In UNDP Series, Questions of Jeffrey Sachs and
Associates Payments, From $1 to $75,000
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN - 4th in a series
UNITED NATIONS, December 2 -- In the wake of UNDP's
sudden "re-assignment" of its head of Human Resources Brian Gleeson on November 29, questions
have multiplied concerning UNDP's recruitment and hiring practices, including
for well-paid, part-time work. UNDP sources on November 30 told Inner City Press
to inquire if the UNDP-supported UN Millennium Project was paying economist
Jeffrey Sachs, and to investigate "how many associates of Jeffrey Sachs have
been hired onto the UN payroll outside of normal channels and at levels above
those their resumes qualify them for," according to these sources.
Inner City Press has now been told of a
$75,000 a year salary to Jeffrey Sachs from the UN Millennium Project, alongside
-- covered by, one source says -- the loudly announced $1 a year for serving as Kofi Annan's Special Representative on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Discussions of the MDGs last week at UN
Headquarters repeatedly featured Mr. Sachs, in the General Assembly, in the
Trusteeship Council on a panel with George Soros, and present during a press
conference in the media briefing room, although not on the podium and not
accepting questions. And there are questions to be asked. For example, as
recounted by the New York Times, Mr. Sachs left a post at the Harvard Institute
for International Development "at a time of crisis... Washington cut off its
support in 1997 after it claimed to have discovered that senior advisers whom
Professor Sachs had supervised (and later fired) were speculating in Russian
securities even as they were advising the government on economic policy." At the
UN on Nov. 29, Mr. Sachs concluded a discussion of poverty by encouraging
contributions to UNDP.
On the morning of December 1, Inner City
Press asked UNDP's Kemal Dervis and his communications staff to that day answer
the simple question of if Jeffrey Sachs got paid, and if and how persons
associated with him were recruited and hired into the UN system, particularly
one Guido Schmidt-Traub, who it is said was already hired before the required
procedures purportedly began to fill the position he was given. "It was a
cover-up," sources have told Inner City Press. So the written questions posed to
UNDP, with a copy to the office of Kofi Annan's spokesman, asked specifically
for information about Mr. Schmidt-Traub's recruitment and hiring, for an
end-of-Friday deadline.
Inner City Press reiterated the Jeffrey
Sachs question orally to Kofi Annan's spokesman at 11 a.m. Friday. Kofi Annan
has made much of the UN Millennium Project, and of Mr. Sachs and his team.
Current Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown is widely described as
having brought Jeffrey Sachs into the UN system. Inner City Press did not ask the question at the
Secretariat's noon briefing, because the
spokesman said he would find out. At 4 p.m. the spokesman said, "You have to ask UNDP."
Inner
City Press telephoned the head of UNDP's Poverty Project Nora Lustig. UNDP
sources have told Inner City Press that Ms. Lustig was brought in to UNDP in
April 2006, outside of the normal channels, and that she has since then
similarly brought on a crew of her own. Ms. Lustig's secretary told Inner City
Press that she was in a meeting, but took down two questions, one regarding Mr.
Sachs and his associates.
Jeffrey
Sachs: Big picture, small picture (photo)
Ms.
Lustig's secretary later called back to say that Ms. Lustig was referring Inner
City Press' questions to Kemal Dervis' personal spokeswoman, who in turn stated
that the deputy communications official of UNDP would call with answers, which
never happened, even as of Saturday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Kofi Annan's
spokesman finally emailed a partial answer, that Sachs "gets a $1 a year to be
the Secretary-General's Special Envoy on the Millennium Development Goals. As
far as his salary for the UN Millennium Project, please contact erin.trowbridge
[at] unmillenniumproject.org," who has been characterized as Jeffrey Sachs'
"personal spokesperson." On the "Who
We Are" page of the UN
Millennium Project web site, Erin Trowbridge is listed as the Project's
communications director. Inner City Press immediately emailed the question, and
decided to hold the story despite having told UNDP and Kofi Annan's spokesman on
Friday morning that the deadline for the story was later on Friday.
Saturday this response arrived:
From:
trowbridge [at] ei.columbia.edu
To: Inner City
Press
Sent: Sat, 2
Dec 2006 1:11 PM
Matthew-- Thank
you for coming to us for clarification...As Director of the UN Millennium
Project he was paid an annual salary of $75,000... As for the info you are
looking for with regard to UNDP recruitment practices, I urge you to contact the
communications office there.
As noted, Inner City Press has numerous
questions pending with UNDP's Communications Office and with Kemal.Dervis
himself. Of the $75,000 salary, several UN sources have expressed surprise that
a person already well compensated elsewhere, and who loudly trumpeted working
for only one dollar a year, would demand and accept a $75,000 salary from
another part of the UN system. These sources may not be alone: other UNDP
sources tell Inner City Press their distaste is shared by Nordic donors to UNDP.
"They would usually fund MDG activity, but not this one, so it comes out of core
funds, which could have directly served the poor," these sources told Inner City
Press. Additional questions are being posed, including regarding certain others
of those stated to be serving the UN for $1 a year. As to the UNDP recruitment
and hiring questions which Kofi Annan's spokesman continues to decline to
answer, and the above-quoted spokesperson referred back to UNDP, we're still
waiting.
