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By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive CJR  Q&A

UN GATE, Sept 6 – The corruption in the UN system under UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres ranges from impunity for sexual abuse and harassment to lack of financial disclosures and audits to outright double-dipping of benefits, whistleblowing UN staff have repeatedly complained to Inner City Press, now banned from the UN 1262 days by Guterres.

 In October 2019 Inner City Press exclusively published this: " In his speech to the Executive Board some two months ago, UNDP Administrator, Mr Steiner says he takes corruption matters very seriously. See here, from 29 minutes 40 seconds.    However, when Russian whistleblower Dmitry Ershov, who has been seeking justice for almost 5 years, reached out to him in September, he simply ignored him.

  In August 2021 Steiner's UNDP abandoned its staff in Afghanistan, here, like Guterres did.

   Now in September 2021, more cover up: "Inner City Press has discovered that in response to a review of the UNDP GEF project in Russia on standards and labels, and following on from a review that concluded that the UNDP has  completely screwed up failing to respond to ref flags and covering up corruption, the UNDP Administrator Steiner has briefed donors on 1 July 2021 that he is handing out formal administrative reprimand letters.  Millions of dollars are stolen, corruption is covered up by UNDP, donors are misled, and all Steiner wants to do is hand out formal reprimand letters to up to six people. Who are these six people? Why is the UNDP not disclosing this information if it ISO transparent. This is not serious and is just another example of the UN covering up corruption and failing to hold people accountable while not being transparent in the whole process. The report also concluded that UNDP handled whistleblower case in an unsatisfactorily manner and in the briefing Steiner gave to donors there is no mention of this. Lack of transparency, lack of accountability, and a culture of fear and pretending to do something while actually doing very little. Welcome to the Achim Steiner's UNDP in 2021 and organization where staff are scared to report corruption and where independent reviews conclude UNDP covered up corruption and all that happens is a few people will receive Administrative Reprimand letters."

Previously this, to Inner City Press from Dmitry Ershov himself: "Dear Mr. Lee,   I am forwarding to my message to Peter Liria after having read your article in the Inner City Press. I also have faced his hostility.

Peter Liria <peter.liria@undp.org
Follow up from Dmitry Ershov Dear Mr Liria,   Your aggressive and hostile reply to me is simply not correct.   As for the five years rule, Associate Administrator Mourad Wahba, this clearly must be waived if Mr Wahba asks you to take a look at new information. There is new information and there are many donors who are not happy that the UNDP covers up corruption in Russia and pretends the corruption did not happen at all. This is good because it means that they understand your UNDP Ethics office isn't working properly.   The reason I am writing again now is that the Foreign Policy article very clearly shows that the UNDP covers up corruption and does not protect whistleblowers. Donors are concerned. And rightly so. Because you, Mr Peter Liria, have not been doing your job properly. You are a person who is well known for not following or upholding the rules of the organization   Over 5 years not once did you write to me and say if you want to make a retaliation claim, please fill out this form. I have no email with you once in the past five years where you wrote this explaining me what to do or how to proceed despite that the harassment and non renewal of my contract is precisely this (i.e - retaliation) but just in different words.   While I did not mention the word retaliation in my initial correspondence with you, I mentioned "Harassment and Removal without Proper Cause" in my emails to UNDP. I can prove that. This is the exactly same thing. So you are completely wrong in stating that I never once wrote about retaliation before 2018. I did write about retaliation -- I just used other words.   Peter Liria, you just decided not to look into my case because you wanted and you want now to sweep all problems under carpet. And you are at fault because your Ethics Office have never once explained to me about the forms to fill out or sent me any forms to fill out.   Your speciality is in 'not protecting whistleblowers'.   I am exploring options.   I may also write again to Administrator Steiner in the near future to state that you send me hostile emails are not willing to look into my case because I used the words "Harassment and Removal without Proper Cause" and not the word 'retaliation' in my original 2014 and 2015 communications with UNDP.   With regrets,   Dmitry Ershov   

