in 2013-14.
The top CARICOM diplomats have a good reason to be worried and it isn’t because they were involved in any skillduggery. Not at all. Instead, many are concerned because the damage could hit their countries. For as United States Attorney Preet Bharara, who investigated Ashe and his alleged Chinese partners and alleged Dominican Republic diplomatic conspirator, Francis Lorenzo, said a few days ago, “if proven, today’s charges will confirm that the cancer of corruption that plagues too many local and state governmetns [in the US] infects the United Nations as well.”
He alleged further: “John Ashe, the 68th president of the UN General Assembly, sold himself and the global institution he led. United in greed, the defendants allegedly formed a corrupt alliance of business and government, converting the UN into a platform for profit. We will continue to do everything we can to root out public corruption whether we find it in a city council or, as here, in the United Nations.”
Diego Rodriguez, an assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), endorsed the US Attorney’s warning. The charges, he said, “are sending a message to those who come to the United States from other countries with corrupt plans or bags of cash – no one is above and beyond the law. Investigating public corruption remains a top priority for the FBI”.
A similar warning came from the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US equivalent of the Barbados Revenue Authority. “IRS criminal investigation is committed to ensuring that everyone pays their fair share of taxes, regardless of an individual’s position, wealth or prominence,” said a top IRS official, Thomas Bishop, who heads the federal tax agency’s New York office.
Put all of these pieces together and the result is a message to the Caribbean and the UN: anything that Ashe touched will be scrutinised with a fine tooth comb, especially investment deals. Little wonder then that a senior Caribbean UN diplomat who requested anonymity told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that the arrest was like a tsunami hitting the island nations and coastal states.
“It’s more than a shock wave. It’s a tsunami because it can adversely affect all of us at this crucial time when we are hurting financially, need all of the foreign help we can get and as we seek to use the UN as a forum to present our case for help from the international development agencies and from institutions such as the United Nations Development Programme,” said the ambassador.
Just last week, a long list of Caribbean leaders or their foreign ministers appealed to the General Assembly to prod international financial institutions, including the World Bank, to change the way they use per capita income data to block access of some countries, including The Bahamas, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago to soft loans and grants.
Of course, Ashe must be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law and his attorneys are vowing he would prove his innocence. Much of what Ashe is accused of doing was connected to businesses and financial schemes in Antigua and Barbuda.
For instance, he is alleged to have: “agreed to and did perform official actions for business people who were seeking benefits from the UN and Antigua”; accepted over US$500 000 in bribes from David NG, a Chinese real estate developer who wanted to built a multi-million dollar UN sponsored conference centre in Macau, China; reportedly received over US$800 000 in bribes from “various Chinese businessmen and in return pushed their business interests within the UN and with senior Antiguan government officials, including the then Antiguan Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer; lobbied the Antiguan government to approve a US$20 million deal being financed by Chinese business interests; placed two Chinese businesswomen as official economic advisers to the office of the then Antigua prime minister.
Caribbean diplomats are concerned, and quite rightly so, that the Ashe affair would diminish the region’s influence within the UN and could jeopardise the employment of innocent Caribbean professionals who are now in the UN system.
According to highly placed confidential sources, Ashe was earmarked for a top position in the UN Secretariat that would have placed him in a strong position to advance Caribbean economic causes but that plan is going to be scuttled by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who must be concerned about his legacy as he completes his second and final term in office.
“It can damage us in the Caribbean,” said an ambassador. “It is also going to reflect poorly on the [Secretary General’s] judgement.”