UNDP's Chief of Policies and Programs raps Rama Mani for impropriety

Omar Norman, Chief of Policies and Programs, UNDP, has taken issue with the ex-Executive Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES), Rama Mani, for misusing and misrepresenting his name in matters pertaining to the ICES and demanded a written apology from her, in a letter copied to the Foreign Ministry and the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process.

Mani who was removed from the post and later reinstated after certain sections of the ICES staff urged Prof. Kingsley De Silva to reverse the decision, had her visa cancelled for alleged complicity in moves that compromised the sovereignty of the nation.

Norman has objected to the way in which Mani had got him to sign a petition demanding her reinstatement. In his words, Mani had only mentioned that the ICES controversy was but a grudge against her by an ex-staff member and that the issue 'related to a human resource matter which affects the functioning of ICES.

She had told Norman that the Resident Coordinator of the UN in Sri Lanka as well as several ambassadors were to sign the document. However, Norman was the only foreign name on the said petition.

Norman further insists that he would never have signed the petition had he known there were any political issues involved, claiming that the document he signed did not have a single political word in it.

This latest allegation of misrepresentation, lying and political machinations come against the backdrop of substantiated claims of financial mismanagement, mutual cover-ups as well as anti-Sri Lankan posturing by Mani as well as her predecessors, Bradman Weerakoon and Radhika Coomaraswamy.

The Parliamentary Select Committee on NGOs, headed by the JVP's Vijitha Herath was due to question the ICES on related matters.

- Courtesy, news.lk