UN
Waited 3 Days to Say Where SG
Guterres Was, No Answer on
Costs, Future, Earth Hour
Lights On
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Series
UNITED NATIONS,
March 27 – With the UN facing
budget cuts while being
unwilling to explain how it
spends the public's money,
Inner City Press on March 24
asked UN spokespeople the
simplest of questions: where
is UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres? They did not
answer on Friday, Saturday or
Sunday. After this questions
and others was submitted again
on Monday, March 27, they
replied: "Regarding the
Secretary-General's travels.
the Secretary-General was in
Lisbon over the weekend, en
route to Jordan." But here's
what was asked by Inner City Press
on this: "As asked on Friday,
state where the SG has been
from Friday to now, and state
in advance if he intends to
stop over in Portugal on his
way back to NYC April 3. More
generally, when the SG travels
or stops over for personal
reason, what have been the
costs to the UN so far in his
tenure? Please explain why, in
light of SG Guterres' UNTV
appeal to join him in turning
off lights on March 25 at 8:30
pm local time, lights were on
at UNDP, UN residence on
Sutton Place, and separately
even some on Secretariat's
36th and 35th floor, and lobby
cafe." So, nothing so far on
costs, on this coming weekend,
or on Earth Hour fraud.
The spokespeople,
including holdovers Stephane
Dujarric and Farhan Haq, have
previously refused
to answer; Haq like
Dujarric before him on March
24 refused to even let Inner
City Press put
a question to the head
of UN Peacekeeping Herve
Ladsous.
What's
different this time? On March
24, in a Periscope livestream
with more than 10,000 viewers,
Inner City Press went to find
out, and documented Guterres
and three UN vehicles leaving
Manhattan's Sutton Place,
presumably for the airport and
Guterres' native Lisbon. Video
here.
This is exactly the kind of
coverage given to leaders in
Washington and other capitals.
Why not disclose it? Inner
City Press has asked the UN's
top three spokespeople:
"While your
Office did
not respond in any way
to last week's questions, this
is a Press question on
deadline to know where the UN
Secretary General is, prior to
his appearance on March 27 in
Jordan. This is a request
for a reading of the Secretary
General's meeting
earlier today with Bert
Koenders, including for
disclosure of whether the UNDP
Administrator position was
raised by either side...
Again, this is a Press request
for a list of who is working
in the Executive Office of the
Secretary General; within
that, who is paid by the UN
general budget, who is paid by
or through any other
UN-affiliated fund and
who funds that, and who is
paid by / seconded from a
country." While we await
answers, it is for this type
of questioning
and accountability coverage
that UN Under Secretary
General for "Public"
Information Cristina Gallach evicted
Inner City Press with no
hearing and no
appeal, and restricts it
still, with no
reversal.
The UN
Secretariat of Antonio
Guterres and his Deputy Amina
J. Mohammed are moving to take
over the UN Development
Program's "Resident
Coordinator" system and the
funding that goes with it,
multiple sources have told
Inner City Press. But
Guterres' spokespeople refuse
to confirm, deny or explain
it, in continued lack of
transparency.
Whereas for now
outgoing UNDP Administrator
Helen Clark chairs the UN
Development Group, Amina
Mohammed would take it over
before a new Administrator,
perhaps outgoing Dutch foreign
minister Bert
Koenders, is installed.
He met Guterres on March 24.
Earlier on March 24, Inner
City Press again asked
Guterres' holdover deputy
spokesman Farhan Haq, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press:
two things about UNDP [United
Nations Development
Programme]. One is
Ségolène Royal, the French
Minister of Environment, has
now said publicly that she is
a candidate to head
UNDP. So I wanted to
know, is there going to be any
kind of, like, short list
announced? I know, under
some previous Administrations,
there were for such top
jobs. Do you anticipate
announcing… given that one
candidate has said publicly…
there are other names I would
like you to confirm. Mr.
[Bert] Koenders is running,
Mr. [David] Miliband, Ms.
