UN
Nepotism from Congo to NY Criminal Court, UNDP Biter Case Set for
August 10
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, August 7 -- When the UN's top envoy to the Congo Alan Doss
wrote in April to ask for leeway to get his daughter Rebecca hired at
the UN Development Program, it set off a chain of events leading to
the firing and pepper spraying of the person who held the Doss-sought
post, and now starting on August 10 his criminal trial for fighting
back, allegedly with his teeth. Click here for
Inner City Press'
exclusive three stories to date on this matter.
Nicola
Baroncini,
who until June 22 was the assistant to UNDP's Deputy Director for
Asia and the Pacific, told Inner City Press on Friday that he intends
to ask for a trial on the changes against him, and to demand the
presence of various UN witnesses. These should, he said, including
the Special Representative of the Secretary General in the Congo,
Alan Doss,
whose April 20, 2009 email, first published by Inner City
Press, asked for "leeway" in awarding his daughter the
position Mr. Baroncini had been filling.
On August 7,
UNDP told Inner City Press that "Ms. Rebecca Doss began working at UNDP
on July 1st 2009. The process through which she was hired is currently
being investigated by UNDP’s Office of Audit and Investigation. Until
that work is completed we will not have any further comments."
But, as
first published by Inner City Press, on April 20, 2009 Alan Doss wrote
"Dear
Ligia,
This is just to inform that I have advised UNDP in writing
that I will transfer to DPKO effective 1 July 2009. I have also
spoken to Martin and advised him that I cannot transfer before that
date because the new DPKO contractual arrangements only come into
effect on the 1 July. He informed me that the ‘deadline’ for the
ALD contracts is 15 May so the period of overlap would only be 6
weeks (assuming Rebecca’s ALD would come into force on the 14th May
at the latest). I have asked for some flexibility, which would allow
a very long serving and faithful UNDP staff member a little lee-way
before he rides off into the sunset.
Becky is very excited about the
prospect of going to work for you so I hope that it will work out.
With my warm regards and thanks,
Alan."
It
was improper for UNDP to process Rebecca Doss' "application," declare
her on the short list, and offer her the position while her USG father
was with UNDP. Beyond that, the contact by a UN Under Secretary General
was improper.
Sources now
say
that Doss has obtained his daughter other jobs in the past, and they
note that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon may have something of a
conflict in ruling on Doss' behavior, given the hiring of Ban's son
in law Siddarth Chatterjee first by the SRSG in Iraq, Steffan de
Mistura, then by the head of the UN Office of Project Services in
Copenhagen, Jan Mattsson. Attention is turning to the UN system posts
of Ban's daughter, Chatterjee's wife.
Since
Inner City
Press' third story on the matter one week ago, Ban's spokespeople
have repeated referred questions to UNDP, which has told Inner City
Press that "the hiring is being reviewed." On August 7,
Ban's Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe specified that UNDP's Office of
Audit and Investigation is looking at it. But UNDP no longer has
jurisdiction over Alan Doss; Ms. Okabe on August 7 answered Inner
City Press' question from a week ago, that Doss transferred from UNDP
to the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations on July 1.
On
August 7, Inner
City Press asked the head of DPKO, Alain Le Roy, what he thought of
the chief of the Congo peacekeeping mission bending rules to get his
daughter hired by the UN. Mr. Le Roy, too, said that UNDP must
answer, while noting that he has read Inner City Press' story. Others
have as well, and questions are multiplying. Video of August 7 noon
briefing here.
Alan Doss, at right, with Alain Le Roy,
requests for hiring leeway not shown: Rule of Law?
Back
on August
3,
Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson Michele Montas:
Inner
City Press: Michele, on Friday I had asked Farhan a question about
Alan Doss and when he became a DPKO [Department of Peacekeeping
Operations] staffer and not a UNDP [United Nations Development
Programme] staffer. He told me UNDP would answer. I still don’t
have an answer. Since it seems to be a Secretariat question, it
involves, it’s an e-mail that Mr Doss sent [inaudible]… that job
--
Spokesperson:
No, I think it’s a UNDP question.
Question:
But isn’t it, I mean, the date on which he became DPKO is actually
relevant to that inquiry and it seems like that is something that the
Secretariat would know, since he --
Spokesperson:
Well, at this point I don’t have anything new for you on this, and
we have been saying that UNDP should handle that.
Question:
But I sent them an e-mail as soon as we finished on Friday, but I
don’t have… I guess I am just pleading with you maybe to put a
squeeze on?
