US supports calls for external ethics probe into OAS chief
Secretary General of the Organization of American States Luis Almagro attends the opening of 52nd General Assembly of the OAS in Lima, Peru, October 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo, File)
MIAMI (AP) — The head of the Organization of American States (OAS) is facing growing calls, including from the Biden administration, for an external probe into possible misconduct tied to his intimate relationship with a subordinate.
The Washington-based group’s own inspector general in a memo this week said it is in the organisation’s “best interest” to hire an outside firm to investigate allegations that Secretary General Luis Almagro may have violated the ethics code.
The inspector general’s recommendation was based on a report by The Associated Press finding that Almagro carried on a relationship with a Mexican-born staffer described online, including on the organisation’s own website, as “head adviser” to the secretary general.
The inspector general said the AP report followed a loosely detailed, anonymous whistleblower complaint forwarded to his office by Almagro himself on June 3.
The peace and democracy-building organisation’s ethics code prohibits managers from supervising or participating in decisions that benefit individuals with whom they are romantically involved.
The proposal to hire an outside firm to look into Almagro’s behaviour is scheduled to be discussed Wednesday at the next meeting of the 34-member organisation’s permanent council.
The US — which has contributed about half of the organisation’s $100 million in funding this year — has already expressed support for an external probe ahead of the meeting.
“We take these allegations seriously,” a State Department spokesperson told the AP in an email, adding that any ethics violation “should be investigated in a fair and impartial manner by an appropriate external investigative entity.”