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile
(and weekends): 718-716-3540
From Sleaze in Vietnam to Fights in DC-1, UNDP
Appears Out of Control at the Top
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN - 3d in a series
UNITED NATIONS, December 1 -- In UNDP's far-flung
empire, the strings are pulled for giving jobs by a very few hands in New York.
This week the director of UNDP's Office of Human Resources Brian Gleeson was "re-designated"
without notice to a quickly created Special Advisor post. Since Inner City
Press' Wednesday night report on this, mail has flooded in. Below is a sample
message regarding Vietnam, the author of which requested anonymity due to fear
of retaliation by UNDP.
Where UNDP employees' communications
allow for direct follow-up, Inner City Press has been calling UNDP. Friday Inner
City Press telephoned the head of UNDP's Poverty Project Nora Lustig. UNDP
sources have told Inner City Press that Ms. Lustig was brought in to UNDP in
April 2006, outside of the normal channels, and that she has since then
similarly brought on a crew of her own. Click
here for Ms. Lustig on film.
Friday
Ms. Lustig's secretary told Inner City Press that she was in a meeting, but
wrote down a question and request for comment on a detailed account Inner City
Press has heard from multiple sources of a incident in which, allegedly, Ms.
Lustig was abusive to a UK staffer, in front of a representative from the UK
Home Office, who complained of Ms. Lustig's behavior. The story goes on from
there, and may soon be told at greater length in this space. In fairness get Ms.
Lustig's comment, Inner City Press left a detailed question with her secretary,
in the building known as DC-1 otherwise known as a maze. Ms. Lustig's secretary
called back to say that Ms. Lustig was referring Inner City Press to Kemal
Dervis' personal spokeswoman, who in turn stated that the deputy
communications official of UNDP would call with answers, which never happened,
as of 9:55 p.m. deadline.
Because of the involvement of UK
officials and personnel, Inner City Press on Friday asked UK Ambassador Emyr
Jones Parry about the incident, and whether he thought it appropriate, as a
matter of UN reform and transparency, that the head of UNDP has not held a press
conference in 14 months. Amb. Jones Parry said he would not be aware of the
former, and had no comment on the latter, other than pro forma praise for
UNDP. Further inquiries have been made with the UK mission.
Kofi
Annan with UNDP at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, May 2006
At UNDP, a pattern of favoritism in
hiring is emerging. Regarding Vietnam the following arrived:
Subject: Update
on Brian Gleeson Story, for Mr. Matthew Russell Lee
From: [Name
withheld upon request]
To: matthew.lee
[at] innercitypress.com
Sent: Fri, 1
Dec 2006 3:44 AM
Dear Mr.
Matthew Russell Lee,
I write as
Vietnamese staff member at UNDP Viet Nam. I wish remain anonymous to protect my
job, but I feel is my duty to write you about other linkages with Mr. Brian
Gleeson and high salary appointments by Senior Management in our Country Office.
The story on
Mr. Brian Gleason is quite demoralizing for many UNDP staff who carry out their
duties with honesty, integrity and fairness.
But no
organization is 100% clean. Senior Management of UNDP Viet Nam often advise our
Party and Government on transparency and stamping out corruption, even while
some of us know that some elements inside our office are not always clean.
But it seems
that lower paid national staff are held at much higher standard than senior
international staff who run our office. One female national staff member was
made to suffer greatly for two years following minor infraction and then forced
out of the organization.
Meanwhile not
long after, our senior management approved a number of high paying international
appointments without following required procedures and regulations of UNDP.
Many of us
national staff know that former Resident Representative at UNDP Viet Nam Mr.
Jordan Ryan (a close friend of Mr. Mark Malloch Brown) and the Deputy Resident
Representative of Operations Mr. Neil Reece-Evans (a close friend of Mr. Brian
Gleeson) collaborated to recruit through the "back door" an American friend from
the past Mr. Jonathan Pincus at very high paying job in our office.
Mr. Brian
Gleeson was informed but he choose to ignore. Mr. Jonathan Pincus then use
similar procedure to hire his friends in the office and on projects.
Everything
was made correct on paper according to procedure, but recruitment decisions were
made prior to "official advertisements" and a recruitment process that was
superficial and not clean.
Meanwhile
there are many national economists in Viet Nam who can do the job at much lower
cost or even other foreign economists living in Hanoi who require much less pay
and can save transportation costs.
Some of these
appointments should now be reviewed and cancelled and a proper recruitment
process undertaken with open, fair and transparent competition for Vietnamese
economists in our country. Mr. Kemal Dervis will visit our country next week,
but we dare not speak.
I wish to
remain anonymous. This seems only way to clean our organization.
This desire to clean up UNDP is
widespread at the non-top levels of UNDP. And the account of bogus competitive
evaluations for job which have already in reality been doled out to favored
insiders is echoed from elsewhere in the system.
[For the record:
On Dec. 4, three days after this story was published, UNDP wrote that "Hiring at
the Vietnam country office takes place according to standard UNDP procedures.
Jonathan Pincus, a tenured professor at the University of London, was recruited
in 2004 as Senior Country Economist in a transparent and competitive process. He
was not previously known to any senior staff at the UNDP Vietnam Country Office.
