On UN
Guterres'
Reform With No
Price Tag He
Nabs Piper
Along with
Power From
UNDP
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Video
UNITED NATIONS,
June 26 –
Antonio Guterres has held the
position of UN Secretary
General for nearly eighteen
months, amid few accomplished
reforms or political conflicts
solved, and ongoing censorship
/ restriction
of the Press. On May 31 he was
set to belatedly take “a few”
questions, on what's called
his reform of the UN
development system. But he
canceled that, just as he
canceled his slated June 26
press conference four days
after his guards ousted Inner
City Press from the UN during
an event at which Guterres
bragged of his visit to Mali.
Video
here,
story here, new
petition here.
Now on June
26 Guterres has announced a
hire for a plan he has still
not disclosed the funding for:
"the appointment of Robert
Piper of Australia as the Head
of the United Nations
development system Transition
Team, established to provide
strategic leadership and
oversight to all aspects of
the repositioning of the
United Nations development
system. Under the oversight of
the Deputy Secretary-General,
the Transition Team will be
guided by the provisions of
General Assembly resolution
72/279, endorsed by Member
States on 31 May 2018 [with
funding UNdefined.] Currently
serving as the
Officer-in-Charge of the
Bureau of External Relations,
United Nations Development
Program." So it is a murky
power grab from UNDP, now
grabbing an official from
UNDP. (Inner City Press has
previously asked Piper about
the Sahel, here,
prior to Guterres' and Amina
J. Mohammed's June 22 Press
ouster, on which both have
been petitioned.)
Inner City Press
on May 30 sought to ask
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric a question in
advance. But Dujarric, who
evicted Inner City Press from
the UN Press Briefing Room as
it pursued the still unresolved
story of UN bribery and keeps
it restricted, ran off. Video
here.
So here is the question: why
even for this reform has
Guterres not prepared the UN's
usual “Program Budget
Implication” statement? How
much will the reform cost? On
May 31, Inner City Press asked
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric who offered an
evasive answer and then ran
off the podium. From the UN's
sanitized transcript:
Inner City Press: I wanted to
ask you about the development
system reform. In
talking to some people on the
Fifth Committee, they said
that it's strange that there's
no Program Budget Implication,
PBI, filed in connection with
this pretty major
proposal. Like, even for
the envoy on Myanmar, there
had to be a PBI. How can
it be something this big
doesn't have a price tag?
Spokesman: Well, I mean,
I think everything was
negotiated with the Fifth
Committee, and I think they
got all the documents they
needed." And then he ran off.
So Inner City Press went and
asked the question to
Guterres, repeatedly, who
ignored the audible question
(but appeared to give a small
wave). Video here.
This while Guterres
accompanied by Dujarric and
Alison Smale wined
and dined no-question
correspondents with pan seered
corvina
and restricting Inner City
Press which alone asks about
these budget issues, and
corruption. Today's UN is
corrupt - and a censor.
On June 1, Inner
City Press asked Guterres'
deputy spokesman Farhan Haq,
UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: yesterday in
the… in the meeting to… on
the… on the development system
reform, there was a sort of
formal statement of the
Secretariat that said, quote,
"The Secretariat is not in a
position to provide a detailed
statement of programme budget
implications (PBI) prior to
the finalization of the
implementation plan." So
I wanted to ask what I was
trying to ask Stéphane
yesterday. What is the…
usually, I mean, at least in
my experience, usually the PBI
is done before the vote.
Maybe this is… I'm sure States
agreed to this, but what is
the plan for the
Secretariat? What's the
time frame to actually say how
much it's going to cost?
Deputy Spokesman: What's
happening now — we're very
appreciative of the adoption
of the resolution yesterday by
the Member States. We
had informed the Member States
in a note of our… of the
process that we're going
through, and what we're going
to do now is that we are
engaging… as of now, we're
engaging with the Fifth
Committee to provide more
information, and we'll do this
so that, as the
Secretary-General made clear,
we can hit the ground running
on 1 January 2019.
Inner City Press: So
that's in this May section, in
this… in this current session,
that… that this information is
going to be provided, the PBI?
Deputy Spokesman: Like I
said, we have started, as of
this past day, we're starting
our dialogue with the Fifth
Committee on this." But the
resolution says during THIS
General Assembly - and the
final Budget Committee session
of this GA ends soon. On June
4, Inner City Press asked
Haq's boss Stephane Dujarric,
video here,
UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: on PBI
(programme budget
implications) — thanks a lot —
I want… I just wanted to get
to the bottom of this. I
tried to ask the
Secretary-General. It
didn't, obviously, work.
So, I'm going to ask
you. The resolution as
adopted by the General
Assembly says that the
Secretary-General should
present an implementation plan
including on the op…
operatization of its funding
arrangements before the end of
seventy-second session.
And then, when I asked
yesterday your colleague, Mr.
[Brenden] Varma, it seemed
like this has been kicked to
the seventy-third. So, I
wanted to know, what is… when
is the plan…?
Spokesman: Let me… it's
something I should know, which
I don't, so I will try to find
out." A full day later,
nothing. So at the June 5 UN
briefing, Inner City Press
asked again, UN transcript here: Inner
City Press: Did you get an
answer on the programme budget
implications (PBI)?
Spokesman: The programme
budget, from what I
understand, I think Farhan
[Haq] answered the question as
best as he could and best as
we all could on Friday.
The discussions with the…
about programme budget
implications were done with
the Fifth Committee and the
General Assembly, and we're
continuing to do as they
request.
Inner
City
Press: Just
to clarify, my question was
the resolution as passed, and
I guess… I mean, as accepted
by the Secretariat, says that
the PBI will be done before
the end of the seventy-second
session and maybe it was just
a confusion between the
two. It seemed to have
been said from this podium by
your colleague that this will
be in the seventy-third
session to the Fifth
Committee. So the
question…
Spokesman: Which
colleague?
Inner City Press: Brenden
[Varma], not to put him in a
hot… I guess my question was
just to you…
Spokesman: Don't try to
get between Brenden and
I. No, it's okay.
No, I’m saying we will follow
the instructions." We'll have
more on this.
The
reform, such as it is, is to
move authority for the UN's
resident coordinator system
from the UN Development
Program over to Guterres'
deputy secretary general Amina
J. Mohammed. Guterres had
wanted to get regular assessed
budget funding for this, but
he lost in that attempt. An
undefined “hybrid” funding
system is yet to be specified,
despite a rubber stamp vote
being calle on the reform on
May 31. How will it be paid
for? It is undisclosed, just
like Guterres' visit to his
home in Portugal on May 28 was
undisclosed until Inner City
Press asked.
According to what
senior Fifth (Budget)
Committee sources exclusively
tell Inner City Press,
Guterres claims he can't
estimate the cost or PBI until
he finds out what states will
voluntarily give him. Then how
can this reform be voted on
and be claimed to be
completed, a rare victory for
Guterres? (The sources also
tell Inner City Press that
Guterres made his appointment
of Achim Steiner to replace
Helen Clark as head of UNDP
contingent on Steiner
supporting UNDP's loss of the
resident coordinator system to
Amina Mohammed.) Dujarric did
not want to answer, and if the
past is any guide he will
pre-select the questions to
Guterres from among his
allies. Watch this site.
***
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