Safer Maintenance Agreement Implementation Committee regrets UN withdrawal from its commitments

YemenExtra

The supervisory committee for the implementation of the urgent maintenance agreement and comprehensive evaluation of the “Safer” floating tank have stood up to date with the agreement with the United Nations to speed up the agreement implementation, and reached an impasse due to the coup of the UN side on most of the agreement signed terms by them and the Government of National Rescue.

In this context, the supervisory committee expressed its deep regret at the retreat of the UN side from the maintenance work signed last November in the urgent maintenance agreement and the comprehensive evaluation of the floating tank Safer.

The Committee explained that it had held two meetings, last Thursday and Friday, and a third meeting on Tuesday with the United Nations office for project services, to discuss the United Nations action plan, which was supposed to translate the signed agreement but was surprised that the plan submitted by the United Nations side excluded most of the agreed urgent maintenance work and only maintained the evaluation work, on the pretext that time and funding were not sufficient to carry out the agreed maintenance work.

The United Nations side had not only retracted the maintenance work provided for in the agreement but had retracted many of the evaluation work and turned it into mere visual examinations that were not subject to any customary criteria.

“During the three meetings, experts contracted by the United Nations from Aos participated and were more clear in saying that the work provided for by the urgent maintenance agreement and the comprehensive evaluation of the floating tank safer could not be completed during the month period identified by the United Nations and that it did not contract them on that basis,” the committee said.

“During today’s third meeting, UN representatives confirmed that they wanted to focus solely on the evaluation work, while refusing to provide us with an official memorandum, acknowledging that they were violating the agreement, on the pretext that they were authorized to amend and act on the agreement,” he said.

Interventions by AOS experts showed that the United Nations had not contracted them for all the work stipulated in the agreement, including the purchase of tools and equipment for maintenance, indicating that the United Nations had disbursed funds for maintenance and evaluation of its team’s operational expenditures over the past months since the signing of the agreement in November 2020, as the UN side deliberately prolonged discussions in order to exhaust the budget for the implementation of the Convention in operational expenses and consultations and excluded maintenance work and reduced the agreed evaluation work. In the urgent maintenance agreement and the comprehensive evaluation of the floating tank Safer.

The Committee considered the UN retreat a setback to the exhausting efforts made over the past months and deepened fears of an environmental disaster in the Red Sea. Calling on the United Nations to abide by the agreement signed by its side and the Government of National Salvation, the United Nations is fully responsible for any repercussions of this unfortunate retreat.

The Committee also noted that discussions with the United Nations side were continuing and hoped that it would lead to the return of the United Nations to the commitment to the signed agreement until the task was completed as required and effectively, which would prevent any disaster that might affect the Red Sea environment.

Saba