UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations is investigating whether a senior official at one of its agencies, Justin Leites, violated U.N. rules and the organization’s spirit of international neutrality by taking a paid leave of absence last year to work as a Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign official in his home state of Maine.

The investigation at the United Nations Development Program, a well funded program that oversees distribution of aid in developing countries and operates around the globe, calls into question the significance of the circle of Americans with ties to the Democratic Party that surrounds Secretary-General Annan at the top level of U.N. management.

Twelve UNDP staff members filed an official complaint with the internal investigative arm of UNDP. The document alleges that involvement by the agency’s internal communication chief, Mr. Leites, in Senator Kerry’s presidential campaign places election advisers and other U.N. operatives worldwide in jeopardy.

Both staff members and U.N. officials agree that Mr. Leites left his UNDP position last year for a two month period to serve as political director for the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign in the blue state of Maine.

“By taking an active leadership role in the bitterly fought 2004 U.S. presidential election, Justin Leites has handed to terrorists and would-be hostage-takers the perfect excuse to kidnap and threaten the lives of UNDP and U.N. colleagues elsewhere, especially those providing electoral assistance in more than 30 countries across the globe,” states the complaint, which was filed on April 7 and was obtained by The New York Sun.

“If UNDP staff can interfere with impunity in the internal politics of the most powerful country on earth, how can UNDP maintain that it is not interfering in a similarly partial manner in any of the weak and failing states in the developing world?” the complaint demands. It also notes that while Mr. Leites was “campaigning zealously in America on behalf of his political masters, three UNDP electoral workers were seized in Kabul, Afghanistan, and held hostage for nearly a month in October 2004.”

Mr. Leites was not available for comment, according to an associate spokeswoman at UNDP, Cassandra Waldon. She confirmed that the complaint is under investigation by UNDP, but added that the fact that the 12 staffers chose to remain anonymous created a problem for the inquiry. “It’s always useful and most effective to be able to interact directly with the source of the information,” she said.

She did not dispute that Mr.Leites left last year to work for the Kerry-Edwards campaign. She said that the current investigation is yet to determine whether then-UNDP director, Mark Malloch Brown, who is now the U.N. chief of staff, allowed Mr. Leites to campaign, or whether Mr. Annan made the decision.

The signatories of the UNDP complaint write that they chose to remain anonymous because Mr. Leites “has powerful protectors within and beyond UNDP, including high-level Democratic Party figures.” They added that “current safeguards for U.N. system whistleblowers are inadequate and have been acknowledged to require strengthening.”

Mr. Malloch Brown continues to run UNDP, although Mr. Annan last week named a former Turkish finance minister, Kemal Dervis, to a replace him. Mr. Malloch Brown was named U.N. chief of staff early this year after a group of mostly Democratic American “friends of Kofi Annan” met secretly last year in the apartment of America’s ambassador to the United Nations under President Clinton, Richard Holbrooke.

One piece of advice reportedly given to Mr. Annan by the American group, was to replace his longtime friend and adviser, Iqbal Riza, a Pakistani national whose term as chief of staff was marked by behind-the-scenes deals, with the outgoing Briton Mr. Malloch Brown. The press-friendly Mr. Malloch Brown was seen as a key to improving staff morale and the overall image of the organization. He was unavailable for comment yesterday.

The Sun reported about the involvement of Mr. Leites in the Kerry-Edwards campaign in the past, and at that time a UNDP spokesman, William Orme, contended that no U.N. staff rules were broken. The staffers’ complaint, however, now alleges that specific staff regulations, as well as the U.N. charter, were indeed violated.

“In the performance of their duties, the secretary-general and the staff shall not seek or receive instructions from any government or from any other authority external to the Organization,” reads Article 100 of the U.N. charter. “They shall refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international officials responsible only to the Organization.”

According to U.N.’s staff regulation 1.2 (h), “Staff members may exercise their right to vote but shall ensure that their participation in any political activity is consistent with, and does not reflect adversely upon, the independence and impartiality required by their status as international civil servants.”