UN
Issues Staff Downsizing Draft,
With Guterres Out of Town,
Dismisses Beagle's Harassment
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS,
May 8 – With UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres once
again out of town, after a
brief return for a Lusophone
garden party his UN Security hindered
Inner City Press from
covering, now Guterres' head
of Management Jan Beagle is
circulating an Administrative
Instruction about staff
downsizing. Inner City Press
has obtained the draft and put
it exclusively online on
Patreon, here.
Here are three sample
paragraphs:
“4.12 Staff in
the General Service and
related categories and
National Officers in
posts subject to local
recruitment shall be retained
on suitable positions
available within their entity
at their duty station only, as
per staff rule 9.6 (f).
4.13 Staff in the
Field Service and Professional
or higher categories or
internationally recruited
staff in the General service
and related categories
will be retained on
available suitable positions
within their entity (both
within and outside their
current duty station).
4.14 When a
suitable position is found
which is not immediately
available but expected to
become available within six
months, for example as a
result of a retirement or
resumed funding, staff members
may be assigned against
temporary funding (when
available in the entity) or
placed on special leave
without pay for that period
with the agreement of staff
members, with the
understanding that they will
subsequently be assigned to
the position.”
Leave
without pay. This comes as
Guterres is separately
proposing to move hundreds of
UN jobs out of New York to
Mexico City, Budapest and
Nairobi, which Inner City
Press is also exclusively
covering here.
There are references to a Ban
Ki-moon “Secretary General's
Bulletin” of 2009 as a basis
for the draft Administrative
Instruction on downsizing.
This seems like a leap. This
too: while the draft refers to
integrity, the Guardian has
reported that Beagle while at
UNAIDS, along with Luiz
Loures, was subject to a
detailed complaint of
harassment from Sima Newell, here.
On May 8, after exclusively
publishing the above, Inner
City Press asked Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: Can I ask
you about downsizing?
There's an administrative
instruction put out by Jan
Beagle. Inner City Press
has obtained and published it,
and it seems to be saying that
people will be put on six
months' special leave without
pay. It seems to be a
major initiative by the
Guterres Administration to
reduce the staff size.
And I guess I wanted to know,
since it's… at least as I've
obtained it, it's called a
draft.
Spokesman: I… you've…
Inner
City
Press: What's
the plan?
Spokesman: You've
obtained it. I have
not. So, let me obtain
it, read it, and respond.
Inner City Press:
And I'm sure you've seen The
Guardian article about Jan
Beagle having been herself
subject to harassment
complaint at UNAIDS (Joint
United Nations Programme
against HIV/AIDS) before she
was promoted by
Guterres. I've seen that
you're quoted that she was
vetted. Does that mean
that, despite other now
second-guess… second-guessing
or second runs at
investigations at UNAIDS that
was somehow a more…
Spokesman: First of all,
Ms. Beagle's work as
Under-Secretary-General for
Management is extremely
appreciated by the
Secretary-General. She's
doing a very difficult job and
a very good job. She was
fully vetted when she was
hired. She's done a
great job at UNAIDS and has
been recognized as a leader in
transforming organizations and
ensuring that organizations
are more inclusive and more
representative. I'm not
aware of any plan to re-open
the investigation that you
refer to, and I will leave it
at that." We'll have more on
this. Watch this site.
***
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