Peter Liria <peter.liria@undp.org>  Mr. Ershov,     Thank you for your note.     You stated: “I understand from Associate Administrator of UNDP Mourad Wahba who kindly wrote me that UNDP Ethics Office is going to take another look at my retaliation case based on NEW evidence”. This is not true. The Associate Administrator told you he would pass along your most recent email to Ethics and the Office of Audit and Investigation (OAI) but there was no promise to take another look at any “retaliation case” because you never sought protection against retaliation; this year, for the first time, you accused my Office of failing to protect you in 2014/2015 despite never having requested protection. I have re-read every email you sent to the Ethics Office and to me personally from 16 October 2014 (two days AFTER your contract was not renewed) through 3 December 2015 (the last correspondence you sent to Ethics until this year) and you never once mentioned retaliation and never once sought protection and never requested any reinstatement of your contract. The next email I received from you after 3 December 2015 was 28 August 2019, which is the very first time you ever mention the word “retaliation”, nearly four years after you first contacted Ethics and OAI to report allegations of corruption.     As I have reiterated to you many times, when you approached the Ethics Office in 2014 and 2015 you only sought to file allegations of corruption. You never sought any protection against retaliation. In fact, you never even sought to file corruption charges with Ethics until after your contract had not been renewed, so you were already a former employee when you first raised allegations of corruption to my office. Nonetheless, we explained to you many, many times that the Ethics Office did not have the authority to investigate your allegations and that all such allegations needed to be filed with OAI.  You returned to my Office several times in 2014 and 2015 to express your frustration with OAI’s decision not to investigate your charges of corruption but again, you never sought protection against retaliation.     UNDP’s Policy for Protection against Retaliation states unequivocally:  3.1 In order for a request for Protection against Retaliation to be considered valid, the Protected Activity must have taken place within two (2) years prior to the staff member’s request for protection.  3.2 Further, the individual’s request for protection must be submitted to the Ethics Office no later than six (6) months after the date on which the individual knew, or in the opinion of the Ethics Office should have known, that the alleged Retaliation was threatened or taken.  Under both situations, your 2019 Request for Protection falls far too late to be considered.     Regrets,     Peter Liria     Peter Liria Jr., Esq.  Director of the Ethics Office  United Nations Development Programme  One United Nations Plaza (DC-1 2362)  New York, N.Y. 10017  peter.liria@undp.org  Twitter @peterliria  Tel: +1-646-781-4150  www.undp.org  “Operating with Unwavering Integrity”

 Yes, that is the ghoulish slogan of an organization which retaliates including against the Press which reports on what happens there.

UNanswered by Guterres' spokesman Dujarric who instead blocks Inner City Press after having roughed up, so with names unredacted as no responses at all to questions asked in three days ago to Guterres' Team, including on WOGC, connected to imprisoned UN briber Ng Lap Seng's Carlos Garcia, dealing in Kiribati with the UN, separate exclusive here, now this: "Dear Matthew, While UNDP and all UN agencies are suffering from the budget problem, some dishonest UNDP staff are taking two entitlements using their two passports interchangeably against the UNDP benefits entitlement rules.  As a US Citizen, they get US Tax reimbursement; they also get Home Leave and Education grant entitlements using their national/original passport.  It is sad to see UNDP’s senior staff participated in this fraud, as you can see from below Atlas record these staffs grade is from P4 – D2.  Predominantly, Ana Patricia ALVAREZ, and  Shazma Nathwani, the  HR Advisors also participated in this scam.   Some of the staff got more than $100,000 with this ongoing problem, e.g. Shazma Nathwani, $168,000. HR Staff have identified this issue early this year and reported to the HR Director and BMS Director but no action taken.  All UNDP staff in HQ knows this problem but had no other choice fear of retaliation, because of these people close relationship with UNDP senior management including their network.  We need your help...

ATLAS Record - List of Staffs with inappropriate  multiple benefits
No     Name     Title     Current Location     Level     Country-Place of Home Leave      Nationality Types     Douale payments made
1      ALVAREZ, Ana Patricia     HR Business Partner Central Bureaus, HQ/BMS/OHR     UNDP - New York     P-5     Honduras     Honduras- official     Home Leave and Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
2      ASSAF, Dena     Deputy Director, HQ/UNDOCO     UNDP - New York     D-2     Palestine     Palestine - official     Home Leave
                                    USA - Tax      
3      BRANT Heather     Chief of Section, HQ/Evaluation Office     UNDP - New York     P-5     Switzerland     Switzerland - official     Home Leave and Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
4      ALAIN Noudehou     Chief of Staff & Director, Executive Office, CO/SS     South Sudan     D-2     Benin     Benin - official     Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
5      ORUC  Yesim     Deputy  Director, HQ/BERA/LO/Washington     Washington     P-5     Tureky     Turkey - official     Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
6      REIMOV, Ajmiyaz     Programme Analyst (Research), HQ/BPPS     UNDP - New York     P-2     Uzbekistan     Uzbekistan - official     Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
7      RUSSELL, Andrew     UN Development Coordinator, HQ/BMS/OHR     UNDP - New York     D-1     Canada     Canada - official     Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
8      SERENYI Peter     Policy Specialist, HQ/UNDOCO     UNDP - New York     P-4     Hungary     Hungary - official     Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
9     SHAMASH-LADD Hamutal Esther     Legal Specialist     UNDP - New York     P-4     Israel     Israel - official     Home Leave
                                    USA - Tax      
10      UNGUREANU Carla     Human Resources Analyst, HQ/BMS/OHR     UNDP - New York     P-2     Peru     Peru - official     Home Leave
                                    USA - Tax      
11      JUHKAM Robert     Team Leader, HQ/BERA     UNDP - New York     P-5     Estonia     Estonia - official     Home Leave and Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
12      KINSLEY Sharon     Deputy Chief of Staff & Deputy Director     UNDP - New York     D-1     UK     UK - official     Home Leave and Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
13      LINOU Natalia     Policy Specialist, HQ/BPPS     UNDP - New York     P-4     Greece     Greece - official     Home Leave and Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
14      NATHWANI Shazma     Human Resources Specialist, HQ/BMS/OHR     UNDP - New York     P-4     Australia     Australia - Official     Home Leave
                                    USA - Tax     A
Regards,

UNDP Staffers

We'll have more on this.

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