With
UN's
Skanska Under Fire for Minority & Mafia Hiring, Food Out onto 1st
Ave
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 29 -- The UN's contractor for its $2 billion
Capital Master Plan, Skanska
USA, is now under investigation for
fraudulently not hiring minority-owned subcontractors and, reportely,
using
a Mafia-connected carting company in its work in Manhattan.
On
November 29,
Inner City Press asked the UN's acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq
what the UN thinks and will do about the reports, which became public
the day before Thanksgiving. Video here,
from Minute 10:45.
Haq
in essence
refused to answer, saying “that's really a question for Skanska to
answer, it's up to you to deal with them on that.”
Inner
City Press
repeated that the question was and is for the UN: will the UN
continue to use and pay a contractors even if it defrauded minority
hiring rules and was linked with the Mafia?
Haq
said that the
UN would “evaluate its relations” with contractors. But
apparently minority (and Mafia) hiring is not enough for the UN: Haq
said he would have no comment on this one, it's “for Skanska and
not us.” We'll see.
As
the UN was
selecting Skanska, Inner City Press asked Capital Master Plan chief
Michael Adlerstein about cases pending in Argentina in what is there
called the “Skanska scandal,” only to be told that such
characterization was unfair. Perhaps minority (and Mafia) hiring
fraud is not a scandal either?
Meanwhile,
the lack
of planning in the Capital Master Plan became publicly evident on
Monday afternoon, when contractors from Aramark were forced to go out
onto First Avenue with rolling carts of beverages and food for a
reception to be held in the General Assembly lobby. There is now no
way to move food and drink from the UN cafeteria kitchen other than
through the streets.
Aramark workers rolling from UN, CMP / DM planning
not shown (c) MRLee
Due
to this lack of
planning, dozens of Aramark workers are losing their jobs as the UN
Department of Management has decided to close down the Delegates'
Dining Room other than for special events -- like the Department of
Management's holiday party. Only at the UN.
Footnote: with the
UN still not disclosing where its tests have found bedbugs, it has been
confirmed to the Press that on the Dag Hammarskjold Library second
floor, only the studios of BBC and NHK and Al Jazeera, where bedbugs
were found, will be fumigated. Despite press requests that the
whole floor be fumigated, this is not being done. Nor has there been
any update on the fleas found in the Publishing Section, first reported
by Inner City Press. Watch this site.
* * *
On
Bed
Bugs
in UN, Focus Expands to New North Lawn, DC-2 & UN Credit Union
By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October
28, updated -- The UN's
incremental spin of its bed bug
problem grew wider and more surreal on Thursday.
Inner
City Press, which was the first to break the story of UN bed bugs, in
a 46th
Street
building in September 2009 and May 2010
and on October
25
in
the Capital Master Plan office in the UN headquarters, now
asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky to make full disclosure of all UN
locations in which bed bugs have been found.
Nesirky
began listing further locations, the 1st, 2nd, 15th 19th and 20th
floors of UN Headquarters and some outside of UN Headquarters,
including the 11th and 25th floors of the UN DC-2 building across
First Avenue, four floors of the UN Federal Credit Union building in
Queens and, as Inner City Press had predicted and then reported,
under the UN's new North Lawn building.
But
when Pressed, Nesirky said that these were locations which had been
tested by bed bug testing dogs. This seemed incorrect, as least as to
UN Headquarters.
On October 27, Inner City Press directly reached and
asked Andrew Nye of the UN Facilities Management Service, who said
that bed bugs had been found in Headquarters on the the 1st, 2nd and
15th floors, beyond those admitted to that time by Nesirky.
So
Inner City Press asked Nesirky to confirm that bed bugs had been
found in the locations he'd listed -- if it were only testing, why
test only the 1st and 3rd floors of the UN Library building, and not
the 2nd floor where the Press is?
Update: on the afternoon of October 28,
the request was made.
UN Ban & NYC UN Commissioner Tiven in North
Lawn, bugs not shown
Nesirky replied that tests are made
“on request,” and then depending on resources.
But
some
of
the Headquarters locations he listed are empty, the staff
already removed. Who then made the request? Inner City Press asked if
the UN would be making full disclosure of its findings. Even to this,
the answer wasn't clear. Watch this site.
Some of
Inner City Press' previous reports:
At
UN,
Bed
Bugs But No Medical Service in the Swing Space, Skanska's
Closed Bid Openings
http://www.innercitypress.com/uncmp6bedbugs091109.html
At
UN,
Bed
Bug Infestation Confirmed, Spread to General Assembly by
Documents Possible
http://www.innercitypress.com/uncmp7bedbugs091609.html
As
UN's
Bed
Bugs Spread, Incoming Diplomats Warned of Itching, No
Answers, Talk of Gaddifi's Tent
http://www.innercitypress.com/uncmp8bedbugs091809.html
UN
Confirms
"Extensive"
Bed Bugs, Claims Missed Them in Due
Diligence, GA Next?
http://www.innercitypress.com/uncmp9bedbugs092209.html
http://www.innercitypress.com/un1bugbeep051210.html
http://www.innercitypress.com/cmp1shaaban051710.html
Watch this site
, 
