11 March 2011
The State Department is funding a project for a think tank to host diplomatic talks in Vienna, angering top lawmakers at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), who believe the project undercuts their role.
The State Department funded project, which will cost U.S. taxpayers 60,000 euros, or about $83,400, will give representatives of OSCE countries a forum to meet outside of the OSCE's formal structures to work on various regional disputes. The OSCE is mainly run by the Secretariat , the Permanent Council, and the Parliamentary Assembly (PA). The contract dispute has pitted the PA against the both the Secretariat and the State Department.
Top PA officials have been trying to stop the project due to their concerns that the money was awarded without competition to a Canadian researcher who has previously been critical of OSCE parliamentarians.
"The main concern that we have had is the fact that the contract was not put out for competitive bid, the money just appeared on the table," OSCE PA Secretary General Spencer Oliver said in an exclusive interview with The Cable.
He also objected to taking important diplomatic functions away from the OSCE's formal structures and giving them to an NGO.
"It looks like they're outsourcing a major diplomatic function of the OSCE chairmanship, which would be a very bad precedent to set," Oliver said.
The State Department funds are being given to an organization called the International Peace Institute, which opened up a shop in Vienna only recently. The man in charge of the project is Canadian Walter Kemp, who has worked on OSCE issues for over 10 years. Kemp previously served as a speechwriter for the Secretariat, and has made several enemies among the OSCE PA.
Kemp advocated taking away some of the parliamentarians' power regarding OSCE election monitoring in an IPI paper published last October, and also disparaged their role at the 2010 OSCE summit in Astana.
"Parliamentarians parachuted in to read out headline grabbing statements undercut the credibility of long term and constructive election monitoring," Kemp wrote.
Canadian Sen. Consiglio Di Nino, the head of the Canadian delegation to the OSCE PA, was so angry with Kemp that he wrote to him about the article. "If the comments reflect your opinion, this would indicate a serious lack of understanding of a complex matter and calls into question your reputation as a fair and knowledgeable person," he said.
"We know Kemp and he's been doing this for years," Oliver told The Cable. "He's always shown an extreme bias against parliamentarians."
Oliver also said there was a conflict of interest in the contract award because OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut is on the board of IPI.
Several U.S. Congressmen connected to the OSCE PA have complained to the State Department about the contract, including Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Jim Costa (D-CA), Robert Aderholt (R-AL), and Alcee Hastings (D-FL). Their objections convinced State to hold up the funds for a time, but a State Department official told The Cable that State has now decided to let the funds go through.
The State Department official said that the project would be managed by the upcoming Lithuanian chairmanship of the OSCE, and that the State Department felt the project was a useful way to provide a forum for talks that can't occur in the formal structures of the OSCE.
"We support this project. We were not aware of this impolitic comment by this researcher Walter Kemp," the official said. "We know Walter well, he's been involved with the OSCE for 10 years. He's a really sharp guy. The Lithuanians thought he was the right guy to run these workshops."
The money was awarded without competition but is not technically a no-bid contract because it's an extra budgetary project of the OSCE, the official said. The official promised that State would exercise vigorous oversight.
"We understand that people in the PA are upset and we're upset that this researcher wrote what he did. But when he wrote it he wasn't under contract by the OSCE and he has the right to write what he wants. He's going to be on a very short leash," the official said.
Amb. Ian Kelly, the top U.S. representative to the OSCE, has been handling the dispute in Vienna. Kelly called Oliver last week to give him assurances State would keep tabs on the project.
"As you know, some members of the Parliamentary Assembly... raised some questions about the goals of the project, and the implementing partner," Kelly wrote in a March 4 letter to Lithuanian Amb. Renatas Norkus. "As a result, it is particularly incumbent upon us to ensure maximum transparency with, and maximum participation of, the Parliamentary Assembly in the workshops, to the extent possible and appropriate."
"This is an important project and we are happy to help you implement it," Kelly wrote.
