UNITED NATIONS – The second most powerful man at Turtle Bay, Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, angered internal U.N. investigators by asking that they take into consideration the political needs of the organization when they carry out independent probes into wrongdoing by top officials.

Mr. Malloch Brown’s attempt last week to influence officials of the U.N. watchdog, known as the Office of Internal Oversight Services, as well as his intervention in one of its high-profile investigations, came to light just as Congress was completing two reports, to be released today, that criticize the United Nations’ ability to monitor itself and its heavily tainted procurement department.

The report by the congressional investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office, found that since the United Nations’ oversight organ depends for its funding on the same bodies it needs to investigate, its ability to arrive at independent conclusions is compromised.

U.N. officials said yesterday that they are trying to address the issue by creating an independent financing body for OIOS. Yet to be addressed, however, are political pressures on OIOS by the Secretariat, which were highlighted by an independent investigation of the oil-for-food scandal by Paul Volcker, in a report released late last year.

According to several participants in a closed-door town hall meeting last Wednesday, Mr. Malloch Brown asked staffers of OIOS to speed-up investigations into wrongdoings by high profile officials, especially if they are posted at politically sensitive spots. As an example, Mr. Malloch Brown cited possible harm to the United Nations’ work in Iraq as long as the top representative there, Ashraf Qazi, is being investigated by the OIOS.

To minimize the damage, Mr. Malloch Brown decided, on his own initiative, to inform the press that Mr. Qazi has been exonerated. OIOS officials refused to back him up, and informed the U.N. spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, they would not comment before completing the ongoing complex investigation in Baghdad, Amman, and Kuwait, where offices of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq are located.

“OIOS should resist all management influence on its findings; they need to take all the time they need, to conduct the kind the investigations they need,” the American ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, told The New York Sun yesterday. “OIOS is not for the secretariat. OIOS is for the member states.”

The House Committee on International Relations is expected to conduct a hearing today on the two separate reports by the GAO on the OIOS, and the U.N. procurement department. Separately, the procurement department is also being investigated for alleged crimes by federal and state authorities in New York.

“The U.N.’s oil-for-food scandal was not an isolated abuse, but a symptom of a larger contagion that infects both procurement and oversight within the U.N.,” Rep. Henry Hyde, a Republican of Illinois who heads the House committee, said in a statement. “Congressional action on U.N. reform is especially necessary because the U.N.’s own attempts at reform have been so inadequate.”

According to the GAO report, the internal auditing system at the United Nations is largely inadequate because OIOS “is dependent on the funds, programs, and other entities it audits for reimbursement of its services.”

The United Nations is “trying to fix that problem by the creation of an audit advisory committee,” the undersecretary-general for management, Christopher Burnham, told the Sun yesterday. “It is absolutely essential to assure independence of OIOS” from the Secretariat, he said.

Some of those who attended last Wednesday’s town hall meeting Mr. Malloch Brown conducted with OIOS staffers, however, told the Sun they felt his presentation amounted to political pressure. Mr. Dujarric refused to comment, but confirmed that the meeting, intended to discuss OIOS-related issues, took place as part of an ongoing effort by Mr. Malloch Brown to discuss management reform initiatives with staffers of several departments at the United Nations.

The head of OIOS, Inga-Britt Ahlenius, was traveling yesterday and was not available for comment. But several participants in the meeting described its goings on to the Sun after they were promised anonymity, as they are not authorized to talk to the press.

Once Mr. Malloch Brown said that investigations on higher ups should be “expedited,” some OIOS participants asked if they should apply a double standard to higher-ups. They asked if high-profile officials should be investigated quickly, while probes into alleged wrongdoings by other, less known, U.N. employees drag on. Mr. Malloch Brown denied he meant it that way. “But that is exactly what you said,” one participant said.

After details of the OIOS investigation into alleged wrongdoings in Iraq appeared in the Sun and in newspapers in Mr. Qazi’s homeland, Pakistan, Mr. Dujarric had said that Secretary General Annan has full confidence in Mr. Qazi. Mr. Qazi denied any wrongdoing. Later, Mr. Dujarric announced that although the OIOS investigation was yet to be completed, Mr. Annan’s office was informed that Mr. Qazi would be exonerated.

In last week’s town hall meeting, Mr. Malloch Brown said, “When senior officials are being investigated and this has an effect the work of the organization, the investigation has to be done thoroughly, but also expeditiously.” He then raised the example of the Qazi investigation, saying he had decided to tell the press about the exoneration “to relieve the political pressures” that have built up around Mr. Qazi.