UNITED
NATIONS, May
30 -- The UN
says it is
tightening its
belt. But if
so,
it is very
selective.
Inner
City Press has
previously
questioned why
the UN's envoy
on the Sahel,
Romano Prodi,
gets to work
from Italy.
Wednesday UN
budget sources
approached
Inner City
Press to
complain it is
worse than
this.
Prodi
is not in fact
based in Rome,
they told
Inner City
Press. He is
in
Bologna, and
he charges the
UN $1,200 for
each trip to
Rome, so far
to the tune of
$36,000.
And
the report on
the Sahel
strategy of
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
which he was
charged with
preparing back
in October
2012 has
still
not been
presented to
the Security
Council.
"It's a joke,"
one source
told Inner
City Press. "A
bad joke."
(Another
source
snarked that
the vehicles
to be bought
for Herve
Ladsous'
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations'
new mission in
Mali will in
all
probability
come from
French or
Japanese
manufacturers.)
As
Inner City
Press asked
and got
confirmed, the
UN's envoy to
the Great
Lakes Mary
Robinson is
being allowed
to be based in
Dublin.
Are there
any UN staff
there? And
what about the
travel costs?
Meanwhile
at
a lower level
of the UN,
staff in the
Publishing
Section were
told
that 59
"posts" --
that is, jobs
-- would be
eliminated.
Management
used the
destruction of
equipment in
the third
sub-basement
to further
their plan of
eliminating
the posts.
There
was fight
back, and now
a
counter-proposal
has been sent
to Ban
Ki-moon; Inner
City Press has
exclusively
obtained a
copy and
includes a
section,
below.
The
same Advisory
Committee on
Administrative
and Budgetary
Questions
which
considers
Prodi and Mary
Robinson
should
consider these
lower ranked
staff member's
proposal,
with the same
solicitude:
For a
more
economically
efficient,
flexible, and
reliable
printing
operation, it
is imperative
to deploy four
smaller
capacity
digital
presses of
overall
capacity up to
or about
90,000,000
page
impressions...
a total of
twenty-four
staff members
in Trade and
Craft staff
category would
be required
for the
operation of
the print
shop, in
addition to
fifteen
General staff
for
distribution
and
fulfillment,
and five
General staff
for the front
office. The
whole
operation
would be
managed by a
Professional
staff at the
P-3 level,
supported by
senior Trade
and Craft at
the TC-8 and
TC-7 levels.
The
currents posts
of the Chief
(P-5) and
Deputy Chief
(P-4) of the
Publishing
Section would
be abolished.
A
total of
twelve staff
in the General
staff category
would be
relocated to
the Meetings
Servicing Unit
for Paper
Smart meetings
support. The
remaining
staff of the
Publishing
Section would
be
afforded real
employment
opportunities
and
appropriate
training.
So
does this UN
only care
about the
comfort of
people like
Prodi,
charging big
bucks to
travel from
Bologna to
Rome? Or about
these
underground
printing
staff? Watch
this site.
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