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By Matthew Russell Lee, photos

UNITED NATIONS, February 12 – South Sudanese citizen James Gadet Dak has been sentenced to death, after he called for the ouster of then UN Force Commander Ondieki. Will the UN, whose Secretary General Antonio Guterres "smoothed over" l'affaire Ondieki with Kenyatta and now says little about abuses by the Kenyan government, do more than a rote statement against the death penalty? On February 12 Inner City Press asked Guterres' spokesman - previously spokesman for Ban Ki-moon who said the execution of Saddam Hussein was a matter for Iraq to decision - these questions, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: in South Sudan, James Gatdet Dak, who used to be the Spokesman for SPLA-IO (Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition), has been sentenced to death.  And… and one of the reasons that he was… he was sent back to the country from Kenya is that he… he was calling for the… Spokesman:  No, I recall the case. Inner City Press:  Yeah, absolutely.  So, I guess, given particularly that one of his alleged crimes was calling for the ouster of the then force commander, Mr. [Johnson Mogoa Kimani] Ondieki, what's the UN — I know the UN has a general principle against the death penalty, but does it have any particular comment…? Spokesman:  I've just seen these reports.  If true, they're, obviously, deeply troubling.  As you rightly said, we stand… we stand against the death penalty, and we'll check with our colleagues on the ground, who I'm sure are following the case." In Sudan the UN back on February 5, 2016 moved to give more U.S. dollars to the Bank of Khartoum, from its own staff members' salaries. Inner City Press previously exclusively exposed this outrage, and a UN "reconsideration" ensured. Now UN staff salaries in Sudan are paid in dollars, but those who went on strike are being retaliated against. The UN Federal Credit Union is pitching VISA debit cards to staff, see below. Now in 2018, seemingly to placate Khartoum, the UN has refused to allow South Sudan's Foreign Minister to accompany for burial in Abyei the body of Kuol Alor Kuol, South Sudan's former Ambassador to the UN in Geneva. From the UN transcript: Inner City Press:  the Foreign Minister of South Sudan has publicly complained that UNISFA, the UN mission in Abyei, didn't allow him on a flight with a… with the deceased South Sudanese Ambassador, Kuol Alor Kuol, who used to be the… the Ambassador of South Sudan to the UN in Geneva, to be buried in Abyei.  And so he found… or at least the Government of South Sudan found it strange.  And I wanted to know what is the UN's reasoning for denying a Foreign Minister, you know… he was going to be on the flight to bury this Ambassador in Abyei? Deputy Spokesman:  I'm not aware that there was any such denial, but I'll check with [UNISFA]." Seven hours later, nothing.  From Sudan we had this update: "Another exchange rate scam. [UNAMID official] Marta Ruedas who found herself has no other option than supporting salary payments to be paid in US dollars, after the staff strike, was under UN Peacekeeping fire due to her decision. UNFCU as well proved that it is just internal UN department and not a bank that respect its members rights and privacy, replied to some local staff from other agencies in Sudan clearly stating that what happened to their accounts was “UNDP Sudan decision," photos here, despite its previous communication with UN Staff Federation in Sudan claiming the US sanction as the reason of Staff Dollars being taken and given to bank of Khartoum." That letter attached here on Patreon. Inner City Press exclusively reported a UN memo that salaries may be paid in local currency or dollars. See here.

  The UN Staff Federation in Sudan issued a strike threat; Inner City Press is putting their letter online here. 

Sudan UN Staff Federation Strike Threat for Salaries Paid to Bank of Khartoum in Dollars by Matthew Russell Lee

From an Inner City Press source, exhibits will be added going forward or contact editorial [at] innercitypress.com

On Sudan, UN Was Silent on April PNG, Gave Staff's Dollars to Khartoum and as mentioned earlier, the government of Sudan threw out the UNDP CD, Yvonne Helle, based on her decision to close out the UNDP TOKTEN Project without any consultation with the Sudan Government, overstepping the Host Country Agreement “as exclusively reported by a government source”.

