March 22, 2005
Working the phones
At least someone knows how to get the most out of the phone system in Ethiopia:
Peacekeepers cheat UN of $500,000 in phone feesUNITED NATIONS, March 21 (Reuters) - U.N. peacekeepers enforcing a December 2000 peace accord between Ethiopia and Eritrea defrauded the world body of more than $500,000 in telephone calls, U.N. auditors reported on Monday...
U.N. soldiers normally have to pay for personal calls while on a mission but the troops serving in Ethiopia and Eritrea used stolen personal identity codes or abused a grace period to place calls without paying for them in 2003 and 2004, the U.N. Board of Auditors said.
Users at the time were given a one-minute grace period before billing began, to ensure a connection was made.
Some soldiers abused the system by dialing as many as 100 consecutive calls within a single hour, each lasting less than a minute, to escape billing, the board said in its latest annual report on the finances of peacekeeping operations.
Posted by aheavens at March 22, 2005 4:27 AM