Dr. Pincus is a widely recognized expert in his area and has made substantial
contributions to UNDP and the wider UN system’s work in Vietnam. With respect to
the staff letter posted on your website, UNDP has been a leader in establishing
channels through which staff can air their grievances or report misconduct
without fear of retaliation. Among other measures, UNDP has put in place an
anonymous fraud hotline and a mechanism to file complaints on sexual harassment
and abuse of authority." And see Inner City Press's December 7 article, the
eighth installment in this UNDP Series, also on Vietnam - click
here to view.]
On Friday morning, Inner City Press put
to Kemal Dervis and three members of his communications staff a set of six
questions, one of which concerns hiring practices at UNDP Vietnam. As of six
o'clock, there had been no response from UNDP. Therefore Inner City Press made
two telephone calls to UNDP. Kemal Dervis' personal spokeswoman told Inner City
Press that the agency's deputy spokesperson would be calling with answers. But
as of 9:30 p.m. deadline, no information was forthcoming.
Now, after Inner City Press on
Friday asked
one and
then another of the Permanent Five Security Council members' UN Ambassadors
countries for their views on Kemal Dervis not having held a press conference in
14 months, Inner City Press is informed that Mr. Dervis will deign to take
questions, it is believed on December 14. We'll see.
Again, because a number of Inner City
Press' UNDP sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the
poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to
conclude this second installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the
stated goals of UNDP and many of its staff. As they used to say on TV game
shows, keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we
apologize for any phone tag but keep the information coming -- "to clean [the]
organization" of UNDP, as said above by the economist in Vietnam.
In
UNDP, Drunken Mis-Managers on the Make Praised and Protected, Meet UNDP's Kalman
Mizsei
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN, 2d in a Series
UNITED NATIONS,
November 30 -- Drunk on a plane to Turkey, making racialist comments in a taxi
in Johannesburg, engaging in sexual harassment and the awarding of jobs in
expectation of sexual favors at the UN's Headquarters in New York. These are
snapshots of the director for Europe and the CIS Countries for the UN
Development Program, Kalman Mizsei, before he was finally asked and allowed to
resign in September of this year.
A number
of UNDP sources, including in Central Europe, have described for Inner City
Press the tenure of Kalman Mizsei (pronounced, Mee-Jay) which included
overseeing serious corruption at UNDP's Moscow office, in which funds from the
European Union for rehabilitating the Moscow planetarium went missing, and UNDP
served as a veneer for sole source contracts in exchange for 10% of the money
passing through. Kalman Mizsei, a neo-conservative economist, was a proponent of
these financial schemes, in which UNDP made money (built up "local resources,"
in the agency's parlance) for serving as a conduit on projects including by the
World Bank for such things as irrigation and sewage projects.
Since
UNDP had no technical expertise in these areas, it was easy for money to be
stolen. But since so few journalists, at least at and around UN Headquarters,
cover UNDP, and since UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis makes himself unavailable
to the media, not having held a press conference in 14 months, the well-meaning
agency continues to be run into the ground. This is part two in Inner City
Press' periodic series, Profiles in Kemal Dervis' UNDP.
Kalman
Mizcei, before the Fall, takes questions
First,
the current set up. On November 27, Inner City Press sought to question Kemal
Dervis in the entrance of UN Headquarters. "I don't take questions like this,"
Mr. Dervis answered. On November 29, Inner City Press sent questions by email to
Mr. Dervis and his communications staff, including
Question: Was
Kalman Mitzei fired or otherwise relieved or removed from his position with UNDP?
If so, on what grounds?
On November 30, the following was sent
from UNDP:
Subject: RE: Press questions, on deadline,
re UNDP [and] Kalman Mitzei, etc.
From: [at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 11:28 AM
Matthew, Below are the responses to your
questions: [Question: Was Kalman
Mitzei fired or otherwise relieved or removed from his position with UNDP? If
so, on what grounds?]
Response: No. As stated previously, at
UNDP -- like at other organizations -- with time colleagues retire, move on or
are reassigned. After serving six distinguished years at UNDP, Mr. Miszei is now
Professor at Central European University’s Department of Public Policy in
Budapest.
The six
distinguished years included an incident on a plane to Turkey, in which a
drunken Kalman Mizsei assaulted a stewardess and the police were called, until
the UN system helped extricate Mizsei from the problem. Inebriated or not, there
were racist comments by Mizsei in a taxicab in Johannesburg, in earshot of
a(nother) close associate of Mark Malloch Brown, then-head of UNDP and now
Deputy Secretary-General. Sources indicate to Inner City Press that Kalman
Mizsei's antics, including sexual harassment and violation of hiring rules in
search of sexual favors, were "legend" within UNDP. That nothing was done for so
long, and that UNDP continues to this day in response to direct questions about
why Mizsei left to cover it up, is indicative of more serious problems.
In his
capacity as Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for
Europe and the CIS, Mizsei presided over mismanagement by UNDP Russian of a
World Bank-funded sewer project. (The direct mis-manager, it is reported, is
still working at the UN Office of Project Services, UNOPS, more regarding which
later in this series.) The next UNDP Russia manager, Fred Lyons, made the
mistake of firing a local-hire Russian employee. After that, Mizsei sent a
fixer, a 33-year old Bulgarian who moved Fred Lyon out of the way (to
Afghanistan) and took his job -- and then went on the lam himself, embroiled in
a smaller, only $1 million UNDP Russia scandal with one Tatiana Gorlov.