To avoid being questioned by the Sudan government, UNDP officers or “Al-Zatari’s helpers” decided to lie on their communication with Sudan government!  They have sent fake information about the team they were bringing to conduct the Country office restructure “or Job fair, as they name it” or simply their retaliation against the Staff leaders, who were behind the famous UN Staff Strike.

Those officers who represents the UN in Sudan were able to simply sign and send Note Verbale and visa letters saying those team members are “coming to Sudan to conduct training course for UNDP Human Resources and Finance Staff Members”!  Really what type of Managers UN is Sending to Sudan!

Alzatari, who couldn’t forgot the hard Slap he got from innercitypress and UN staff leaders, used his “personal helpers” from UNDP Sudan officers who are:

-         Vakhtang Svanidze – UNDP Deputy Country Director (Operation) “the signer of the fake Note Verbale – the restructure engineer and - leader of retaliation”

-         Naeem Ahmad – Alzatari’s sincere and great helper who led the dirty part of UNDP Sudan restructure exercise – HR Manager and later assigned the Operation manager in charge to lead the process.

-         3 local staff, 2 Analysts form Finance and IT departments, and the heart of the dirty parts at all times, an HR associate “this lady joined UNDP on September 2002 and continued to work and even converted to permanent staff while she don’t even has a secondary school certificate, but when the restructure exercise comes, she simply buy a fake certificate backdated to 2013, a source from the Sudan Ministry of Education informed me that “they never issued a handwritten Secondary School certificate even in the past when old type writers being in use”, but that was not an issue for her as she is always the responsible person of staff files !!!  Her fake certificate attached.

It is important to note that this restructure process announced in December 2015, and finalized on February 2017, it took 14 months to finish, the local staff were put on pressure and stress for 14 months under aggressive environment !

Naeem and Muna (the local HR Associate) invited their close friends to be part of restructure team (Ane Katrine Havsteen – Muna’s close friend, and Moon Gurung – Naeem’s friend from Nepal office while he worked as HR manager, and later promoted her to HR manager position).

 Naeem made everything possible to keep it a messy process to let his plan pass as intended, you may notice how messy the interview results sheet and not a professional at all.

 Selva Ramachandran (Country Director) and Vakhtang made a new organigram in a way that help to fire unwanted staff leaders. Apart of this, they found the right chance for settlement of their old fighting with senior local program officers, therefore, three senior officers were kicked out and their unit completely closed (HIV and MDG Unit), we believe that’s the real reason for lies they sent to Sudan government as firing those officers and closing a big unit and its huge projects will definitely raise many questions by government since this clearly breaking the agreement with the Country.

Naeem, Muna and the other two officers (IT and Finance officers) uncovered the technical interview questions and passed it to the “desired staff”, (some questions were actually created by them); it was noted by many UNDP staff members that technical questions were known to some of their colleagues!!!  

In additional to the questions leakage, their friends “Ane and Moon” worked hard on ratings part, on some noted cases, they delayed finalization of interview reports until panel members left the country, later on they asked them to send their electronic signatures by email to put on final reports, up to now we don’t know the actual number of forged reports.

The UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP representative Marta Ruedas, who promised her staff and assured them a fair and transparent process, signed 13 notes to file to justify override of the final results and choosing different staff instead of the “Fully recommended candidate”, in two cases this carried two and three steps jump on their grades. Their decision was to keep the most obedient staff.

Actually, this group of corrupted UN officers was extremely impudent and do not feel shame while adding to their report a column labeled “Selection Decision” before the “Fully recommended candidate” column to put the wanted names!

To clear any doubts, and allow Naeem to take lead of the process “as he was not a trusted person for staff of all UN agencies”, he was rewarded a new post (Human Resources Specialist, RBAS based in Amman) 3 days only prior to interviews, he then joined as an external member since the RC agreed with the staff to bring externals for interviews.

Naeem then sent the cases to his new office in Amman to obtain CRP approval, and avoided involving the HQ office in NY.

