On UN
Budget,
Questions of
Risk Premiums
and Pension
Probe,
Cafeteria,
Staff Union
Elections?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, May 6
-- When UN
Under
Secretary
General for
Management
Yukio Takasu
came for his
semi-annual
press
conference on
May 6, Inner
City Press
asked him
about the UN's
shift of
hundreds of 4
by 4's from
Darfur to West
Africa, about
not paying
Troop
Contributing
Countries a
risk premium
for deployment
in the Central
African
Republic,
about the
Staff Union,
Pension Fund
and even the
impending
closure of the
UN Cafeteria.
Video
here.
Takasu said
that some APC
- armored
personnel
carrier - were
moved to the
UN's Ebola
mission
UNMEER, but
would be
returned.
Inner City
Press repeated
the question,
about
unarmored 4 by
4 vehicles
withdrawn from
Darfur, and
Takasu said he
would check,
as he did on
the CAR risk
premium.
On the Staff
Union, Takasu
said the goal
was new
election. But
as Inner City
Press asked,
the old (44th)
team was
allowed to
speak at the
recent Town
Hall meeting
about
irregularities
in the Pension
Fund, and the
newer, elected
(45th) team
was not. On
the Pension
Fund, Takasu
said that the
Office of
Internal
Oversight
Services is
looking into
it to decide
how to
proceed.
On the
cafeteria,
Takasu
confirmed
Inner City
Press' scoop,
that it is
slated to
close due to
concerns about
vehicle bombs
on the FDR
Drive
off-ramp,
which New York
City has been
unwilling to
close. Takasu
acknowledged
that the
planned
replacement
space on the
fourth floor
is much
smaller. And
so it goes.
, 