[Sigrid] Kaag. Do you
anticipate there being a
public process so that people
know who the candidates are?
Deputy Spokesman: I
don't anticipate us providing
a short list. That
process was discontinued
almost a decade ago.
Inner
City Press:
Okay. Then my other
question is this. In
terms of candidates knowing
what the job entails, because
it remains open until 27 March
to apply for it, I'd like… I
tried to ask you yesterday
about the Secretariat trying
to get funding for the
Resident Coordinator system,
but I want to ask you more
directly. Is it the
intention of the
Secretary-General and his
Deputy Secretary-General to
have Amina Mohammed become the
chair of the UN Development
Group, a position previously
belonging to the administrator
of UNDP, and essentially bring
the Resident Coordinator
system under the
Secretariat? And, in
part, I think you should
disclose it, but certainly, if
people are applying, does the
UNDP job they're applying for
include heading the Resident
Coordinator system?
Deputy Spokesman: Any
reforms to the way the UN
Development Group is organized
is something we'll announce if
that change is made.
Right now, there hasn't been,
and there's nothing to
announce about the Resident
Coordinator system.
Inner City Press: But when a
reform is being proposed,
usually, like, most… in most
systems, the proponent of the
reform discusses it publicly,
argues for it. Are you
saying it's a totally secret
process of reform?
Deputy Spokesman: No,
no, but if there's any need…
there's some things that go to
lower levels of discussion
that never get to become
policy discussions. If
there's any real major change
of policy that we're planning,
of course, we'll announce
that. But we don't have…
we're not at that stage.
Inner City Press on March 23
asked or tried to ask Guterres
himself, as he left the UN
Security Council along with
Katrin Hett: "Is the
Secretariat trying to take
over the Resident Coordinator
system?" Guterres as is his
way for now did not answer. Vine
video here and here.
Ongoing YouTube
here. Guterres heads out
on a trip from March 24 to
April 3. We'll have more on
this. From the UN's March 23
noon briefing transcript:
Inner City Press:
I wanted to ask you, overall,
I've heard that there's a
proposal by the
Secretary-General to begin
getting funding currently that
goes to UNDP for the resident
coordinator system to get some
of it devoted to the
Secretariat itself given its…
the work it expands, in any
case, to take an income stream
that currently goes through
UNDP and bring it to the
Secretariat… to the
Secretariat. And I'd
like you… maybe you know or
don't know. Can you get
an answer and… and… I guess
you might wait until tomorrow,
but it seems like it's a major
proposal. You're talking
about, you know, he's thinking
of reforms. If he's
trying to get in money by
changing the way the resident
coordinator system works, can
you confirm that that is the
plan?
Deputy Spokesman: No, I
cannot confirm that.
Inner City Press:
Meaning it's not happening or
you refuse to confirm or deny
this reform…?
Deputy Spokesman: No I
don't have any details to
share on that. There's
any number of different
proposals that may or may not
be considered. But I
don't have any confirmation of
whether that's… that's…
Inner City Press: It's
in the QCPR… [Quarterly
Comprehensive Periodic Review]
Deputy Spokesman: Yes,
but different things may be up
for discussion. Whether
they advance or not, it's too
early to tell. I don't
have any confirmation of
that. It's certainly not
policy right now.
Inner City Press: But
wouldn't you want to say why
you would want to do it?
I mean, that's what I'm
asking… I'm sort of asking
you, if that's the proposal,
why does he want to do it?
Deputy Spokesman: When
these discussions take place,
they take place among
different Member States.
I wouldn't have anything to
say at this stage about
them. Ultimately, it…
ultimately, what I get to
announce is what's
resolved. Have a good
afternoon, everyone.
Good?
While there are good Resident
Coordinators, Inner City Press
has also written about Ban
Ki-moon son in law Siddarth
Chatterjee, given the top
Kenya post by his own father
in law without recusal, and
now Najat Rochdi, who covered
up Cameroon's abuse of the
Anglophone western part of the
country. Both of them block
Inner City Press on Twitter.
