UN Juggles Jobs and Spoils, from NY to Geneva, Accountability Director Said Chosen in Back Room

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, January 22 -- With Ban Ki-moon in Geneva to meet with staff, in New York on Tuesday the merger and elimination of the Office of the Special Advisor on Africa post was announced. Since the African Group and the Group of 77 had opposed this consolidation, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson about this post and another, the Assistant Secretary General slot of the UN Conference on Trade and Development which was given to embattled former human resources chief Jan Beagle, as part of her shift to Geneva. The spokesperson said she was not familiar with these "administrative details" and, as to the UNCTAD post, that she didn't understand what difference it made, anyway. Video here, from Minute 12:18.

            Well, the budget resolution passed by the General Assembly on December 21 says, in Section 12 entitled Trade and Development, that the Assembly "takes note with serious concern of the decision of the Secretary-General to temporarily lend the post of Assistant Secretary General form this program to the UN Office at Geneva."

            As so it seems time for a special Geneva edition. Inner City Press' sources noted the departure from the Palais de Nations of the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund. Just like in New York, they say, the Pension Fund is trying to create distance between itself and the Secretariat, to justify salaries for senior officials based on those paid by other pension funds, not other UN bodies. The chief of the Pension Fund's office in Geneva, Belgian D-1 Renata Joanna B. de Leers-Hubert, is said to have tailored for a specific candidate a P-5 vacancy announcement to replace Caroline Lepeu, by requiring the applicant to speak both French and English and a third language (the notice suggests Arabic). The applicant is urged to have profession certification in Employee Benefits or Pension Administration. Meanwhile a simultaneous P-5 vacancy announcement at the Pension Fund in New York, to replace Norah Fitzgerald, has none of these requirements. Click here for Inner City Press' most recent Pension Fund story, the suspended trade of Peter Goddard to the Chad peacekeeping mission.

Ban Ki-moon in Geneva, job games not shown

            Sometimes the tailoring and creation of jobs for particular people is even more explicit. We have today examples in Geneva and New York. In the Geneva branch of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, sources tell Inner City Press of the hiring by Inga Britt-Ahlenius of a 61-year old individual, Anders Hjertstrand. There's a history here, and on a delayed basis a response. There are formal vacancies accumulating in the OIOS, a multiplication of people with "acting" in front of their titles, spoils to be distributed to some later victors.

Ironies of UN Accountability: Director Selected in Back Room

   In New York, the newly created D-2 "Director of Accountability" post has a convoluted explanation, according to Department of Management (DM) insiders. DM's Alicia Barcena, it is said, is committed to promoting her deputy Simona Petrova up to the D-2 level. [Click here for story, here for another with Ms. Petrova response.]

  But there's another who wanted this post: Nancy Hurtz-Soyka, an American D-1 previously head of the Ethics Office. Ms. Hurtz-Soyka has her supporters, who are said to have lobbied the 38th floor. Presto! A new D-2 post is being created, Director of Accountability, "depending on the availability of funds." This last is to get around the inconvenience of seeking General Assembly approval for this new D-2 position. Ah, accountability...

   Within the General Assembly, there was grumbling about the African Group having asked the wider Group of 77 for support in its aborted defense of the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa. What caused the subsequent change in position? There's talk of post offers directly to Ambassadors. Time will tell.

            The UN preaches the rule of law, but in New York as in Geneva, to the victor go the spoils.

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These reports are also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

  Because a number of Inner City Press' UN sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to conclude this installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals of the UN agencies and many of their staff. Keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we apologize for any phone tag, but please continue trying, and keep the information flowing.

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