Beyond these so-called smaller scandals,
UNDP's business model in the Mark Malloch Brown era grew to include using UNDP's
"excess administrative capacity" to become a middleman for project funded by
others, about which UNDP knew little. Fees of up to 10% were paid to UNDP, for
holding money for as little as one day. UNDP would provide the veneer of a
legitimate bid-out and tender process, but in many cases the winner was
pre-selected, and money even wired to them, before the supposed competition was
held. This was and is called "mobilizing local resources," and was praised from
the highest levels of UNDP.
One aside and interim update about Brian
Gleeson, who yesterday was "redesignated" from heading up UNDP's Office of Human
Resources to a Senior Advisor to Surge position: some Gleeson supporters, while
not disputing that Kemal Dervis attempted to fire Gleeson as, in September,
Kalman Mizsei was fired, say that along with the other issues, Gleeson refused
to quash one or more investigations that Dervis wanted stopped. Brian Gleeson's
office was called to discuss just this type of nuance. Watch this space.
But back to Kalman Mizsei. After a series
of complaints, finally in September 2006, sources say, Mizsei was advised to
resign or fire himself. Since returning to Hungary, he has bragged about, among
other things, being a personal adviser to George Soros, even a nephew. Despite a
number of UNDP sources placed at different levels of the agency saying that
Mizsei was a disgrace and even a laughing-stock, an email query to Kemal Dervis
and his communications staff this week resulted in the claim that Mizsei's
service was distinguished and his departure entirely voluntary. If these are
UNDP's and Dervis' standards, it is a sad day for the world's poor.
Because a number of Inner City Press'
UNDP sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the poor, and
while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to conclude this
second installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals
of UNDP and many of its staff. As they used to say on TV game shows, keep those
cards and letters (and now, emails) coming.
UNDP
Sources Say Dervis Fires Malloch Brown-linked Officials, Then Offers Hush-Up
Jobs
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
November 29 -- Kemal Dervis, the administrator of the UN Development Programme,
sent out an email mid-afternoon on November 29 stating that the Director of
UNDP's Office of Human Resources, Brian Gleeson, was taking a lower-level job as
a Senior Advisor. UNDP sources tell Inner City Press that the Special Advisor
position was quickly created after two events. In the first, UNDP moved to fire
Brian Gleeson for having funneled high-paying jobs, outside of normal channels,
to associates of UN Deputy Secretary-General, and former UNDP Administrator,
Mark Malloch Brown. According to these UNDP sources, alternative grounds
for firing or requesting resignation involved [ ] harassment or the outright
sale of jobs for cash, or first month's salary. Then, between 11 a.m. and Mr. Dervis' 2:20 p.m. email, something changed. Some say Mark Malloch Brown
intervened. [For the record, Mr. Malloch Brown's spokesman Stephane
Dujarric denied this on November 30, the day after this story was published,
stating according to the
transcript
that "Mr. Mark Malloch Brown played no role in Mr. Gleason’s transfer from one
job to another." There.] Other say Mr. Gleeson went to the office of Kemal Dervis and showed
evidence of other improprieties at UNDP which he would release if the firing
proceeded. Suddenly the Senior Advisor position was offered, effective
immediately.
This is also a story about an agency and its personnel being unable or unwilling
to answer simple factual questions on a timely basis. By telephone and
email, and in person in the case of Kemal Dervis, Inner City Press sought
comment on these UNDP issues. The agency's head of Communications William Orme
was told that these were questions on deadline, but made no response. Brian
Gleeson was called and a detailed message was left with his secretary. Given the
lack of subsequent response, only
this film,
click here,
can be offered, expressing dissatisfaction at "certain political leaders" and at
reporters for not telling the UN's story. You have to return calls, some
reporters say.
In the UN
Headquarters building, the UN spokesman was asked to seek comment, including
from Mark Malloch Brown. Was Malloch Brown consulted prior to Mr. Gleeson's
redesignation? Did Malloch Brown play any role in this process? These are yes or
no questions.
It was at
2:20 p.m. Wednesday that Mr. Dervis wrote to "colleagues" that "this
is to inform you that Brian Gleeson, Director, Office of Human Resources (OHR),
Bureau of Management (BoM), has been designated to serve as Senior Advisor for
the Surge Project in the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery... on
Thursday, 30 November, 2006." Mr. Dervis' email also thanked Brian Gleeson for
having "done a difficult job well." If the swirl of Gleeson issues remains, this
written praise by the head of UNDP seems more like cover-up than diplomacy.
The demotion announced Wednesday is the most recent of moves by Mr. Dervis against
officials previously installed by Mark Malloch Brown. In UNDP's Office of
Finance, covering all European and CIS countries, the Hungarian Kalman Mitzei
was fired, Inner City Press is told by UNDP sources, for sexual harassment and
favoritism [for more, click
here] and was
replaced by Ms. Kori Udovicki, formerly of
the World Bank, and before that from Belgrade. Observers question the wisdom of
this selection, for Balkan(ized) geo-political reason and otherwise.
It's
worth noting that both Mark Malloch Brown and Kemal Dervis formerly worked at
the World Bank. Those who know him say Mr. Dervis envied Malloch Brown's ascent
to the top of UNDP. Now that he rules UNDP, with surprisingly little oversight,
Mr. Dervis is putting his own hand-picked associates in place.
