International Desk: Grete Feremo, executive director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), has resigned following allegations of financial irregularities.
According to a report in the New York Times, the incident has embarrassed the United Nations. The UNOPS chief submitted his resignation on the instructions of Secretary-General António Guterres.
Former Norwegian minister Faremo submitted his resignation on Friday. However, in a message sent to his colleague on Sunday, he explained the different reasons for his resignation, saying that he resigned without knowing the whole matter because he is in charge of that department.
“I accept that responsibility and decide to resign.”
The UN secretary-general said in a statement on Sunday that he had accepted Faremo’s resignation.
A recent report in the New York Times on how UNOPS lent ও 81 million in loans and assistance to a non-profit organization in 2015 and lost ২ 22 million in bad loans to run a business like an investment bank. The UN then began investigating the matter.
The report was released by the United Nations on Thursday following an internal investigation into the massive money laundering. However, it has not yet been made public.
