As
UN Gallach's DPI Post Ad
Extended to March 27, Lusophone
Fund Scoop, Montas Panned
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS,
March 20 – Amid complaints
about slow staffing-up in
Washington, less noticed is
the UN's failure to publish
opening notices for several
top jobs, use of a Lusophone
fund in UNOPS (Inner City
Press scoop
here), failure to
disclose when senior officials
leave and now a troubling
second extension of the time
to apply for the UN Department
of Public Information job
which Ban Ki-moon murkily gave
to Cristina Gallach, who
became his / The Evicter.
There is a lack of
transparency.
Now the vacancy is extended a
second time, from March 20 to
March 27, amid rumors, panned
in DPI, that Ban Ki-moon's
former spokesperson Michele
Montas is in the mix. Where is
the reform? We'll have
more on this.
On March
15, Inner City Press asked the
UN's holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, UN transcript
here: Inner City Press:
Is the head of OHRM [Office of
Human Resources Management]
still in place? I wanted
to ask you that. I've
heard that the ASG [Assistant
Secretary-General] for OHRM is
actually no long… and I ask
because it's… they're the
person who decides who can be
punished and who can't.
Are they…?
Spokesman: Right,
right. I understand… I
mean, I don't know if the
outgoing… or if the person who
was in that post is actually
still there. And even if
they… if a senior official is
no… a person is no longer in
the post, there's an officer
in charge, and the process…
the process continues.
Hours
later, Dujarric never
confirmed this simple fact,
about the UN official who
decides who gets punished. We
now exclusively publish this:
From: Carole
Wamuyu Wainaina /NY/UNO@UNHQ
Date: 03/13/2017
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I am out of the office until
31/12/2030.
Following a
valuable two and the half
years as Assistant
Secretary-General for Human
Resources Management at the
UN, I wish to inform
colleagues and others, whom I
have not had a chance to
notify, that I will be
moving to back to Africa in a
new role.
Mr. Victor Kisob will replace
me temporarily as Acting
ASG... I wish to thank you all
for your support, advice and
friendship during my time at
the UN. Cheers, Carole
The
UN discloses nothing. On March
13, Inner City Press asked the
UN's Dujarric, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press:
I've noticed that two new
senior-level vacancies have
been announced at OHRM [Office
for Human Resources
Management] and the UN
University, but I also… that
the one for DPI [Department of
Public Information], the
deadline was extended.
Can you give some sense of… it
was said to be 6 March.
Now it's 20 March. Also,
OCHA [Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs], for example, there
are other posts that neither
have been extended nor have
they been advertised.
But, particularly on the
extension of DPI, I wanted to…
does this mean that they were
unsatisfied with the
applications they got?
What's behind it?
Spokesman: I don't
know. I'm happily not
involved in the recruiting
process. I think, as any
hiring manager has the
authority to do, we can… the
recruiting deadline can be
extended for a number reasons.
Inner City Press: When
does Mr. [Stephen] O'Brien's
contract expire?
Spokesman: I don't
know. I think most
people were extended for some
time. I don't know what
the exact date is.
And
five hours later, the question
wasn't answered. The same
question could be asked and
should be answered regarding
the head of DGACM Catherine
Pollard, previously the head
of OHRM during the time of the
cases recently decided by the
UN Appeals Tribunal. Of her
successor Carole Wainanu,
sources tell Inner City Press
she "disappeared" on March 10
and that "someone is now
Acting ASG/OHRM in her place."
Suspicions -- bred by lack of
transparency - was expressed:
"The ASG/OHRM gets to decide
who gets charged with
misconduct and who gets let
off." We hope to have more on
this.
The ad for the
post Gallach has damaged has
been extended from March 6 to
March 20, while the position
of Rector of UN University,
held by David Malone of
Canada, and Assistant
Secretary General of Human
Resources Management, held by
Carole Wamuyu Wainaina of
Kenya, have been opened for
applications until April 22
and 17, respectively.
Even since
Gallach's position was
belatedly opened for
application, she has held a murky
award session for a
airline for adding a UN sign
to one plane, has wasted
public funds flying once
again to her native Barcelona
and has restricted the Press
from events on Sexual
Abuse in Conflict, Disappearances,
the death
of Vitaly Churkin, Ghana,
and others. We'll have more on
this.
Last
February UN Under Secretary
General for Public Information
Cristina Gallach ordered
Inner City Press to leave the
UN on two hours notice, and
had it physically ejected by
eight UN Security officers, audio
here.
There was
no
due process, and no
appeal since.
There was,
however, a conflict of
interest. Inner City Press had
begun asking Gallach about her
links to the UN bribery
scandal of Ng Lap Seng in
October 2015, video
here.
