At
UN, Broken
Elevators, Hot
Offices, No
Drinking Water
After
Capital Master
Plan
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 2 --
Returns to the
UN
Headquarters
tower have
been
less than
smooth, after
a
rehabilitation
which Inner
City Press
showed
featured
massive cost
overruns. UN
staff have
exclusively
complained to
Inner City
Press of
getting stuck
in the
"renovated"
elevators,
about
uncontrollable
window blinds
which leaves
the
offices
overheated,
and now about
a lack of
drinking
water.
According
to
staff, after
bad-tasting
water was
repeatedly
noted, the UN
shut
down the
system and
ordered
bottled water
to be trucked
in and taken
upstairs. All
this while yet
more staff are
slated to move
in this
coming
weekend.
"Where
did all the
money go?" a
staff member
demanded to
know. "Two
billion
dollars for
this?"
The
UN's Fifth
(budget)
Committee, now
slated to be
taken over by
a Sri
Lankan
diplomat named
in Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
report on
war crimes in
that country,
has until now
raised
numerous
questions
about cost
overruns in
the Capital
Master Plan,
run by
American
Michael
Adlerstein.
The
US quietly let
the UN keep
tens of
millions of
dollars in
so-called
Tax
Equalization
Funds, but for
securing the
Conference
Rooms over
the East
River. But no
drinkable
water? Watch
this site.
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