Kemal
Dervis, speechifying, refusing questions, then emailing:
From: Kemal Dervis [mailto:kemal.dervis@undp.org]
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 2:20 PM
Subject: Appointment of Brian Gleeson as Senior Advisor for BCPR Surge Project
Dear Colleagues,
This is to inform you that Brian Gleeson, Director, Office of
Human Resources (OHR), Bureau of Management (BoM), has been designated to serve
as Senior Advisor for the Surge Project in the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and
Recovery (BCPR). On behalf of the organization, I would like to thank Brian for
doing a difficult job well for more than two and a half years and to wish him
success in his new assignment While the selection process for the appointment of
a new OHR Director is underway, I have asked Romesh Muttukumaru, Acting Deputy
Director of the Bureau for Resources and Strategic Partnerships (BRSP), to serve
as Officer-in-Charge of OHR. These transition arrangements will come into effect
on Thursday, 30 November, 2006. I urge all staff to please cooperate during this
transition period.
With best regards, Kemal
Mark
Malloch Brown, of course, is still asserting himself. His close ally Bruce Jenks
remains in place at UNDP's Bureau of Resources and Partnerships (Mr. Jenks was
traveling on Wednesday and would not be able to comment, Inner City Press was
told, until next week at the earliest) and his Cape Verdean associate Carlos
Lopez has been selected to give briefings to incoming Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Some
call it Shakespearean, this hard-ball dueling between ex-World Bankers Kemal
Dervis and Mark Malloch Brown. But how is it, these people ask, that high-paying
UNDP jobs are given outside of official channels, in some cases, such as that of
one Nancy Barnes, without even showing up in databases of employees? In UNDP's
European Union and CIS shop, corruption is said to be endemic. The European
Union in Brussels funnels funding through UNDP, a funding stream never reviewed
even by UNDP's Executive Board. Nor is oversight being given by UNDP auditor
Jessie Mabutas, whose role in jobs-for-pay may be more participatory than
investigative. More on this next week.
For now
we note: on November 27, Inner City Press attempted to ask Kemal Dervis
questions in the General Assembly hall, after a meeting about the Millennium
Development Goals. As Inner City Press recounted at that day's UN noon briefing,
Mr. Dervis said, "I don't answer questions this way, walking out of meetings."
Inner City Press reiterated its request, made for more than five months now,
that Mr. Dervis come to a press conference and answer questions, which he hasn't
done since a single press conference when he got the UNDP job, 14 months ago.
Mr. Dervis indicated that it would take a "special event" to get him to a press
conference. Might these events be considered special? We'll see.
Inner
City Press sought to reach Brian Gleeson on Wednesday afternoon. His office
expressed surprise that word of his (down) shift to Special Advisor had "spread
to the UN." Some thought that UNDP was part of the United Nations. UNDP
is the UN's main representative to most countries. But UNDP these days is
apparently run as a fiefdom unto itself. In seeking UNDP's explanation for Mr.
Gleeson's abrupt downshift, and UNDP's response to this story, messages to the
UNDP Communications Office went unanswered, as has become a pattern. An attempt
to reach Kalman Mitzei yielded that he has returned by Hungary. A 6:45 p.m. call
to Romesh Muttukumaru, Brian Gleeson's interim replacement at the helm of UNDP
Human Resources, yielded an outgoing message that Romesh Muttukumaru was busy on
the phone; a message seeking comment, or UNDP's official explanation of the
change at the top of its Office of Human Resources, was not returned.
Given what UNDP sources say of Mr. Gleeson, now downshifted to advisory status
with
"the Surge Project in the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery," it's worth
noting that a recent UNDP
job ad
for a position with this Surge Project in the BCPR lists, among required
"corporate competencies," that the employee (and presumably advisor)
"Treats all people fairly without
favoritism" and "Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN values and ethical
standards."
[Dec. 7 note - In the
above, certain details have been removed so that there is less distraction from
the subject of this series: the UN Development Program. According to the
Secretariat's spokesman's December 7
lecture,
these were the details which led to the December 4
comments of the
Deputy Secretary-General, ex-Administrator of UNDP. Back to the substance -
click here for a list of the most
recent articles.]
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
At the UN,
Indigenous Rights Get Deferred, As U.S. Abstains, Deftly or Deceptively
At the UN,
Threat and Possible Statement on Fiji Spotlights Selection and Payment
of UN Peacekeepers
At the UN, China
and Islamic Dev't Bank Oppose Soros and World Bank On How to Fight
Poverty
At the UN,
Misdirection on Somalia and Myanmar, No Answers from UNDP's Kemal Dervis
UNDP Dodges
Questions of Disarmament Abuse in Uganda and of Loss of Togo AIDS Grant,
Dhaka Snafu
At the UN, The
Swan Song of Jan Egeland and the Third Committee Loop, Somalia Echoes
Congo
UN Silent As
Protesters Tear Gassed in Ivory Coast, As UNMOVIC Plods On and War
Spreads in Somalia
In the UN,
Uzbekistan Gets a Pass on Human Rights As Opposition to U.S. Grows and
War's On in Somalia
At the UN,
Cluster Bombs Unremembered, Uighurs Disappeared and Jay-Z Returns with
Water -- for Life
From the UN,
Silence on War Crimes Enforcement and Conflicts of Interest on Complaint
from Bahrain
En Route to
Deutsche Bank, the UN's Door Revolves, While Ban Ki-moon Arrives and
Moldova Spins
As Two UN
Peacekeepers Are Killed, UN Says Haiti's Improving, Ban Ki-moon on
Zimbabwe?
