At UN,
Guterres'
Murky Reform
Would Cut NYC
Jobs, 75% to
Women, He
Controls Site
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS,
March 1 – At the UN with
Antonio Guterres 14 months
into his term as Secretary
General, there's talk of
reform but little
transparency. Guterres'
proposed Global Service
Delivery Model (GSDM) may,
despite Guterres' murky
attempts to over-ride his
advisory team's
recommendations, be an
exception, as it would
eliminate jobs in New York,
jobs held by Americans. The
proposal is to move to cheaper
location(s) back office
functions like human
resources, payments and
payroll. But Inner City Press
is exclusively told by
whistleblowers that Guterres
wants to ignore the siting
proposals of the advisory team
and control the reward hosting
this would represented, as he
did at the UN Refugee angency
with Budapest. The
whistleblowers tell Inner City
Press that dozens of jobs
would be eliminated in New
York, 75% of them held by
women, of whom Guterres speaks
so much. More than three
dozens of those fired would be
from the United States, which
as was pointed out in
September pays a quarter of
the bills. What ever the
wisdom, more transparency is
needed. But to the contrary,
Guterres and his Global
Communicator Alison Smale continue
to restrict the Press that
asks, awarding its long time
UN work space to a no-show
Egyptian state media, Sanaa
Youssef of Akhbar al Yom. On
February 28, Guterres' UN
Security told Inner City Press
to stop
recording, as Guterres was
offering his "very very warm
regards" to Sisi. Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
does not answer Inner City
Press' written questions; he
evicted and still restricts
Inner City Press. This is
today's UN. Even on the
environment, the UN's last
refuge as it fails under
Antonio Guterres on conflict
prevention and
anti-corruption, the UN is in
decay. Guterres' deputy Amina
J. Mohammed has refused Press
questions since November on
her role in signing 4000
certificates to export from
Nigeria and Cameroon
endangered rosewood already in
China. Guterres, Mohammed and
Alison Smale's only response
has been to censor
and continue to restrict
the Press which asks, despite
5000 signature petition,
UNanswered. Now whistleblowers
in UNEP have written to
Guterres, and excusively sent
a copy to Inner City Press on
"UNEP mis management,
harassment and misuse of
government resources Dear Mr.
Solheim, It is almost 1.5
years since you became the
Executive Director of
UNEP. While our
wish would have been to
address the issues below with
you in person, this message is
being sent to you anonymously
for our protection, and given
threats, harassment and
actions being taken against
staff who have tried to speak
out, particularly as pertains
to financial and human
resource anomalies. i)
Executive Office – Waste of
government resources: We
constantly receive feedback on
the limited financial
resources in the
organisation. Since you
came on board, you have
established numerous positions
in the Executive Office,
leading to an estimated 25
positions with about 14
professionals, while all
previous Executive Directors
worked effectively with only
about 7 professionals...The
additional cost of these
positions is over USD 1.1
million in a year. These
funds could well be used to
implement activities that meet
our obligations and those of
our Member States. You
have gone ahead to establish a
temporary P5 Deputy Chief of
Staff, in addition to having a
Chief of Staff D1 and a P3
Special Assistant to the Chief
of Staff. The new
position will cost another USD
206,000. This adds up to
USD 1.3 million wasted
resources. How inefficient can
an Executive Office be to
warrant so many staff and
special support to one person,
when there are no sufficient
resources to support
activities in the substantive
Divisions! You have
inappropriately announced to
the Member States that you
will be advertising the
positions of the D2 Director,
Ecosystem Division and
Director, New York Office
without even discussing this
with Mette Wilkie and Elliot
Harris, the incumbents of the
posts respectively. The
organisation is being led by
your personal preferences and
those of, the Chief of Staff,
Anne LeMore who you brought
into the organisation -and
Sami Dimassi, Officer
in-Charge of Corporate
Services, whom you appointed
against the decision of OHRM,
given the un-merited
selection. You appointed a P5,
Gary from another agency to
come and lead the Policy
Division, while you have an
already capable D1, Sheila
Aggarwal-Khan. This is
another example of a wasted
USD 205,600.
You are hardly available to
provide leadership to the
organisation as you are
constantly traveling together
with your special assistants
most specifically Hao
Chen. Millions of
resources have been lost in
your business class travels,
some of which are not
necessary. ii) Corporate
Services Division, illegal
actions, personal gain &
conflict of interest: You have
still maintained Sami Dimassi
as officer in charge of
Corporate Services Division,
despite the temporary
selection being rejected by
OHRM. We wonder why Sami has
been mandated to be making key
management decisions yet he
has not gone through a proper
recruitment process as officer
In-charge of that Division and
has no qualifications and
experience to match the job
profile. His main activities
are scuttling other people’s
careers and family lives. It
is unimaginable that United
Nations can allow a staff
member in the calibre of a
Director to continue in the
system and continue
threatening other staff
members including senior staff
while quoting your name. The
Secretary General in his
previous address to staff has
stated that he will not
entertain any form of
harassment in the Organization
yet Sami continues to do this
in all his dealing with staff
from certain quarters. The
following are a few examples
of the mandate you have
granted to your appointee
against the decision of the
United Nations Secretary
General. Sami who is a
Lebanese national, with
Canadian citizenship in the
system, has appointed Fadi
Abou-Elias, another Lebanese
to lead the budget activities,
separating these from finance
and the able leadership of
Moses Tefula who is an expert
with a doctorate in the field
and with extensive experience.
