DPR Korea

The Nemeth Report

Download the full report (.pdf, 2.22 MB) Page 118 correction (.pdf, 51 KB) Executive summaries (.pdf, 736 KB)

In January 2007, UNDP faced allegations that its resources in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) may have been diverted to illicit purposes. Later that month, the UN Secretary-General requested that an audit of UNDP’s activities in North Korea be conducted by the UN’s external Board of Auditors. Published on 31 May 2007, the external audit did not put the controversy to rest, and shortly afterwards a new set of allegations emerged.

In September 2007, after consultations with its Executive Board, UNDP announced that it was commissioning an External Independent Investigative Review Panel to get to the bottom of persistent allegations about its former operations in North Korea.

The Panel was led by former Hungarian Prime Minister Miklos Németh. The other members were Chander Mohan Vasudev, former Permanent Secretary of Public Expenditure in the Indian Ministry of Finance, and Mary Ann Wyrsch, a former UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees and former acting commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Click here for the Panel’s Terms of Reference.

The Panel delivered its report to the UNDP Administrator on the afternoon of 1 June. This delivery was witnessed by H.E. Mr. Jean-Marie Ehouzou, Permanent Representative of Benin to the United Nations and President of UNDP’s Executive Board. UNDP received reports for each of its thirty six board members in sealed envelopes and has hand delivered them accordingly.

The UNDP Executive Board will discuss the report at its upcoming meeting in Geneva near the end of June.

For more information:

• 2 June, 2008 - Statement by External Independent Investigative Review Panel
• 2 June, 2008 - Statement by UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis
• Background on the controversy
• 3 June, 2008 - UNDP Administrator's Q&A with the Press