I am attaching a snapshot showing one example of “unwanted” procurement Analyst, the first “Confidential status report” showed his grade as 60% (pass) but their comment was “possibly second round” as he is not the desired staff (refer to emails attached), later on the second report they changed his rating to 46%,he was the only candidate applied for this post. He applied on the second round and kicked out again.!!!

The reason behind this counterfeiting was to avoid the “order of retention policy” which is part ofUNDP Recruitment and Selection Framework as most of the staff leaders were either holding “Permanent contract” or “Fixed Term Contract”, and according to this policy long serving staff will be retain in their current position if obtained the basic passing marks (UNDP Sudan chosen 60% as passing threshold)." Marta Ruedas who justified this restructure by $ 1 Million shortage in funding, paid % 550,000 to bring the interview panel members.

Back to the old story of Alzatari, bank of Khartoum and exchange rate,
we exclusively got information about the cause of the foot note which
was added to the new Salary scale to pay local staff in local
currency. Naeem, who was trusted by local staff to be the chair of
their Local Staff salary survey committee (LSSC) miss-leaded the UN
controller when they consulted him, he told them that “due to the
limited access to convertible currency by local banks” he prefer that
local staff to be paid in local currency at the official exchange
rate”, still supporting bank of Khartoum!!! Another exchange rate scam
(Attachments 8 & 9). Marta Ruedas who found herself has no other
option than supporting salary payments to be paid in USD, after the
staff strike, was under DPKO fire due to her decision. UNFCU as well proved that it is just internal UN department and not a bank that respect its members rights and privacy, replied to some local staff from other agencies in Sudan clearly stating that what happened to their accounts was “UNDP Sudan decision” despite its previous communication with UN Staff Federation in Sudan claiming the US sanction as the reason of Staff Dollars being taken and given to bank of Khartoum...

While the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization helps North Korea with a patent application for social cyanide (FOX here), Inner City Press on May 16 began to ask US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley about it (video here, more to follow). In a more lenthy exchange with May's President of the UN Security Council, Uruguay's Elbio Rosselli, Inner City Press asked about UN WIPO's (non) compliance with UN sanctions, working on a patent for North Korea's production of sodium cyanide. Periscope video here. Ambassador Rosselli said he had not heard of the issue. (Here's from WIPO's own website.) At noon, Inner City Press had asked the UN about that and its reporting that the UN Federal Credit Union, regulated by the US National Credit Union Administration, openly solicits the business of both North Korean employees of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's mission to the UN and the members of the UN Association of the USA (UNA-USA), amid questions of immunity and a previous UNFCU settlement for sanctions violations.  UN briefing video here, from Min 10:20.

  While a statement from Ambassador Haley about WIPO, and one hopes UNFCU, may be forthcoming, here is this afternoon's video:

On UN WIPO doing patent application for #NorthKorea, ICP (began) asking US @NikkiHaley; #UNFCU does DPRK biz; US statement? pic.twitter.com/jWV5ctc1Fq

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) May 16, 2017

  UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric dodged on whether Secretary General Antonio Guterres would this time talk to WIPO chief Francis Gurry, as he did not as Gurry deployed criminal defamation law against the press; he also wouldn't answer on UNFCU. UN transcript: Inner City Press:  I want to ask you something.  I have a couple questions about North Korea.  One is, I'm sure you've seen the Fox story about WIPO [World Intellectual Property Organization] doing a patent application for North Korea for the production of sodium cyanide, which is banned to be trans… to be brought into the country.  And I know before you'd said… it wasn't clear to me if the Secretary-General had communicated with WIPO about their use of criminal defamation against journalists.  But, is this something that concerns him?  And I also… I also want to ask you about the UN Federal Credit Union (UNFCU) openly soliciting deposits from… from the Mission of North Korea, as well as the employees of the Mission despite having previously settled sanctions charges for just… for such activity on another sanctioned country.  Do you think that this is consistent with this whole idea of tightening up…?

