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By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive CJR  Q&A

UN GATE, April 4 – 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, whistleblower UN staff have repeatedly complained to Inner City Press. Two months later, one of the double dipper was rewarded with a promotion to UN Resident Coordinator in the United Arab Emirates, see Achim Steiner's announcement below.

Steiner has done and said nothing about Guterres' roughing up and banning of Press. Now this, from none other than UK DFID's Nick Dyer in an April 1 letter to Steiner obtained by Inner City Press:

"Examples of UNDP reform behaviours reported by DFID country included: • UNDP making the transition for RCs challenging – denying the RC access to their vehicles etc; • UNDP Res Reps not engaging effectively in UNSDCF processes; • UNDP making deliberate attempts to undermine other agencies - threatening their space with host Governments; • UNDP senior staff referring to the reforms as a “tick box exercise”; • Senior UNDP staff being vocally sceptical about the reforms; UNDP staff generally projecting a sense of inevitability about reforms rather than enthusiasm, and some bemusement; and • Generally, demonstrating a low level of buy-in to the reforms. We’ve also heard that UNDP has not cooperated as enthusiastically as some other entities with the Business Innovation Group workstreams, in particular on the common fleet management system, and that as a result, this promising workstream is being closed down."

  This is the "coordination" in the UN of Guterres and Amina J. Mohammed, censoring the Press which reports on it. On April 3 Inner City Press asked Mohammed, Guterres, Dujarric and Melissa Fleming to respond to this, and to Coronavirus in and by the UN. They have refused to answer. Steiner has been quoted:

Question. What is UNDP’s strategy to combat coronavirus in developing countries?  Answer. According to information from the World Health Organization (WHO), the coronavirus has begun just a few days ago to hit the developing world in a broad sense. It is just arriving on the African continent, which is a concern for the UN because we see that the response capacity of its health systems is limited, with a small number of hospital beds for its population. 

  This while the UN takes / spreads Coronavirus in such countries as South Sudan, without basic social distancing for and by its local staff, see Inner City Press exclusive here. They are corrupt.

Achim Steiner's Townhall meeting culminated with embarrassment for him and his team because of a Ms. Vesna Markovic Dasovic, staff council chair question from anonymous staff. The question to the Administrator was" Mr. Steiner, when you joined UNDP you promised to us that we work with harmony but that didn’t transpire, the organization culture has a serious problem, recruitment is not translucent and there is systematic retaliation. We appeal to you an independent investigation to UNDP like UNICEF. 

  The Administrator replied: I can’t do more by myself to change the organization culture … he only repeats “systematic retaliation” without any commentaries. He automatically vetoed the independent investigation request saying that we don’t need external investigation like UNICEF and WFP and spend additional resources, we have our Staff Survey.  He spent more than 10 minutes justifying his famous strategic recruitment that was created to benefit only his network, but the question was on general recruitment transparency.  The meeting concluded with surprise, and no record shared as previous town halls and promised on the meeting invitation see 5 October 2019 UNDP Bulletin they ignored sharing the record as promised on 1 October 2019 “The recording of the Town Hall and the Q&A will be shared after the event. “   The Administrator doesn’t want an independent investigation because of his closed eyes on double-dipping of benefits, he allowed double-dipping staff not to pay back the tax payers money; and in its place, his OHR Director keeps on retaliating staff who defend the organization interest and Whistleblowers.    The Administrator doesn’t want to disclose his strategic recruitment of 48 staff from his circle.  ...   Peter Liria continues his laidback approach and posted one message on the Yammer groups. A lot said about Peter Liria who doesn’t understand his key responsibility and exists in the system only because he dismisses the whistleblowers and encourages corruption.  E.g. His Ethics Office didn’t act on double-dippers when the tax-payers money stolen with corrupt senior managers' network.  

Spin by Peter Liria – Yesterday during the Town Hall, our Administrator Achim Steiner spoke about the importance of culture at UNDP. I agree that culture is critical to the success of any organization, and I have always…  Go to conversation ›   Dear Colleagues,     Thank you for participating in the Town Hall and sharing your voices through the online Q&A and in the room. Unfortunately."  Yeah. Unfortunately.

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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