Spokesperson:
Yes, okay, I will ask whether UNDP can answer you.
Question:
And I know that the Secretary-General met with Helen Clark this
morning. Is there any readout? What did they discuss?
Spokesperson:
No, just internal matters.
Question:
Including this most recent issue of [inaudible]… not just the
biting incident, but the job search?
Spokesperson:
I don’t think such minor issues come up in discussions of that
sort.
Question:
[inaudible] the envoy of Ban Ki-moon actually writes in and says
“give my relative a job”; this doesn’t seem to me to be that
minor. The biting might be kind of comical, but I mean, I don’t
know if you’ve followed that issue, but I’ve just wondered…
Spokesperson:
Yes, of course I have read about it, but…
Inner
City Press: You don’t think it arose?
Spokesperson:
I don’t think so. Thank you all so very much.
Helen
Clark has yet
to hold a press conference at the UN, despite holding the post for
more than 100 days. On
August 5 Inner City Press asked:
Inner
City Press: In the Council today they’re talking about peacekeeping
and leadership. I just wanted to know, on the question that arose
about Alan Doss and when he became a DPKO [Department of Peacekeeping
Operations] employee. You’ve said, Farhan said Friday UNDP [United
Nations Development Programme] would answer it. You said Monday that
they’d answer it. But, still they haven’t answered. So, that’s
why I am asking. It seems like it’s a straight factual question
and that the information is in this building. Do you have an answer
to that?
Spokesperson:
All I can tell you is that UNDP is reviewing the issue, that’s all
I have really. I don’t have a definite answer for you. I know that
UNDP is reviewing the issue, that’s all I can say at this point.
Question:
But doesn’t DPKO know? I mean, the e-mail that was released said
that he asked, he said that 1 July he was going to transfer to DPKO
from UNDP, but he wanted them to hire his daughter prior to that and
sort of play with the rules. So, it’s just factual, while they
review that, that’s fine. But it seems like DPKO or your office
should be able to know when someone…
Spokesperson:
Well, we’re trying to ascertain the facts, that’s what I am
saying, Matthew. I am not evading your question, I just don’t have
the facts yet. And if I have them, I will give them to you as soon
as I have them. In this specific case, as I said, I was told by UNDP
that they are reviewing the case. That’s all I was told today. I
asked the question.
Question:
I mean, the guy who sort of raised this complaint that the job was
improperly given has like a criminal trial date on 10 August, you
know, that’s going to be released. He says that there is some
connection between these two.
Spokesperson:
Well, you know, I have to say about that incident, you know the one
that you have mentioned several times here. There was a serious
nature to the security incident that took place on 22 June in the
DC-2 building. And the incident resulted -- and I found that out
yesterday -- resulted in the injury of one of our UN officers, whom I
might add was transported to the hospital because of the severity of
his wound. So, I was not aware of that fact when I spoke to you
yesterday. Now I know that the man was hospitalized. He has since
had to do several tests for specific diseases as a result of the
wound, which was extremely stressful for everyone involved. He was
out on sick leave after the incident, based on the hospital’s
request. So this is what I have. It was much more serious than was
originally reported to us. And so I just wanted to underline that
fact.
Inner
City Press: [inaudible] I had asked Farhan, maybe now that you know
this you can tell. The dispute seems to be whether security used
pepper spray on the individual prior to what appears to be a biting
or vice versa. Do you have any information on that?
Spokesperson:
No, I don’t have the details on whether pepper spray was used or
not. It was a violent incident and the individual was violent, as I
can testify. The person was bitten.
The
court return
date is Monday, August 10. Watch this site.
* * *
At
UN, Biting Incident Reveals Nepotism of UNDP and Congo Envoy,
Whistleblower Maced
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July 30 -- The biting incident at the UN, on which Inner
City Press exclusively
reported one week ago, has its roots in a
glaring case of nepotism in which the UN's top envoy to the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mr. Alan Doss,
lobbied to get his
daughter the UN Development Program job effectively held and applied
for by alleged biter, Mr. Nicola Baroncini.
When Mr. Baroncini was
suspected of knowing of the nepotism, documented by an e-mail to UNDP
from Mr. Doss, he was fired, forcibly removed, with pepper spray,
from the UN compound and arrested by NYPD on the basis of false
accusations. Doss' daughter Rebecca is now ensconced in the disputed
UNDP job, while Mr. Baroncini is due in Criminal Court on August 10
on charges of third degree assault.