It is obvious to any expert in
accounting and finance, the
separation has been done to
benefit specific individuals.
Also, other UN agencies have
consolidated these functions.
Sami subsequently created a P3
position in the budget unit
and appointed yet another
Lebanese national, Joseph K.
against the programme support
budget (PSC). These
funds are supposed to provide
programme support to the MEAs
and Divisions that bring in
the resources, in addition to
corporate administrative
support. In addition,
Sami and Fadi managed to
enforce the selection of
Fadi’s wife Nada Matta as P3
Fund Management Officer in the
Science Division (where Sami
worked previously) after being
placed on temporary post to
enable a quick
appointment. All
budgetary matters of the
Division are well sorted by
her husband Fadi, bringing a
conflict of interest, since he
is the same one managing the
organisation’s overall budget,
against the UN financial rules
and regulations. Much of her
work is managed by her husband
which is obvious in her change
in decisions and guidance
provided to the Division, once
she receives her husband’s
input to questions she may
have answered without much
knowledge. Recently, you
appointed Emanuele Corino, P4
to lead all human resources
and administration
issues. Emanuele is no
expert in HR and has very
limited knowledge in the
field. He is an IT-expert
Sir. You have taken this
responsibility from a capable
P5, Mariama, with decades of
expertise in the field.
Emanuele came on board as a
consultant through UNOPS, who
was then appointed as a UNOPS
staff and despite Secretariat
questions of his illegal
appointment to UNEP he
continued to lead procurement
activities. He is being
supported by an excellent P4
who is an expert in HR and
would better lead this docket
if not the P5 Mariama.
In addition, the cost of
paying Mariama,USD 205,600goes
to waste as all her work has
been handed over to an
incapable Emanuele, and staff
under her supervision deployed
to other Divisions. Emanuele
is propagating the use of
UNOPS in hiring of HR services
and procurement services.
Consultants and staff,
including in your office Sir,
have been hired through UNOPS
to circumvent the UN rules and
regulations and he endorses
it, being a beneficiary of
such illegal processes. It
also leads to misuse of
resources provided by member
states as UNOPS charges for
these services that are
provided for free by UNON. He
is doing all this in
collaboration with two senior
HR officers in UNON and a
senior Finance officer in
UNON-DAS who has been promised
to take over a position in
UNEP. We request for a full
investigation into this matter
and the illegal conduct of the
staff including misuse of his
position. All the above
positions have been granted to
men, while you continue to
preach gender (and in respect
to the gender parity strategy)
but unfortunately you are not
leading by practice.
Sir, it is now public
knowledge that the Chief of
Finance in your organization,
Moses Tefula has filed a case
in the United Nations Dispute
Tribunal for suspension of
illegal action to move him,
and to suddenly and
unilaterally reclassify his
position to a post downwards
and transfer him to a position
not commensurate with his
grade. More details are
publicly available in the UNDT
website on UNDP/NBI/017/124.
Sami and his support group is
the architect behind this
illegal action so that he can
hand-over the powerful docket
of Senior Finance Officer to
his friends as is already
happening. Sir, we remind you
that the Member States have
entrusted UNEP with close to a
billion US dollars of annual
contributions and it is
un-imaginable that management
of such resources can be
delegated to friendship
circles. While management may
not like some staff members
especially those from the
black race to hold such key
positions, we cannot allow the
contributions of member states
which come from the taxes of
their nationalities to be
jeopardized. iii) Harassment
and illegal actions to get rid
of colleagues who do not meet
your, Sami Dimassi and Anne Le
More’s liking. Efforts have
been made to cause instability
in the Divisions with missions
purported to review the
Division. This has
created fear among staff,
uncertainty and worry on who
will be gotten rid of, or who
will be moved to an
extra-budgetary post (XB) or
contract non-renewal, in order
to be sent home. In this
case XB is assumed to be any
funds that are not from the
regular budget or from the
Environment Fund. This
was done in the Regional
Office for Africa, the
Communication Division, Geneva
office and other offices where
missions are being undertaken
to threaten staff. A brutal
example is the move of a P3
Regional Information Expert
from Bahrain, along with four
others because Sami did not
like her, despite her previous
performance appraisals meeting
and in some instances
exceeding expectations.
She has a young family of two
children whom she has had to
leave in Bahrain under threat
that she either takes up the
move to Nairobi or leaves the
organisation. She was
moved from a regular budget
(RB) post, to temporary
Environment Fund (Fund
Reserve) for one year and is
to then be moved to an
extra-budgetary (XB) post that
has no resources, in the
expectation that if no funds
are forthcoming or if she is
not able to mobilise funds,
she will be out on the
streets. This is after
service to the organisation
for 10 years. This is brut ant
misuse of authority by Sami.