Nagorno-Karabakh President Disputes Fires and Numbers, Oil and UN, in
Exclusive Interview with Inner City Press
Inside the UN,
Blaming Uganda's Victims, Excusing Annan on Mugabe, and U.S. Blocked
Darfur Trip
U.S. Blocked
Council's Trip to Darfur Meeting, Brazzaville Envoy Explains After U.S.
Casts a Veto
At the UN,
Council Works Overtime To Cancel Its Trip About Darfur, While DC Muses
on John Bolton
UN Panel's
"Coherence" Plan Urges More Power to UNDP, Despite Its Silence on Human
Rights
On Water, UNDP
Talks Human Rights, While Enabling Violations in Africa and Asia, With
Shell and Coca-Cola
Will UN's
Revolving Door Keep Human Rights Lost, Like Bush's Call and WFP
Confirmation Questions?
On Somalia,
We Are All Ill-Informed, Says the UN, Same on Uganda, Lurching Toward
UNDP Power Grab
On WFP, Annan and
Ban Ki-Moon Hear and See No Evil, While Resume of Josette Sheeran Shiner
Is Edited
Would Moon
Followers Trail Josette Sheeran Shiner into WFP, As to U.S. State Dep't?
At the UN,
Positions Are Up For the Grabbing, Sun's Silence on Censorship, Advisor
Grabs for Gun
In WFP Race,
Josette Sheeran Shiner Praises Mega Corporations from Cornfield While
State Spins
At the UN,
Housing Subsidy Spin, Puntland Mysteries of UNDP and the Panama Solution
In Campaign to
Head UN WFP, A Race to Precedents' Depths, A Murky Lame Duck Appointment
At the UN,
Gbagbo and his Gbaggage, Toxic Waste and Congolese Sanctions
WFP Brochure-Gate? John Bolton Has Not Seen Brochure
of "Official" U.S. Candidate to Head World Food Program
Ivory Coast
Stand-Off Shows Security Council Fault Lines: News Analysis
At the UN,
It's Groundhog's Day on Western Sahara, Despite Fishing Deals and
Flaunting of the Law
"Official" U.S.
Candidate to Head WFP Circulates Brochure With Pulitzer Claim, UN Staff
Rules Ignored
Senegal's
President Claims Peace in Casamance and Habre Trial to Come, A Tale of
Two Lamines
A Tale of Two
Americans Vying to Head the World Food Program, Banbury and Sheeran
Shiner
At the UN, the Unrepentant Blogger Pronk, a Wink
on 14 North Korean Days and Silence on Somalia
At the UN,
Literacy Losses in Chad, Blogless Pronk and Toothless Iran Resolution,
How Our World Turns
Sudan Pans Pronk
While Praising Natsios, UN Silent on Haiti and WFP, Ivorian Fingers
Crossed
UN Shy on North
Korea, Effusive on Bird Flu and Torture, UNDP Cyprus Runaround, Pronk is
Summoned Home
At the UN,
Silence from UNDP on Cyprus, from France on the Chad-Bomb, Jan Pronk's
Sudan Blog
Russia's Vostok
Battalion in Lebanon Despite Resolution 1701, Assembly Stays Deadlocked
and UNDP Stays Missing
As
Turkmenistan Cracks Down on Journalists, Hospitals and Romance, UNDP Works
With the Niyazov Regime
At the UN,
Darfur Discussed, Annan Eulogized and Oil For Food Confined to a
Documentary Footnote
With All Eyes
on Council Seat, UN is Distracted from Myanmar Absolution and Congo
Conflagration
As Venezuela and
Guatemala Square Off, Dominicans In Default and F.C. Barcelona De-Listed
At the UN, North
Korea Sanctions Agreed On, Naval Searches and Murky Weapons Sales
At the UN,
Georgia Speaks of Ethnic Cleansing While Russia Complains of Visas
Denied by the U.S.
At the UN,
Deference to the Congo's Kabila and Tank-Sales to North Korea, of
Slippery Eels and Sun Microsystems
At the UN,
Annan's Africa Advisor Welcome Chinese Investment, Dodges Zimbabwe, Nods
to Darfur
At the UN,
Richard Goldstone Presses Enforcement on Joseph Kony, Reflecting Back on
Karadzic
UN Defers on
Anti-Terror Safeguards to Member States, Even in Pakistan and Somalia
Afghanistan
as Black Hole for Info and Torture Tales, Photos and Talk Mogadishu, the
UN Afterhours
Amid UN's Korean
Uproar, Russia Silent on Murder of Anna Politkovskaya, Chechnya Exposer
UN Envoy Makes
Excuses for Gambian Strongman, Whitewashing Fraud- and Threat-Filled
Election
Sudan's UN
Envoy Admits Right to Intervene in Rwanda, UNICEF Response on Terrorist
Groups in Pakistan
At the UN, As
Next S-G is Chosen, Annan Claims Power to Make 5-Year Appointments,
Quiet Filing and Ivory Coast Concessions
Chaos in UN's
Somalia Policy, Working With Islamists Under Sanctions While Meeting
with Private Military Contractors
U.S. Candidate
for UN's World Food Program May Get Lame Duck Appointment, Despite
Korean Issues
At the
UN, U.S. Versus Axis of Airport, While Serge Brammertz Measures
Non-Lebanese Teeth
Exclusion from
Water Is Called Progress, of Straw Polls and WFP Succession
William Swing
Sings Songs of Congo's Crisis, No Safeguards on Coltan Says Chairman of
Intel
Warlord in the
Waldorf and Other Congo Questions Dodged by the UN in the Time Between
Elections
In Some New
Orleans, Questions Echo from the South Bronx and South Lebanon
In New Orleans,
While Bone Is Thrown in Superdome, Parishes Still In Distress
At the UN, Tales
of Media Muzzled in Yemen, Penned in at the Waldorf on Darfur, While
Copters Grounded
US's Frazer
Accuses Al-Bashir of Sabotage, Arab League of Stinginess, Chavez of
Buying Leaders -
Click
here for
video file by Inner City Press.
