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At UN, Ban Orders Hiring Changes, Sources Say for 2d Term, ASG Games

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 17 -- With the UN unwilling to say if the three percent budget cuts announced by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will apply to job positions and the people in them or only to overhead costs, sources tell Inner City Press that Ban has told his departments to have “forty percent of their new hiring be from outside.”

  The sources say this is related to Ban Ki-moon's lobbying to win a second term at the UN: being able to dole out jobs in exchange for political support.

Wednesday at the UN, numerous staff members complained of recent Ban moves, such as anti labor moves against elevator operators, UN TV and engineers and the Staff Union, and giving an Assistant Secretary General post in UN Women to the wife of the Permanent Representative of India -- a country on the Security Council which will vote on a second term for Ban.

They argued that in most of the UN, there have always been rules against the hiring of relatives, but that this and the treatment of Ban's son in law Siddharth Chatterjee, promoted for barely a year to a top job at UNOPS in Copenhagen, make out a double standard.

  Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky again dodged questions about Ban's son in law on Wednesday, insisting that Inner City Press “ask UNOPS,” which has yet to respond to two sets of questions from Inner City Press.  But stonewalling doesn't make the stories go away.

    Others told Inner City Press that while the UN Department of Safety and Security has chosen and hired a new Assistant Secretary General, they did not include this ASG post in last Friday's announcement of five new USGs and ASGs. They wondered if the new appointment was meant to blunt criticism of Ban and the UN following the release of the Congo “mapping report” last year.

Ban meanwhile was again away from Headquarters, not yet in Libya in which Benghazi hung in the balance but rather in Guatemala City, from which his claims about the UN's work on rubble in Haiti were quietly “amended” overnight -- click here for that.

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At UN, As Ban Ki-moon Promotes Indian Ambassador's Wife, Are Rules Needed on Lobbying for 2d Term?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 13, updated -- A UN Secretary General asks for the support of UN member states, not only to endorse his programs but also, as is the case these days with Ban Ki-moon, to vote for a second term. Should there be rules governing how he goes about lobbying for this support?

  On March 11, Ban's deputy spokesman Farhan Haq announced that Ban has appointed Lakshmi Puri as an Assistant Secretary General in the new UN Women entity.

  Haq dismissed the question of if Ms. Puri is the wife of Hardeep Singh Puri, the Permanent Representative of India, currently a member of the Security Council which must vote on Ban getting, or not getting, a second term as Secretary General. 

  Haq said, "I am not aware of the family relationships of the people I just named.  I only just got this list." [See update below for Haq's March 14 statement.]

   On March 12, Inner City Press wrote directly to Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri to ask for confirmation, and ask for a “response to those that say it might have or appear to have any impact on how the Secretary General is viewed or treated, especially but not only as he goes for a second term.”

  On March 13, Hardeep Puri called Inner City Press and presented his side. He said that he and Lakshmi have been married for some 35 years, adding that “my being here and her being there has not made any difference in terms of one influencing the other... She was in Geneva with UNCTAD... Then here in New York as director of High Representative on Least Developed Countries, since October or November of 2009. She applies for jobs as do several others in the UN system.”

  Inner City Press asked Hardeep Puri if he thought that any rules should apply to the Secretary General giving jobs to spouses of the Permanent Representative who will vote on his second term.

  Hardeep Puri to his credit acknowledged that if a person “completely from the outside, without the qualification, were offered the job... in this kind of situation, obviously eyebrows would be raised.”

  Rightly or wrongly, in this case some eyebrows have been raised. One analogy is to a public corporation, in which it would be problematic for a chief executive to give a job to the spouse of a board member who is supposed to oversee his performance and continued employment.

Hardeep Puri issued a challenge, telling Inner City Press to watch “if you suddenly find Hardeep Puri restrained.” We will.


Hardeep & Lakshmi Puri, center, S-G rules not shown

The question remains, should the UN enact rules to govern this situation which is fraught with the possibility of conflict of interest?

Footnote: after this response, Hardeep Puri called back to make two final arguments, first that it was Michele Bachelet that interviewed Lakshmi Puri, and not Mr. Ban himself. In fact, this was pointed out in spokesman Farhan Haq's announcement, perhaps acknowledging that if Ban himself did the interviews and was entirely responsible, there would be an issue. But Ban is the decision maker here, and the issue remains.

Second, Hardeep Puri argued that a country's position would not be influenced by such a hire. But it is widely reported that France conditioned its support of Kofi Annan second term as Secretary General on being given the Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping post. So the danger of conflict of interest and improper lobby remains. There should be rules.

Update of March 14: While on March 11 the UN's Haq said "I am not aware of the family relationships of the people I just named," when Inner City Press asked again on March 14 if the Secretariat was claiming it hadn't known of the spousal relationship, Haq said "I don't believe that is regarded as a relevant criteria," then sought for a question from any other journalist. Video here, from Minute 10:44.

  Later on March 14, even an official close to Ban said these concerns existed and were expressed internally, and that Haq and the UN should have had an acknowledgement and answer.  Watch this site.

Click for Mar 1, '11 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption

 Click here for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.

Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate

Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate

Click here for Inner City Press' Feb .26 UN debate

Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56

Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza

Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate

Click here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger

Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards

Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics

and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.

* * *

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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