UNITED NATIONS — When Ban Kimoon takes the oath of office as U.N. secretary-general today, he’ll inherit a scandal-plagued organization. The latest U.N. office to come under scrutiny is the littleknown Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which promotes good governance and transparency, cornerstones the department itself seems to lack.

As Mr. Ban is sworn in, Secretary-General Annan is expected to be lauded by a General Assembly resolution paying tribute to his “indefatigable efforts and dedicated service” to the United Nations.

Earlier this year, when Mr. Annan created the U.N. Ethics Office — one of his crowning achievements in management reform — he asked DESA for its help. Yesterday, however, Mr. Annan himself called for an investigation of DESA’s alleged wrongdoings. His statement came after a slew of negative articles in the press on the department that followed a New York Sun report last month.

The U.N. internal watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, “has been asked to look into allegations raised in the press” about DESA programs, Mr. Annan’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said. The outgoing chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Rep. Henry Hyde, a Republican of Illinois, yesterday cited reports on DESA as well, urging his congressional successors to ensure that the United Nations and its various agencies are “marked more by contribution than scandal.”

Earlier, an American ambassador to the United Nations, Mark Wallace, wrote to the director of OIOS, Inga-Britt Ahlenius. In the letter, he asks for a “comprehensive review” of DESA and warns of “alleged improprieties” in awarding it consulting contracts. He also refers to reports of threats of retaliation by executives in the department “against staff members who may have brought this information to light.”

As Mr. Hyde noted in his statement yesterday, DESA is, “in theory, responsible for promoting effective public administration and good governance.” But a Washington Times report said yesterday that DESA had steered “millions of dollars in contributions from the Italian government toward projects that enrich Italian nationals but offer little of real value.”

One of DESA’s top executives, Guido Bertucci, “violated internal rules” by awarding consulting contracts for work that could have been done in-house to a Web designer who was working with other U.N. agencies at the same time, according to a Fox News report.

Last month, the Sun reported on a failed joint project between DESA and the Greek government, known as the U.N. Thessaloniki Center, that was launched in 1999 to promote good government practices in the Balkans. When the center was slated for closure, the Greek government, which sank $5 million into the project, demanded some of its money back.

In 2002, DESA launched its own project that, according to its Web site, promoted similar goals in the same region as the Greek center but was financed by Italy. That project, based in Naples, thrived at the same time the Thessaloniki Center was failing.