Third Day of UN
General Debate Gets Surreal, Canapes and Killings, Questions on Iran and
Montenegro and Still Somalia
On Darfur, Hugo
Chavez Asks for More Time to Study, While Planning West Africa Oil
Refinery
At the UN, Ivory
Coast Discussed Without Decision on Toxic Politics, the Silence of
Somalia
Evo Morales
Blames Strike on Mobbed-Up Parasites, Sings Praise of Coca Leaf and Jabs
at Coca-Cola
Musharraf Says
Unrest in Baluchistan Is Waning, While Dodging Question on Restoring
Civilian Rule
At the UN, Cyprus
Confirms 'Paramilitary' Investigation, Denies Connection to Def Min
Resignation, CBTB Update
A Tale
of Three Leaders, Liberia Comes to Praise and Iran and Sudan to Bury the UN
UN Round-up:
Poland's President Says Iraq Is Ever-More Tense While Amb. Bolton Talks
Burmese Drugs, Spin on Ivory Coast
As UN's Annan
Now Says He Will Disclose, When and Whether It Will Be to the Public and
Why It Took So Long Go Unasked
At the UN,
Stonewalling Continues on Financial Disclosure and Letter(s) U.S.
Mission Has, While Zimbabwe Goes Ignored
At the UN,
Financial Disclosure Are Withheld While Freedom of Information Is
Promised, Of Hollywood and Dictators' Gift Shops
UN's Annan Says
Dig Into Toxic Dumping, While Declining to Discuss Financial Disclosure
A Still-Unnamed
Senior UN Official in NY Takes Free Housing from His Government,
Contrary to UN Staff Regulations
UN Admits To
Errors in its Report on Destruction of Congolese Village of Kazana,
Safeguards Not In Place
As UN Checks
Toxins in Abidjan, the Dumper Trafigura Figured in Oil for Food Scandal,
Funded by RBS and BNP Paribas
Targeting of
African Americans For High Cost Mortgages Grew Worse in 2005, While Fed
Downplays Its Own Findings
The UN and
Nagorno-Karabakh: Flurries of Activity Leave Frozen Conflicts Unchanged;
Updates on Gaza, Gavels and Gbagbo
The UN Cries
Poor on Lawless Somalia, While Its Ex-Security Chief Does Business
Through Ruleless Revolving Door
At the UN,
Micro-States Simmer Under the Assembly's Surface, While Incoming Council
President Dodges Most Questions
"Horror Struck"
is How UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments Would Leave
U.S., Referral on Burma But Not Uzbekistan
Security Council
President Condemns UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments,
While UK "Doesn't Do It Any More"
At the UN,
Incomplete Reforms Allow for Gifts of Free Housing to UN Officials by
Member States
Rare UN Sunshine
From If Not In Chad While Blind on Somalia and Zimbabwe, UNDP With Shell
in its Ear on Nigeria
Annan Family
Ties With Purchaser from Compass, Embroiled in UN Scandal, Raise
Unanswered Ethical Questions
At the UN, from
Casamance to Transdniestria, Kosovars to Lezgines, Micro-States as
Powerful's Playthings
Inquiry Into
Housing Subsidies Contrary to UN Charter Goes Ignored for 8 Weeks, As
Head UN Peacekeeper Does Not Respond
On the UN -
Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost
Stop Bank
Branch Closings and Monopolies in the Katrina Zone, Group Says,
Challenging Regions- AmSouth Merger
Ship-Breakers
Missed by UN's Budget for Travel and Consultants in Bangladesh, Largest
UNIFIL Troop Donor
With Somalia on
the Brink of Horn-Wide War, UN Avoids Question of Ethiopian Invasion
In UN's Lebanon
Frenzy, Darfur Is Ignored As Are the Disabled, "If You Crave UNIFIL,
Can't You Make Do With MONUC?"
UN Decries
Uzbekistan's Use of Torture, While Helping It To Tax and Rule; Updates
on UNIFIL and UNMIS Off-Message
On Lebanon,
Russian Gambit Focuses Franco-American Minds, Short Term Resolution Goes
Blue Amid Flashes of Lightening
Africa Can Solve
Its Own Problems, Ghanaian Minister Tells Inner City Press, On LRA Peace
Talks and Kofi Annan's Views
At the UN, Jay-Z
Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka
Kilcher in the Basement
In the UN
Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a
Shebaa Farms Solution?
