A former Hong Kong investigator turned UN whistle-blower says a child sex abuse scandal roiling the global body could be the "tipping point" needed to reverse its "cover-up culture" and lack of accountability.
The UN faces a backlash over claims it tried to hide a report into allegations of sexual abuse by French military personnel in the Central African Republic, involving victims as young as nine.
The report was leaked to the French authorities by Anders Kompass, a director of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, who has since been suspended and is facing dismissal.
Peter Gallo, a former fraud investigator in Hong Kong who joined the UN in March 2011 to work in its internal affairs bureau, says the scandal lays bare the "cover-up culture" and lack of accountability in the UN.
"The [Central African Republic] scandal may well be the tipping point that brings about change," Gallo, 52, told the Sunday Morning Post. "It is gaining traction in a way that I never saw in my four years at the UN.
"All the UN has done since the Kompass case has been to try to lie their way out of it. Nobody has taken any responsibility."
Gallo's contract ended in March and he has launched legal action against his former supervisor, Roberta Baldini. He is seeking damages of US$6.5 million, claiming that he was defamed and falsely accused of crimes after he accused his supervisor of misconduct.
"Retaliation against staff members for reporting misconduct or simply for embarrassing their superiors is commonplace, so any staff member who does report his boss for misconduct is committing career suicide," Gallo said.
The veteran fraud and anti-money-laundering expert says his legal case is an example of "gross mismanagement" and revealed the lack of real protection for whistle-blowers.
Last month the UN said that Kompass' actions were a "serious breach of protocol" and did not constitute whistle-blowing.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN chief Ban Ki-moon, said the body would not comment on Gallo's case as it was still under way.
At the centre of Gallo's case is the "performance improvement plan" that he was told to sign a few weeks before his contract was first renewed in 2013. It said he was underperforming in many areas and included a requirement for him to not ask questions in his cases unless they were pre-approved and to never ask questions "just to satisfy his curiosity".
He was also criticised for a lack of professionalism, ethics and integrity.
"They tried to make out that I was the most incompetent investigator in the world, but they couldn't prove that."
When he joined the UN in 2011 to work in the Office of Internal Oversight Services, Gallo understood he would be unpopular.
"I expected the hostility from the rest of the organisation and expected to be unpopular. What I did not expect was that the management … would actively prevent certain cases from being investigated," he said.
"I was put in a position whereby I was either going to be known as an incompetent investigator or a whistle-blower, so I went with option B."
Asked if he regretted taking up the UN post, Gallo said: "Yeah, I've got better things to do at my age with my life, but I can't change history. Would I do it again? No".
Gallo first moved to Hong Kong in 1992 and worked for Kroll Associates, specialising in due diligence before branching out into tackling money laundering. He ran his own risk consultancy for more than a decade in Hong Kong.
As a permanent resident of the city, he is considering all possible work options: "I may be back."
