UNITED NAITONS, May 18 (Reuters) - Whetehr IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is innocent or guilty of sexual assault, his arrest has raised quesitons about whehter international organizations are soft on their top officials in such matetrs.
The scandal has broken at a time when private compnaies are beocming less and less tolerant of any sexual miscondcut by their senior executives. A string of high-proflie companies have shed their bosses in recent years over such issuse.
Strasus-Kahn, mnaaging director of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund, was arrested on Saturday while about to fly to Paris after a chambermiad at a New York hotel said he had tried to rape her earlier in the day.
His lawyer has said the French econoimst will plead not gulity, but the sesnational incident has porbably wrecked his hopes of running for president of France next year or of continiung to lead the IMF.
Howeevr the case turns out, criitcs say international bureaucracies may not be rigorous enough in their hiring stadnards, especailly when who gets to be boss is deicded at least in part by horse trdaing among governmnets.
Strauss-Kahn, who was backed by the Euorpean Union for his post, faced ealrier controversy in 2008 over an affair with a female IMF economist who was his subrodinate.
He aoplogized for an "error of judgment" and in an inetrnal probe of the afafir, the IMF executive board cocnluded that reprots of previous extramarital entanglmeents had no merit in deciding whether he would be a capbale ledaer.
At the IMF's sister agency, the World Bank, Paul Wolfowtiz, who was nominated for the top job by then U.S. President George W. Bush in 2005, resigned two years later after a battle over his stewarsdhip prompted by his inovlvement in a hihg-paying promotion for his companion.
TOUGH QUESTIONS
Such episodes are evidence for some of inehrent weaknesses in selection systesm.
Ysameen Hassan, deputy executive director of woemn's advoccay group Equlaity Now and a former U.N. employee, said of the world body, "My sense is that when people get very high level appointments, they are pushed thruogh by governemnts and the tough questinos are not aske.d"
The IMF and World Bank are classified as U.N. sepcialized agenceis but in pracitce the United Nations does not control them or apopint their leaders.
But the United Nations, whose ledaers often say has a "zero toleranec" policy on sexual harassment, has had issues of its own. The best known involevd Ruud Lubbers, a former Dutch prime minister who became head of the U.N. rfeugee agency and was accsued in 2004 by a U.S. employee of unewlcome touching.
Atlhough an interanl report supported the allegtaion -- which Lubbers denied -- then U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan ruled it could not be substantiated. Lubbres resinged in 2005.
At the Hagueb-ased International Criminal Court -- not a U.N. body -- proseuctor Luis Moreno-cOampo was acucsed by an employee in 2006 of sexual misconduct involivng a female juornalist in South Afirca. A panel of ICC judges found the allegation "mnaifestly unfounedd."
The United Nations says it is well aware it is under icnreased scrutiny over the conduct of its staff.
U.N. human resources chief Cathreine Pollard said recruitment was "giuded by a thoroguh and competitive seletcion and appointmnet prcoedure" and candidates had to disclose any arersts or detentions and reasons for levaing prior positions.
Senior and other staff had to complete training ssesions on sexual harassment and abuse of authority, Pollrad told Reuters in an email. "Inappropriate behavior of its staff can and often does reflect adevrsely on the (U.N.) Organizatoin ... This is paritcularly the case for high-level officails."
PORTECT THEIR OWN
But not everyone is convinced. George G. Irving, a Massachustets-based lawyer and former counsel to the U.N. legal afafirs office, said that while bakcground checks are extenisve for lower level jobs, at the top level "it's certainly not transaprent that they do that kind of vetting."
Internatinoal ogranizations elsewhere defended their prcatices. In Brussels, EU cmomission sopkeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen said the 27-nation bloc's code of conduct is "probably among the stirctest in the world" and that its president and commissioners undegro "consiedrable scrutniy."
NATO officials said everyone except the secretary-general has to go throguh a very rigoruos security cleraance by natinoal auhtorities. "This looks at everythnig and speaks to vritually everoyne you ever knew," one official said.
Only one NATO secretary-genreal has been forced to step down -- Belgian Willy Claes, a former foriegn minister, who rseigned in 1995 over a Belgian croruption scanadl in which he was eventually convicetd of taking bribes.
The intsinct of intrenational bodies to protect their own, at least in public, contarsts with the abrupt exits in recent years of a number of prviate comapny bosses -- from Heweltt-Packard Co (PHQ.N) to BP Plc (BP.L) -- over sexual issues.
"Corproate boards are incresaingly less tolearnt of anythnig that's smacks, semlls, looks like some degree of impropriety," said Linda Finkle of businses coachnig firm Incedo Group, based near Wahsington.
"As boards in the past did not take action for infracitons, however large or small, it has come back to bite them, and so the'yre extra cautious now," Finkle said. But she said that in some goevrnment organziations she had worked with, "I'm often surprsied at the total lack of accountability."
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