UNDP staff slept on job while assessing Bidco for BCtA project

By Nankwanga Eunice Kasirye
The United Nations Development Program’s  staff blundered when they characterized environmental risks related to Bidco as “Moderate” and indicated that Bidco was a strong candidate for membership in Business Call to Action BCtA, Part of the  Social and  Environment Compliance Unit SECU report, faults staff  for pursuing limited due-diligence approach while engaging with Bidco.

 The UNDP form used while engaging Bidco for membership in Business Call to Action BCtA, contravened with the Risk Assessment Tool RAT directive to provide details for the criticism against the Candidate Company as well as obtaining public statement on how the candidate companies address the issues raised and how the same scenarios are prevented from reoccurring.

Instead , the UNDP form used to asses Bidco,  requested  for limited disclosure but still  some relevant risks were listed by the UNDP staff but they did not follow  up on the controversies in a satisfactory manner neither did they characterize them accurately.

 The Risk Assessment Tool RAT controversies questions include the questions on the community rights, labor, governance, and environment, product relate ownership among others. But even when these were listed with limited details, the UNDP staff went ahead to characterize them as “moderate” since there was no satisfactory follow ups

 The RAT also demands that the partner candidate should contribute not less than $100,000 when the project is risky. However, Bidco did not make any contribution to the effect yet its project activities were considered risky. The UNDP policy considers the growing of crops including palm oil and other monocultures as highly risky therefore an extra careful approach was required by UNDP staff.

UNDP staff therefore did not include all exclusionary criteria while conducting due diligence yet the evidence was relatively clearer that identified controversies as greater significant and not just moderate as characterized by the UNDP staff.  

 The Business Call to Action Alliance BCtA, is a United Nations Development Program which started in 2014 and is expected to end June 2017 with a budget of over US $9,175,000. The project primary goal is to create global advocacy platform providing public recognition for the private sectors’ contribution to development.

In May 2016 SECU conducted a field work investigation in Uganda and Turkey following a complaint from the Bugala Farmers Association which asserted that BCtA admission of Bidco contravenes with the UNDP Social and environmental policy standards hence the processes employed by UNDP to admit Bidco were not consistent with the policies

 The Social and  Environment Compliance Unit SECU investigation focused on the adequacy of UNDPs’ due-diligence and other transparency related issues to BCtA project