This is today's UN.
How transparent,
or intentionally opaque, is
today's UN? After Inner City
Press exclusively reported
that staff on the UN's 38th
floor were paid through the UN
Office of Project Services and
not the regular budget, the UN
admitted it but refused to
answer Inner City Press'
follow up questions. From the
UN's
transcript:
Inner City Press:
On the answer on UNOPS.
I wanted to, I guess, ask it a
little bit broader, because my
understanding is that there's
a proposal to the Fifth
Committee to approve a number
of new positions on the 38th
Floor. But, until they
rule… so I guess I wanted to
know, rather than piss and…
you know, pick and… pick and,
you know, choose and see if
you say that… I heard
Lusophone; you said no
Lusophone. I heard
UNOPS; you said, yes, one
UNOPS. Can I ask you
generally about UNDP [United
Nations Development
Programme]? And two,
could you just provide a list
of the people that have been
hired on [the 38th Floor] to
work on political matters and
whether, in fact, they have
posts currently in the UN
budget, and if they don't, how
they're being paid? You
could even do it without the
names, but there's a lot of
questions that people have
about people hired where
there's no underlying posts to
be filled.
Deputy Spokesman:
Okay. Well, the bottom
line is that, as I made clear
just now, all of this… all the
questions of posts are that
they go through the normal
budgetary process. And
so, whatever posts we have for
the 38th Floor will be posts
that we get approved from the
budgetary system.
Inner
City
Press: But,
I guess my… my question is,
until May and these posts are
approved, are you saying that
there's nobody that's working
on [the 38th Floor] for which
a post has yet to be approved
by the Fifth Committee?
That's the question that I'm
asking.
Deputy Spokesman:
Whatever the posts are, those
are posts for which we're
seeking budgetary funds from
the 38th… from the budgetary
committees.
Inner
City
Press: But,
if you haven't received the
approval yet, how do you pay
them?
Deputy Spokesman: There
are ways to pay people up
until you get the funding, but
we're going to go through the
normal budgetary process as we
do through the previous
Secretaries-General, as well.
Inner
City Press: Can
you just put out a fact sheet
on that? I guess what
I'm wondering is, it does seem
if there's… if people are
being paid and it's yet to be
approved, there's obviously
some lack…
Deputy Spokesman: The
facts are all information that
are provided to the budgetary
committees. They have
that, and it's their
information.
Inner City
Press had asked UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres' top
two spokesmen simple factual
questions: who works on the
38th floor? Who pays them? But
the two, both holdovers from
the Ban Ki-moon
administration, refused to
answer, so on March 20 Inner
City Press published its scoop
about the murky use of trust
funds to pay people on the
UN's 38th floor. Even on March
21 when Inner City Press asked
Guterres' deputy spokesman
Farhan Haq who pays whom, he
refused to answer. Video
here; from the UN
transcript.
Inner
City Press: It would be
important for the public to
know if somebody working on
the 38th Floor is, in fact,
paid by a country as opposed
from the regular budget.
Deputy Spokesman: The
financial details of how the
Executive Office works, all
that is shared with the
relevant budgetary committees
of the General Assembly, and
so they have that information.
Well not really.
Haq and his boss Stephane
Dujarric refused for four days
to answer this: "This is a
Press request for a list of
who is working in the
Executive Office of the
Secretary General; within
that, who is paid by the UN
general budget, who is paid by
or through any other
UN-affiliated fund and who
funds that, and who is paid by
/ seconded from a
country." Why not just
answer?
On March
20, as Inner City Press
pointed out the seeming
hypocrisy not only of the UN
preaching media freedom while
having evicted and still
restricting Inner City Press
but also of an all-male UN
team meeting with the DR
Congo, it was told Yes, UNOPS
is involved, citing to General
Assembly documents saying that
some working in the UN do not
have to be categories, or
disclosed, as staff. But isn't
this opacity simply inviting
budget cuts? We'll have more
on this.
***
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