UNITED
NATIONS, April
12 -- What is
UN reform? For
some it
revolves
primarily
around air
travel costs,
with the
intern in
business class
a sort of
modern day
welfare queen
in a
limousine.
But
in terms of
accountability,
when the
UN Staff Union
voted “no
confidence” in
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon,
and Inner City
Press
asked
repeatedly how
much Ban
spends on
travel for
himself and
his
entourage, no
answer has
been given.
Doesn't
transparency
start at the
top?
Similarly,
while it was
in the context
of his
“mobility”
plan that Ban
Ki-moon
answered Inner
City Press
that
his opponents
in the UN
Staff Union in
New York were
“selfish,”
many point to
Ban's closest
advisers who
merely move
laterally, not
out to the
field.
Shouldn't
mobility
begin at the
top? It happened
for Fink Haysom.
It is
happening for
Michael Myer.
Why not, say,
Bob Orr?
Oh
we forgot,
Ban's scribe
Tom Plate, in
belatedly
launching his
book
“Conversations
with Ban
Ki-moon” at
the Princeton
Club,
called
Orr
invaluable.
All the more
reason to
share him with
the world!
There
are claims of
increased
whisteblower
protections.
But just this
week,
James
Wasserstrom decried
the
Sisyphusian
processing of
his
retaliation
claim.
The
focus on air
travel
mentioned
above we
attribute to
US Ambassador
for
Management and
Reform Joe
Torsella. We
have to say,
we saw
him in the
North Lawn
working it on
the report of
the Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations.
Friday
as the General
Assembly
adopted the
other reports
of the Fifth
(Budget)
Committee, but
not SAG, a
well placed
African
ambassador
told Inner
City Press
that Torsella,
Miguel Berger
of Germany as
Fifth
Committee
chair, and the
Permanent
Representative
of Fiji
representing
the Group of
77 had been
charged with
“cooking” a
final SAG
proposal.
Apparently
the
dish was not
ready: by
close of
business
Friday it had
not been
adopted.
So,
is the UN
being
reformed? We
think not.
Down in the
world of press
relations, the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
has submitted
twelve
simple
reforms to the
top of the
Department of
Public
Information.
Not a
one has been
implemented;
there is not
even a
process. There
are still
no rules of
due process
for
journalists.
Hitting
a
new low, DPI
conducted a
raid on Inner
City Press'
office on
March
18, and when
the
Spokesperson
was asked by
BuzzFeed about
the raid,
the photographs
including of
Inner City
Press' desk
and bookshelf
were
immediately
leaked to
BuzzFeed through
an anonymous
“Concerned
UN Reporter”
e-mail
account.
Reform?
We
think not. But
there are
people trying.
Watch this
site.
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