UN Knew of Child
Soldier Use by Two Warlords Whose Entry into Congo Army the UN
Facilitated
Impunity's in
the Air, at the UN in Kinshasa and NY, for Kony and Karim and MONUC for
Kazana
UN Still Silent
on Somalia, Despite Reported Invasion, In Lead-Up to More Congo Spin
UN's Guehenno
Says Congo Warlord Just Needs Training, and Kazana Probe Continues
With Congo
Elections Approaching, UN Issues Hasty Self-Exoneration as Annan Is
Distracted
In DR Congo, UN
Applauds Entry into Army of Child-Soldier Commander Along with Kidnapper
Spinning the
Congo, UN Admits Hostage Deal with Warlord That Put Him in Congolese
Army
At the UN, Dow
Chemical's Invited In, While Teaming Up With Microsoft is Defended
Kofi Annan
Questioned about Congolese Colonel Who Kidnapped Seven UN Soldiers
UN Silent As
Congolese Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made An Army Colonel: News
Analysis
UN's Guehenno
Speaks of "Political Overstretch" Undermining Peacekeeping in Lower
Profile Zones
In Gaza Power
Station, the Role of Enron and the U.S. Government's OPIC Revealed by UN
Sources
UN's Corporate
Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and
UNDP Continues
BTC Briefing,
Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations
Conflicts of
Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts
UN Grapples with
Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without
Explanation
UN Gives Mugabe
Time with His Friendly Mediator, Refugees Abandoned
At the UN,
Friday Night's Alright for Fighting; Annan Meets Mugabe
UN Acknowledges
Abuse in Uganda, But What Did Donors Know and When? Kazakh Questions
In Uganda, UNDP
to Make Belated Announcement of Program Halt, But Questions Remain (and
see
The New Vision,
offsite).
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Leads UN Agency to Suspend Its Work and Spending
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Blamed on UNDP, Still Silent on Finance
Alleged Abuse in
Disarmament in Uganda Known by UNDP, But Dollar Figures Still Not Given:
What Did UN Know and When?
Strong Arm on
Small Arms: Rift Within UN About Uganda's Involuntary Disarmament of
Karamojong Villages
UN's Selective
Vision on Somalia and Wishful Thinking on Uighurs
UN Habitat
Predicts The World Is a Ghetto, But Will Finance Be Addressed at
Vancouver World Urban Forum?
UN's Annan
Concerned About Use of Terror's T-Word to Repress, Wants
Freedom of Information
UN Waffles on
Human Rights in Central Asia and China; ICC on Kony and a Hero from
Algiers
UN & US,
Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty
and Senator Tom Coburn
Human Rights
Forgotten in UN's War of Words, Bolton versus Mark Malloch Brown: News
Analysis
In Praise of
Migration, UN Misses the Net and Bangalore While Going Soft on Financial
Exclusion
UN Sees Somalia
Through a Glass, Darkly, While Chomsky Speaks on Corporations and
Everything But Congo
Corporate Spin on
AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence
The Silence of
the Congo and Naomi Watts; Between Bolivia and the World Bank
Human Rights
Council Has Its Own Hanging Chads; Cocky U.S. State Department Spins
from SUVs
Child Labor and
Cargill and Nestle; Iran, Darfur and WHO's on First with Bird Flu
Press Freedom?
Editor Arrested by Congo-Brazzaville, As It Presides Over Security
Council
The
Place of the Cost-Cut UN in Europe's Torn-Up Heart;
Deafness to Consumers, Even by the Greens
Background Checks
at the UN, But Not the Global Compact; Teaching Statistics from
Turkmenbashi's Single Book
Ripped Off Worse
in the Big Apple, by Citigroup and Chase: High Cost Mortgages Spread in
Outer Boroughs in 2005, Study Finds
Burundi: Chaos at
Camp for Congolese Refugees, Silence from UNHCR, While Reform's Debated
by Forty Until 4 AM
The Chadian
Mirage: Beyond French Bombs, Is Exxon In the Cast? Asylum and the
Uzbeks, Shadows of Stories to Come
Through the UN's
One-Way Mirror, Sustainable Development To Be Discussed by Corporations,
Even Nuclear Areva
Racial
Disparities Grew Worse in 2005 at Citigroup, HSBC and Other Large Banks
Mine Your Own
Business: Explosive Remnants of War and the Great Powers, Amid the
Paparazzi
Human Rights Are
Lost in the Mail: DR Congo Got the Letter, But the Process is Still
Murky
Iraq's Oil to be
Metered by Shell, While Basrah Project Remains Less than Clear
Kofi, Kony,
Kagame and Coltan: This Moment in the Congo and Kampala
As Operation
Swarmer Begins, UN's Qazi Denies It's Civil War and Has No Answers if
Iraq's Oil is Being Metered
Cash Crop: In
Nepal, Bhutanese Refugees Prohibited from Income Generation Even in
their Camps
The Shorted and
Shorting in Humanitarian Aid: From Davos to Darfur, the Numbers Don't
Add Up
UN Reform:
Transparency Later, Not Now -- At Least Not for AXA - WFP Insurance
Contract
In the Sudanese
Crisis, Oil Revenue Goes Missing, UN Says
Empty Words on
Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN and Georgia
What is the Sound
of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War
at UN
Kosovo: Of
Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of
Ferronikeli Mines
Abkhazia:
Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia
Post-Tsunami
Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
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