'GREEN" DOESN'T NECESSARILY MEAN ETHICALLY CLEAN

     The NEW YORK POST reports today that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's appointment to chair the UN Environmental Program has come under suspicion:

Kofi Annan came under fire yesterday for his role in giving a prestigious post to a man who had sat on a panel that awarded the U.N. secretary-general a prize worth $500,000.

Members of Congress and other critics pushing to clean up the United Nations have raised sharp questions over the still-murky circumstances that led to the appointment of Achim Steiner of Germany to head the U.N. Environmental Program.

Steiner, a well-known international activist who headed the World Conservation Union, was a judge on a panel that awarded Annan the $500,000 Zayed Prize for Global Environmental Leadership, sponsored by the United Arab Emirates.

The prize was awarded last December.

Less than a month later, Steiner's name was included on a short list of candidates for the U.N. environmental job, and his appointment was made official on March 15.

     Of course, it is important to remember that Mr. Anna's appointment of Mr. Steiner has not been shown to involve a quid pro quo or other illegal/unethical favoritism--all that is at issue right now are allegations and suspicions.  The Post story does, however, serve as a useful reminder that nice-sounding names like "UN" and "environmental" don't necessarily mean that people with those titles are immune from the basic laws of cronyism and avarice that so often are alleged to affect the business community.

     I often wonder why some people think that, by taking somewhat decentralized power away from private hands and placing that power into centralized public hands, greater fairness is achieved.  In fact, such transfers may only succeed in placing greater power in the hands of people with nice-sounding titles but who are in positions to do more damage than could ever be done by their private-industry counterparts.

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