Spokesman:  I don't speak for the Credit Union.  They're an independent body.  I would agree… I would urge you to question them.  On the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and the Fox News report, obviously, I think what's contained in the report is disturbing and demands looking into.  The Panel of Experts… the Security Council Panel of Experts, as you know, is an independent team reporting to the Council.  And they have the prerogative to look into all alleged violations of DPRK sanctions and report to the Council accordingly.   I think, as noted in the article, the Panel's coordinator said the Panel will look into the issue.  And I think we'll need… the Panel will do its work and report back.  And if… we will obviously look more directly into the issue, as well from our end.

Inner City Press:  Given that there have been previous allegation… previous allegations and reported retaliation at WIPO concerning North… activities with North Korea, do you think it's something… do you or the Secretary-General think it's something that the CEB [Chief Executives Board] or some kind of system-wide… does it need to be reiterated to the UN agencies that these sanctions are reported?

Spokesman:  I think the need… the absolute need to respect the sanctions regime, both whether it's from Member States or within the UN, I think, is clear and should be clear to everyone.

 UNFCU's website lists under “Missions to the UN in New York eligible to join UNFCU” that of “North Korea (DPRK).” Now, after the latest North Korean launch, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley on May 14 told ABC's This Week that the screws will be tightened on North Korea, to isolate them. So, at the UN, what about the (US regulated) UN Federal Credit Union?

Inner City Press asked UNFCU's Senior Manager of Media Relations Elisabeth Philippe questions including “why some UN member states' missions to the UN are eligible to join UNFCU, including the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and others are not, why members of UNA-USA became eligible to join UNFCU, what regulatory filings in any UNFCU made for this change in field of membership, and any restrictions on the use of these UNA-USA members' funds, and what services UNFCU offers to UN agencies and country teams, in which countries, and if there are any restrictions or safeguards.”

  On deeming the North Korean mission and all of its employees eligible, UNFCU's Ms. Philippe told Inner City Press, “The employees of any mission to the United Nations based in New York are eligible to apply for UNFCU membership. The employees of all missions are eligible to join once their mission has submitted an application and been approved.” The website says the mission itself can join UNFCU. On May 10, Inner City Press asked the chairman of the UN Security Council's North Korea Sanctions Committee Sebastiano Cardi about North Korea's embassy in Berlin renting out space as a hostel, video here. What safeguards does UNFCU, with UNA-USA's members in its field of membership, have?

  On UNFCU expanding its field of membership to including anyone who joins UNA-USA, Ms. Philippe told Inner City Press, “UNA-USA is the largest UN advocacy organization in the United States. UNFCU is a financial organization providing retail banking for the UN community. Members of UNA-USA, who are US citizens or permanent residents of the US, are eligible to become members of UNFCU. In December 2013, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the US regulatory body which oversees US federal credit unions, approved the expansion of UNFCU membership to include UNA-USA based on a shared mission and values in support of the United Nations. UNA-USA members who become members of UNFCU are eligible for the full suite of products and services available to UNFCU’s field of membership.”

  But what is in the “full suit of products and services” available from UNFCU? The US Office of Financial Asset Control or OFAC settled charges against UNFCU for, in connection with Mission employees, violating sanctions, see here. And Inner City Press' third question, about precisely what services “UNFCU offers to UN agencies and country teams” - including for example in North Korea - remained at publication time unanswered. Now this: "As a member-owned financial institution that serves the UN community globally, UNFCU provides bank account services to UN/agency staff, and consultants subject to payroll requirements of the various UN agencies and subject to the rules and regulations governing all US Financial Institutions. Accounts are maintained in US dollars and are protected by federal share insurance through the National Credit Union Administration. UNFCU complies with US regulations, including those governing US economic sanctions." But why then did UNFCU settle charges of sanctions violations? We'll have more on this. Inner City Press previously exclusively reported for example that "Sudanese nationals working for the UN have had part of their salaries paid into UN Federal Credit Union accounts, in U.S. dollars. Then they were told that these dollar accounts were frozen, and could only be transferred to the Bank of Khartoum." Watch this site.

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