Carlo-Schmid-Programme
- Internship Report -

Duration: September 2002 – February 2003 (6 months)

Organisation: United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Geneva, Switzerland

Division/Unit: Legal department, Rehabilitation and Social Sustainability (RESS)

While studying for my Master's Programme in Edinburgh, Scotland, I became aware of the Carlo-Schmid-Programme through reading the Süddeutsche online, which was my main source of news from Germany at that time. I checked out the vacancies immediately and knew that I would not want to miss out on a chance working for the United Nations.

I. The Organisation

UNOPS is one of the smaller entities within the UN system. It is concerned mainly, but not exclusively, - as the name suggests - with implementing projects on behalf of other members of the UN family. Usually, another agency approaches UNOPS and asks for support of a certain development project. UNOPS then provides the know-how and organises the project from scratch by assessing the project plan, conducting the public procurement procedure, screening the companies tendering for contracts, drafting contracts, supervising the work in the field, and, finally, handing over the project to the local government. Projects areas range from infrastructure measures such as building roads in Nicaragua or schools in Afghanistan, and the development of distance education programmes for the deaf in Uzbekistan, to the clearance of hazardous waste on sites of former chemical plants in Serbia that were destroyed during the war.

II. Tasks and duties

From September 2002 until February 2003 I spent six months in the legal department of UNOPS Geneva. The duties I was assigned covered different subject areas. They ranged from writing FAQ and fact sheets for the staff or answering legal questions by field staff to drafting contracts and agreements, handling claims and taking part in the public procurement procedures.

A lot of my working time was dedicated to fulfil rather short research tasks, be it that field personnel had questions with legal content they could not answer on their own, be it that projects required some kind of background research. A topic coming up several times during my term at UNOPS concerned matters of contractual currency. The questions raised aimed at finding out which currency in a particular procurement project was the currency of reference of the contract, how to determine the applicable currency, or how to adjust a contract price in case of exchange rate fluctuations. In this area a clear deficit of the UNOPS procedure to draft and implement contracts could be identified. Although there exists a number of regulations and rules within the UNOPS system concerning the question how to adequately address matters of currency in contracts these rules are sometimes neglected in the draft period or in daily business in the field.

Another frequent task in the context of minor assignments was to do a background check on possible project partners. As it is crucial for UNOPS to know which legal and economic status entities have which they would like to enter an agreement with, NGOs and private sector entities had to be scrutinised in that regard. In one case, an NGO – a charity organisation – could be identified as being unofficially led by a Danish businessman just being extradited from the US to Denmark for accusations of fraud and related crimes. In addition, rumours of connections of that organisation to a sect, and cult-like practices, including brain-washing, that former volunteers of that organisation had reported, suggested that any further co-operation between UNOPS and that charity be terminated. In other cases, financial difficulties or accusations of tax evasion could be established.

Finally, a repeated assignment involved questions of intellectual property rights. It had to be checked under which conditions project partners are allowed to use the name, acronym or emblem of either the UN or UNOPS, and which restrictions apply in such cases.

More comprehensive tasks concerned the drafting of agreements with other UN entities, NGOs, or contracts with private companies, and in one case the handling of a claim which a company thought to be entitled to versus UNOPS. At the core of this case was once more the above mentioned problem of the currency of reference of the contract. In early 2002 the exchange rate of the US dollar substantially dropped in relation to the euro. After sending numerous bills stated, and subsequently paid by UNOPS, in US dollars, in September 2002, the company unilaterally changed this custom and henceforth requested not only payment in euros but in addition demanded compensation payments for claimed losses in the past attributed to said currency fluctuations. Here it was necessary to examine the language of three separate contracts concluded with that company including annexes and supplementary material. It could be established that all contracts contained a rule – either explicitly or through the UNOPS General Conditions for Services being an annex – which stated that currency of reference was the US dollar. However, internally it had to be conceded that some of the language and documentation was also misleading and that following this claim, for the future, similar problems would have to be prevented by the use of unambiguous language. The case was finally settled when the company officially declared acceptance of UNOPS’ interpretation in order not to loose the possibility to tender for new ITBs.

The most complex assignment during the duration of my term at UNOPS was related to a project in South Africa for which a micro-credit scheme had to be designed in co-operation with local governmental entities and a nation-wide operating South African bank. It required the realisation of multiple agreements and framework agreements with South African national and provincial governmental entities as well as with the bank’s headquarter and its local subsidiaries. Part of the strategy to implement the goals of the project was the creation of local economic development agencies which had to be set up in all four South African provinces concerned by this project, for which additional agreements had to be drafted. I particularly appreciated working on this project as it required true legal skills in the process of contract negotiations with the South African counterparts and the drafting of the agreements. The wording chosen had to be selected carefully so it represented accurately the intentions of the parties.

III. Personal impression and evaluation

In the course of working on this variety of assignments the most apparent novelty I learned to work with was the internal legal system of the UN system with its internal rules, regulations and guidelines. This system that provides for rules in all the above-mentioned fields of law exists parallel to any other national or supra-national legal system and, as such, appears to be a little microcosm. I learned that this comprehensive and detailed system has almost no contact with international law, be it customary or codified, which is usually associated with work at the UN.

In general, the working atmosphere was friendly and supportive although some of the staff members also showed indifference towards the new colleague, i.e. myself. From what I observed, I partly attribute this phenomenon to the fact that there is permanently a high fluctuation rate of personnel within the UN system and people might be tired of finding a new face sitting at the desk next to them so frequently – and having that face changed again after just a few months.

The working conditions were good, being equipped with my own desk and computer for the whole time of my internship. However, the scarcity of legal resources apart from internal regulations and rules was surprising to me. Rather inconvenient was the fact that, apparently, an intern’s telephone is blocked for all calls outside Geneva. From my point of view this puts a redundant obstacle in the way of anyone working in an international organisation with field missions, offices and clients around the world. I think it is rather rare that interns produce high telephone bills. In any event, there should be other means to make sure everyone pays for his private calls. But this seemed to be a problem too complicated to handle for a huge and slowly moving administrative organisation.

All things considered, I spent very interesting six months in Geneva. I am grateful for all insight into the sometimes complicated procedures and the system of checks and balances applicable within the UN family, which I could gain during the term of my internship. I was always happy when there was real legal work to do as opposed to administrative and otherwise supportive research work.