Gallach in
retaliation evicted Inner City
Press and had its files
thrown out onto First
Avenue. She has tried to
give its office to an Egyptian
state media which rarely comes
to the UN, and never asks
questions. Inner City Press remains
restricted.
In early
February 2017, Cristina
Gallach's position was the
subject of a vacancy notice, here,
said to be open until March 6.
While some then told Inner
City Press to "let it go,
she's leaving" -- actually,
reversal of her decisions and
written rules to protect
journalists going forwad were
and are still needed -- others
said, ghoulishly, Gallach was
re-applying to continue her
reign. Now, troublingly, the
time to apply for the DPI job
has been extended to March 20.
Does this mean no dispositive
applications have been
received? One thing must be
clear: Gallach must go. We'll
have more on this.
On February
3, Inner City Press asked UN
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric about the vacancy
announcement, and if respect
for due process shouldn't be
made part of the USG DPI job
description. We'll have more
on this.
One
year ago, covering the UN
corruption scandals which have
resulted in two sets of
indictments for bribery
involving the UN, Inner City
Press was ordered to leave the
UN Press Briefing Room by then
Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane
Dujarric.
Other
correspondents were allowed to
stay in the briefing room,
which Dujarric had "lent"
them. But he insisted that
Inner City Press leave. Video
here.
Inner City
Press asked to see any
paperwork that the event was
closed; none was provided.
Inner City Press stated that
if a single UN Security
official asked it to leave, it
would. Finally one guard came
and said Dujarric wanted it to
leave.
Inner City
Press immediately left,
uploaded the already
live-streamed Periscope video,
and continued digging into the
corruption that's resulted in
the indictment for bribery and
money laundering of Ban
Ki-moon's brother Ban Ki Sang
and nephew Dennis Bahn.
But three
weeks afterward, without a
single conversation or
opportunity to be heard, Ban's
Under Secretary General for
Public Information Cristina
Gallach ordered Inner City
Press to leave the UN, after
ten years, on two hours
notice. Order
here.
This
was enforced, as Inner City
Press worked on its laptop at
the UN Security Council
stakeout, by eight UN Security
officers led by Deputy Chief
McNulty, who tore Inner City
Press accreditation badge off
its chest and said, "Now you
are a trespasser." Audio
here.
Inner City
Press was marched down the
escalator and around the UN
traffic circle, without even
its coat which was up in its
longtime office. It was pushed
out of the gate and its
laptop, in a bag, was thrown
on the sidewalk and damaged.
The next
work day when Inner City Press
arranged for a fellow
journalist to sign it in as a
guest so it could cover the
Security Council, UN Security
official Matthew Sullivan said
it was Banned from UN premises
worldwide. Audio
here.
After three days covering the
UN from the park in front in
the sleet, and articles like
this one, Inner City Press
re-entered with a
"non-resident correspondents"
pass - to which it is still,
more than eleven months later,
confined.
The
then-US Mission under Samantha
Power and Isobel Coleman, even
petitioned
by the DC-based Government
Accountability Project, did
nothing. Indirectly, a offer
was made of an upgraded pass
if Inner City Press would
agree to a gag order, to which
it would not and will not
agree.
There has
been no UN opportunity for
appeal or reinstatement. After
having five boxes of Inner
City Press' investigative
files thrown
on the sidewalk in April,
Gallach is giving
its office to an
Egyptian state media Akhbar al
Yom which rarely comes in, a
correspondent Sanaa Youssef
who had yet to ask a single
question.
Her only claim is
that she was once, decades
ago, a president of the United
Nations Correspondents
Association, the group to
which Duajrric "lent" the UN
Press Briefing Room, without
notice or written record, on
January 29, 2016.
Even as the
scope of Ban Ki-moon's
corruption is being exposed
upon his return to South
Korea, here,
his successor Antonio Guterres
has yet to reverse this year
of censorship and no due
process. On January 6 Dujarric
and Gallach led him on a tour
of... the UN Correspondents
Association, which now wants
him again in their clubhouse.
(More on this to follow.)
On January
27 as Inner City Press moved
to cover Guterres at the UN's
Holocaust event, it was
targeted by UN Security and
told it could not proceed
without a minder, who did not
appear for over 15 minutes.
The
harassment continued through
the day, as Inner City Press
exposed more corruption,
including involving
Jeffrey Feltman
(Dujarric told
ICP its questioning was
"despicable"), and the
use of military contingents
involved in war crimes in
Herve Ladsous' UN
Peacekeeping, as criticized by
new US Ambassador Nikki Haley.
All of this
must change. This is a scam,
and censorship: the UN's
Censorship Alliance. We will
have more on this.
***
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