An audit conducted by the UNDP Audit and Research Office at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Office in Azerbaijan revealed serious legal and financial violations, APA reports.
As a result of the audit, it was revealed that the UNDP Azerbaijan Representative Office provided grants totaling $754,570 to 23 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country for 29 projects in 2023. The Azerbaijan Representative Office transferred the grant funds to personal accounts by concluding direct contracts with LLCs established by those NGOs or with individuals employed by the NGOs.
While conducting an investigation into this matter, APA Agency sent a request to the UN Office in Azerbaijan, as well as to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) office in Azerbaijan.
The request noted: “The Office of Audit and Research of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has prepared a report on the audit of the activities of the organization's Azerbaijani representation in 2023. The report noted that in 2023, the UNDP Azerbaijani representation provided grants worth $754,570 to 23 NGOs in the country without state registration, through NGO employees or LLCs established by them. However, the names of those NGOs and LLCs were not disclosed.
In view of this, we kindly request you to provide information (names and amount of funds allocated for grants) on 23 NGOs to which the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Azerbaijan Office provided grants worth $754,570 in 2023 through NGO staff or LLCs established by them."
It should be noted that no response was given to the request by the UNDP Azerbaijan office. Therefore, on January 9, 2025, a request with the same content was sent to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Headquarters ([email protected]). Unfortunately, that request has not been answered to date.
It should be noted that during an audit conducted by the UNDP Audit and Research Office at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Azerbaijan Representative Office, gross violations of both UNDP's principles of transparency regarding grants and Azerbaijani legislation were revealed.
The audit revealed that the UNDP Azerbaijan Office provided grants totaling $754,570 to 23 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country in 2023 for 29 projects. The Azerbaijan Office transferred the grant funds to personal accounts by concluding direct contracts with LLCs established by these NGOs or with individuals employed by the NGOs. These grants were then used for various purposes.
The thing is that none of these grants were registered in accordance with Azerbaijani legislation. That is, they were used as illegal funds. The report did not disclose the names of the NGOs and LLCs that received the grants.
The report also noted that the UNDP Azerbaijan Representative Office allocated $1.3 million to “enhance the capacity of NGOs” in Azerbaijan in 2023 and $1.3 million to expand the mine action program. Again, the document did not include information about the NGOs and their LLCs that received the grants.
The investigation also revealed that UNDP has been keen to establish Women's Resource Centers in Azerbaijan in recent years. It is not clear what these Centers are doing. APA has obtained information from private sources that some time ago, although state agencies wanted to inspect the UNDP Women's Resource Center in Baku to get acquainted with its activities, the director of the Center closed the doors and said that UNDP would not allow them to enter.
The points related to women in the UNDP Audit and Research Office report are noteworthy in this regard. The audit team themselves were shocked that a $92,000 (!) grant project was "implemented" to provide basic training to a group of women affected by the war. It is interesting to note what this training, worth 156,000 manats, is about, and who are these women?
This is also not disclosed in the document.
