Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

At UN, Opaque Moves, Of Skeletons in Closet, Balkan Demands, Cafeteria Conflict

UNITED NATIONS, September 4 -- As the UN empties out, some moves make sense and others, not so much. The UN Treaty section moved from the Secretariat building, slated for gut rehabilitation, over to Madison Avenue, complete with its safes full of treaties. But then UN Procurement, based not in the Secretariat but already across First Avenue on 45th Street, also moved to Madison. Already opaque, distance may lead to even less accountability.

  Capital Master Plan chief Michael Adlerstein, returned from his vacation, has yet to address these issues. While he had told Inner City Press it could attend a future Town Hall meeting, he personally reversed the policy and ordered the Press out. The questions are not limited to relocation, or the so-called "whistleblower free zone" Adlerstein and his Department of Management boss are building for the press over the library. They include follow up on litigation pending against a previous Adlerstein job in Sandy Hook, New Jersey.

 Adlerstein, in his role as a US Park Service administrator, is alleged to have improperly awarded a lease of Fort Hancock to real estate developer James Wassel. After ten years of nonperformance, the Park Service has finally canceled the 60 year lease. In the run-up, Philip G. Crifasi Jr. charged that "I am stating that Mr. Wassel, in coordination with the chairman of the selection committee, Michael Adlerstein, changed the outcome of the selection committee." Investigators stated that

"When interviewed, Adlerstein advised that although there was specific evaluation criteria listed in the RFP, the RFP also stated that NPS would be selecting the "best proposal." Adlerstein advised that the questions listed under the evaluation criteria were not the minimum requirements of the RFP. Adlerstein described that the criteria within RFP was "desired" by NPS but was not "required." Adlerstein acknowledged that the wording within the RFP was "gray" with respect to the questions listed under the evaluation criteria. According to Adlerstein, NPS selected the developers who were the best of the respondents to the RFP, not necessarily the perfect response. Adlerstein stated that WRG was chosen as the best, not because they were perfect, but because they were better than the others. According to Adlerstein, NPS was not looking for perfection."

   Now at the UN Capital Master Plan, Adlerstein is apparently neither looking for nor delivering transparency.

Boxed up and ready to move out of UN, transparency not shown



  Meanwhile a vicious circle is occurring in the UN cafeteria. With fewer people in the building, there are fewer customers. This leads Aramark, beyond the layoffs already reported on, to earlier and earlier in the day put away the salad dressing, and now the by-the-ounce entrees. By 7 p.m. on September 3, all that was offered was the UN's Ramadan meal, for a total of nine dollars. Many staff threw up their hands.

Fancy fighting footnote: At the UN things are very genteel and classy, the revolving door is velvet, until the gloves come off. On the night of September 2 there was a reception for a long time journalist going over to the dark side as some put it, to work for the Bosnian mission. There was Mumm champagne and cheese cubes and crackers. The Deputy Permanent Representative of a Balkan country spoke, praising her new hire. And then around seven she left.

   What happened next is relayed to Inner City Press by the security personnel involved. The DPR as they call her went through the General Assembly or Visitors' Entrance to try to exit at the 46th Street gate. But it was closed, locked up at seven on the dot. She returned to the South Lobby, four blocks south, and she was steamed. She demanded to know why the north gate had been locked. The timing was explained to her.

  Shifts changed, and she demanded to speak to the supervisor. He is in the back, she was told, past the UNFCU and Chase ATM machines. No, she demanded, have him come out here. Passersby gawked. She demanded to know who made it illegal to smoke. And then in a puff of smoke she was gone. "Write about it," it was suggested.

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At UN, of Brass Knuckles and Fire Hazards, Shared Printers and Costly Two Month Digs

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 31 -- An employee of the UN's general contractor Skanska was stopped entering the UN with a pair of brass knuckles with spikes on them, multiple sources have confirmed to Inner City Press. The UN Capital Master Plan, which previously tried to downplay safety incidents in which a person was hit in the head with a cement bar, and where a Siamese connection to provide water to the Fire Department was blocked, has yet to speak on this brass knuckles incident.

  Meanwhile, a recent workshop presentation by the UN Development Program's Jan Vandemoortele in basement Conference Room A was so over-attended that fire code occupancy was wildly exceeded. The UN's reaction was simply to bar any more people from entering. Is that what the law requires? Or is the UN claiming that, as international territory, it is not subject to the fire code notices posted on its walls?

 The overall trend without question is that the UN Headquarters building is emptying out. But in some cases people are moving in, a result of lack of planning. On the 13th floor, for example, vacated space is being filled by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, sources say, and money is being spent and wasted on renovating offices for them which will only be used for a few months.

 On the 17th floor, a team from ERP -- Enterprise Resource Planning -- has set up shop, with a single printer, sources say. People have to wait to exchange a USB plug to print documents.

CMP / Skanska-ites breaking, the brass knucklehead not shown

 Over in the Albano Building swing space, a form of crackdown has begun. Since one has to have a differently coded ID card to go enter each floor, collaboration has been become nearly impossible, people say. They tape the doors open so they don't lock, but then face a crackdown, including on small refrigerators they brought to save time and money on lunch. Many such fridges, then, have been left abandoned on the vacated floors of the Secretariat building. Can you say freon, and lack of recycling planning?

 It's reached a point, some say, where some say that CMP, rather than Capital Master Plan, stands for Cannot Manage Planning. Watch this site.