It is against the
“Family-friendly policies” of
the UN system wide policy on
gender parity which requires
decision on staff mobility to
be communicated at least six
months prior to the moves and
moves scheduled six months
following the completion of
the school year or accommodate
the family needs otherwise as
appropriate. The poor staff
member is under distress,
separated from her family who
are in a foreign duty station
and has to incur personal
trips to see her young ones.
In contrast, you, Sir, have
approved that your friend, a
D1, Lisa Svensson can work
from Europe, because for
personal reasons she does not
wish to work in Nairobi.
Her big office in Nairobi
remains vacant with her name
and organisational equipment
while the same has to be
provided again by another
office in Europe. She
leads the marine team remotely
as the rest of the staff under
her responsibility are in
Nairobi. Sir, how inhuman can
you and Sami be, to summon one
staff member, who is from a
developing country against her
wish, separating her from her
young family, but provide a
golden platter for another who
is from a developed country...
When you came on board in
2016, you immediately began
with changing the
organisation’s name, claiming
not to understand acronyms,
which have been used since the
establishment of the
organisation over four decades
ago. The whole world
knows UNEP, UNDP, UNICEF
etc. Are you purporting
that these should have been UN
development, UN children… so
that one day you Sir, can
understand what they do, and
that the work of the
organisation has not been
understood since 1972 due to
its use of the acronym UNEP?
Despite numerous interventions
during the meetings of the
Committee of Permanent
Representatives (CPRs)
questioning the legitimacy of
this change from UNEP to UN
Environment, you have given a
deaf ear. Most are the
times that you open the
session and then take off,
leaving your Deputy Executive
Director Ibrahim Thiaw to find
excuses for you... You forget
that the rules are not set by
the organisation, but through
it by the Member States of the
UN... You talk of reform and
efficiency. With all the
above, and many more examples
that would result in a very
lengthy document,you have
failed the organisation, you
have failed us. Your actions
are provoking staff to boycott
the next Town Hall meeting in
respect of all colleagues
affected by your actions and
those of your circle of
friends that are running the
organisation to peril. Our
plea is to call for an
immediate audit of the
organisation, intervention and
investigation." We'll have
more on this. A Climate Risk
event was held at the UN on
January 31, complete with a
delayed press conference with
four speakers. Inner City
Press asked them about the
role of the UN, not just as a
venue but as an actor, with a
Deputy Secretary General Amina
J. Mohammed who in 2017 signed
4000 certificates for
already-exported endangered
rosewood in China. The UN
Global Compact accepted CEFC
China Energy until Inner City
Press repeated asking about
its role as beneficiary of a
UN bribery scheme to get oil
in Uganda and Chad; China
Energy Fund Committee is
*still* in Special
Consultative status with
ECOSOC. Periscope video here,
since the UN has withheld its,
under UNTV boss Alison
Smale. Among the
panelists, Betty Yee,
California's Controller,
repeatedly cited transparency.
Fred Samama of Amundi to his
credit acknowledged there is a
danger of green-washing. Peter
Damgaard Jensen of PKA said
the UN could / should help
emerging markets. (This is
true, but today in Cameroon
for example, the UN only
supports colonialism and
exploitation.) Iconic Jack
Ehnes of CalSTRS appeared
sympathetic. But will they
continue to blithely provide a
platform for the greenwashing
not only of oil companies like
CEFC China Energy, but of
censoring UN officials like
Amina J. Mohammed, who helped
export endangered rosewood
then refused all Press
questions on it, and continues
to censor and restrict the
Press which asks? We'll have
more on this - and on “The
Investor Agenda.” Amid UN
bribery scandals, failures in
countries from Cameroon to
Yemen and declining
transparency, today's UN does
not even pretend to have
content neutral rules about
which media get full access
and which are confined to
minders or escorts to cover
the General Assembly.
Inner City Press,
which while it pursue the
story of Macau-based
businessman Ng Lap Seng's
bribery of President of the
General Assembly John Ashe was
evicted by the UN Department
of Public Information from its
office, is STILL confined to
minders as it pursues the new
UN bribery scandal, of Patrick
Ho and Cheikh Gadio
allegedly bribing President of
the General Assembly Sam
Kutesa, and Chad's Idriss
Deby, for CEFC China Energy.
Last week Inner
City Press asked UN DPI where
it is on the list to be
restored to (its) office, and
regain full office - and was
told it is not even on the
list, there is no public list,
the UN can exclude,
permanently, whomever it
wants. This is censorship, and
has been accepted and even
encouraged by what has become
the UN Censorship Alliance,
which accepted funds from Ng
Lap Seng's South South News
and had Inner City Press
ejected from the UN Press
Briefing Room as it inquired
into the story.
When this UNCA
held its annual meeting on
January 29, it could barely
reach quorom (Periscope here);
it covered over the glass
doors of the clubhouse the UN
gives it with a sign board.
Disgruntled members forwarded the
"agenda" -- "1) Introduction of the new
2018 UNCA Executive Committee. 2)
Presentation of UNCA sub-committees and
their upcoming agendas. 3) Presentation
of 2017 UNCA & UNCA Awards
financials. 4) UNCA 70th anniversary. 5)
Other matters." We'll have more on this.
***
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