Dhaka: Documents reveal the United Nations has spent half a billion dollars on contracts with UTair, a Russian aviation company, despite discovering a UTair helicopter crew in the Democratic Republic of the Congo drugged and raped a teenage girl in a sexual attack in 2010, reported the Guardian.

After an investigation, the UN peacekeeping department temporarily suspended the contracts of two Russian air transportation firms active in Sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo after several staff were charged with sexual abuse of local residents, reported Reuters on 8 December 2011.

The then DPKO spokesman Kieran Dwyer confirmed that some allegations of severe sexual misconduct against several employees of UTair Aviation and Nefteyugansk United Airline, which provide airplane and helicopter services for UN missions in Sudan’s western Darfur region and in Congo, were found to be true.

‘We are fully aware of the incident you are referring to and in this case the U.N. has taken appropriate action,’ Dwyer said in a statement to Reuters.

‘An investigation was conducted and concluded that some allegations against certain contract personnel were substantiated,’ he said. ‘The two air operators were temporarily suspended and the employees involved were dismissed and barred from future participation in any UN missions.’

Dwyer also said the world body ‘could bar these companies from doing further business with the UN’ if the companies fail to convince the compliance monitors and the United Nations that they have taken measures to prevent such misconduct in the future, added the Reuters report.

The Guardian report on 30 July 2015 said the internal UN documents, marked ‘strictly confidential’ and leaked to the Guardian, reveal how the UN’s internal complaints unit uncovered evidence the woman was abused. The shocking attack in 2010 was perpetrated by the manager in charge of UTair’s base in Kalemie, eastern DRC, added the report.

Despite UN’s seemingly strict steps against the incident, ‘the company was permitted to continue doing business with the UN on the condition it introduce a new training regime overseen by a monitor. UTair remains the largest provider of air transportation to the UN’, reported the Guardian.

The disclosures come at a moment when the UN Secretary General has continuously been arguing that UN adopted a ‘zero-tolerance policy’ regarding sexual abuse by UN staff and contractors.

Last month Ban Ki Moon ordered an independent review of the case involving French peacekeepers and wider problems with dealing with sexual abuse, an issue that has plagued the UN for decades.

Ban’s integrity towards handling sexual exploitation involving peacekeepers and support staff is now at stake. The UN head of staff will now be forced to explain how a company implicated in sexual exploitation managed to expand its contracts with the UN.