The
case is an
early test of UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, in the job for 100 days
now, and new UN Security chief Gregory Starr, with whom Mr. Baroncini
is asking to meet in order to withdraw the criminal charges against
him. Also in question is how Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will react
to documented allegations of improper requests and nepotism by his
personal envoy to one of the UN's largest and most controversial
peacekeeping missions.
Documents
filed
with the US Department of State, obtained by Inner City Press, show
the lead-up to the June 22 pepper spray.
On March 16, 2009, after several other UNDP posts ranging from
Cambodia to New York, Mr. Baroncini began functioning as assistant to
Ms. Ligia Elizondo, Deputy Director of UNDP Regional Bureau
for Asia and the Pacific (RBAP).
According to
the complaint Mr.
Baroncini was "managing her personal agenda; screening inbound
and outbound communications; organizing meetings; reviewing documents
and other material; distributing tasks within the bureau. I had
unlimited access to her UNDP email account. My tasks also included
email filing (in my hard drive)."
A
month later in
April according to the complaint, Mr. Baroncini "witnessed that
Ms. Elizondo received several phone calls from Rebecca Doss. Her CV
was permanently in Ms. Elizondo’s in-tray. Also while filing Ms.
Elizondo’s UNDP email inbox I came across several emails from
Rebecca Doss to Ms. Elizondo. In one, Rebecca made reference to the
position of 'Special Assistant to RBAP Deputy Director' and said that
she would contact Ms. Elizondo at home."
Subsequently,
Mr.
Baroncini applied for and was one of four short-listed candidates for
this post, whose functions he was already performing. Other
candidates included Violeta Maximova and Rebecca Doss, whose father
Alan Doss, in charge of the UN's billion dollar peacekeeping mission
in the Congo, wrote on April 20 to Ms. Elizondo
"Dear
Ligia,
This is just to inform that I have advised UNDP in writing
that I will transfer to DPKO effective 1 July 2009. I have also
spoken to Martin and advised him that I cannot transfer before that
date because the new DPKO contractual arrangements only come into
effect on the 1 July. He informed me that the ‘deadline’ for the
ALD contracts is 15 May so the period of overlap would only be 6
weeks (assuming Rebecca’s ALD would come into force on the 14th May
at the latest). I have asked for some flexibility, which would allow
a very long serving and faithful UNDP staff member a little lee-way
before he rides off into the sunset.
Becky is very excited about the
prospect of going to work for you so I hope that it will work out.
With my warm regards and thanks,
Alan.
Alan
Doss
Special Representative of the Secretary-General United Nations Mission
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo"
E-mail
in docx text
format - download
When Inner
City Press asked the UN spokesperson's office on July 27 about the and
biting incident and the underlying recruitment, Associate Spokesman
Farhan Haq said "it
had to do with a frustrated jobseeker. The only thing I
can say is the information I got from UNDP on this is that the hiring
process regarding
that particular vacancy at UNDP was filled in accordance with their
rules." Transcript here,
video here.
But as Doss'
email in
the complaint shows, since it is illegal for the child of a UNDP
staff member, as Doss then was, to be hired by UNDP, Doss asked for
"a little lee-way" -- to ignore what he called a six week overlap. The
propriety of a UN Under Secretary General making personal contact and
applying pressure to waive rules and award a job to his daughter has
not yet been addressed.
UN's Doss, at right, with Kouchner and Clooney: Doss is connected
Next,
Ms. Maximova
and Ms. Doss were declared the top two candidates. Ms. Maximova
suddenly was offered and accepted a job at the Clinton
Foundation /
Initiative, and Ms. Doss was given the job.
Mr.
Baroncini spoke
with the Director of RBAP, Mr. Ajay Chhibber, on July 19. Initially,
Mr. Chhibber
took an interest in hearing out Mr. Baroncini, offering him advice.
But once Ms. Elizondo realized that Mr. Baroncini might, in the
course of his duties, have become aware of the improper influence in
the hiring decision, Mr. Baroncini had his email access terminated
and was told to no longer come in to UNDP.
Subsequently,
according to the complaint filed by Mr. Baroncini:
I
voiced my complete disapproval and said that I will challenge this
decision with the appropriate personnel.
I
handed to Mr. Chhibber a print-out of Alan Doss’ email to Ms.
Elizondo of April 20, 2009 and told him, “In case you do not know,
this is the way human resources selection works in UNDP.” I
repeated that I will challenge this course of events.
Within
a couple of minutes a man arrived. He asked for my UN badge and
requested that I leave the building. I began collecting my personal
belonging. The whole process took several minutes.
Three
UN Department of Safety and Security Guards approached me.
Immediately, Peter Kolonias, one of the guards, ordered me to enter
office 2312 of DC-1. I complied immediately.
I
entered the office and sat down escorted by two UN DSS Security
Guards. The door was shut. Shortly, my wife joined me (she works
elsewhere in UNDP).
After
waiting for some time, I asked the guards about the procedures in
place and why we had been waiting for so long. In several instances I
was told that Ms. Elizondo was giving a written statement and that
once she had completed it would be my turn.
I
began asking for access to a lawyer and my consulate. I repeated this
request frequently (I would say every 15 minutes) both to the guard
inside office 2312 and to other officials that entered the office.
I
asked my wife to leave office 2312 and look for Mr. Chhibber and ask
him to speak with me. I wanted to understand if he had any control
concerning what was happening, and I wanted to share my concerns
about this absurd escalation of events.
My
wife left the office, but the guards outside invited her to join Ms.
Elizondo and Ms. Jovita Domingo, a UNDP human resources advisor,
inside Ms. Elizondo’s office. There, they questioned my wife about
our private life until a UN official wearing a white uniform came in
and my wife was invited to leave by Ms. Elizondo.
Once
my wife left Ms. Elizondo’s office, they shut the door and had a
meeting. My wife returned to office 2312.
The
UN official wearing a white uniform along with the third UN DSS
guard, Peter Kolonias, joined the two other UN DSS guards inside
office 2312. They asked my wife to leave and shut the door.
The
UN official wearing a white uniform swiftly informed me that I had
two options: leave the building with them or be handcuffed.
I
felt that something very wrong was happening and again I requested
access to a lawyer, the Italian consulate and to give a statement.
The
second or third time I repeated my requested I was assaulted.
First,
Peter Kolonias put me to the floor. The two other guards followed
immediately. They tried to immobilize me using every sort of
technique. I was kicked repeatedly on the leg, stomach and neck. I
was punched repeatedly on the neck, head and face. Twice, at close
range, I was sprayed a pepper spray on the face. Immediately, and
for about two hours thereafter, I was blinded and suffered tremendous
pain on the face and eyes. Other than limited access to water, I was
denied proper medical treatment despite my repeated requests.
Eventually
I was handcuffed. UN DSS guards brought me outside office 2312 and I
waited there for about 1½ hours, handcuffed, sitting in a chair
in
RBAP Directorate area.
At
2:35 pm, NYPD officers arrived and I was officially arrested
Eventually
I was escorted outside DC1 building where an ambulance was waiting
I
waited handcuffed until approximately 7:40 pm in a waiting room of
Bellevue Hospital. After meeting with a Dr. Falck, I was immediately
discharged.
I
was brought to a police facility where NYPD took my fingerprints, and
I awaited transportation to 100 Centre Street.
After
routine procedures, I was jailed until 9:30 am of the following day.
The jail was no more than 17-18 square meters. The number of
detainees kept changing between 18 and 20 men. No restroom. Primitive
sanitation. No hygiene facilities.
My
case was reviewed, and I was immediately released without any bail
payment. I am set to appear in Court on August 10, 2009."
These
techniques
-- the pepper spraying of those who ask questions, pressing of
criminal charges as retaliation -- are the type of tactics that the
UN and officials like Alan Doss criticize in places like the Congo.
But the UN engages in them right on First Avenue in New York. What will
Ban Ki-moon, Gregory Starr and Helen Clark each do? In the case Ms.
Clark, she was officially informed of all of the above on July 27, and
her closest advisor Heather Simpson a full week before that. Now what?
Watch this site.
UNDP
has told Inner City Press first that
"There
was an unfortunate and isolated incident involving an employee of
UNDP on 23rd June 2009. UN Security and the New York Police
Department responded, and it is now being handled by the authorities
of the host government."
Then
after a follow up request by Inner City Press to UNDP spokesperson
Stephane Dujarric that UNDP "provide the requested description
of the recruitment process, the name of the post and the person
awarded, and whether they have any family or personal relationship
with the supervisor or selector," UNDP Administrator Helen
Clark's spokesperson Christina LoNigro responded that "we
cannot comment further on this case at this time as the legal process
is ongoing."
* * *
, 
