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In Corrupt UN of Guterres UNESCO Loses Money In ILO Disputes But HR Deputy Remains

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, CJR PFT

UNITED NATIONS GATE, February 28 – How corrupt is the UN system under Antonio Guterres, including the UNSG election in which he won the brass ring only to flaunt censorship for corruption, roughing up and banning Inner City Press amid its questions on his links to briber CEFC China Energy? Well at UNESCO they are losing case after case in the International Labor Organization tribunal, so much so that the issue will be taken up by the Executive Council in April, in at least perfunctory oversight that Guterres through corruption and censorship avoids. Since the beginning of 2018, UNESCO has lost nine of eleven trials brought by former employees, costing more than 300,000 euros. UNESCO whistleblowers tell Inner City Press that while this has resulted in belated change at the top of Human Resources, the number 2 in the HR office Annick Grisar who was the implementing force behind the failed policies introduced by Hong Kwon remains in place - for now. Meanwhile an internal audit has revealed that more than two million tax payers dollars have been spent over the last few years by UNESCO on the integration of the two main management systems, the programmatic one (SISTER) and the financial one (FABS) with no result or progress achieved whatsoever. Ah, UN system reform. Internal sources in the financial office snark that most of the tax payers money probably ended in the pockets of IT companies close to the heart of the Chief Financial Officer of UNESCO, Nutan Wozencroft who is a senior Director - UN D2 level.  

 This is not the first time Wozencroft is under the spotlight. Under the previous UNESCO administration run by Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, she instigated the misuse the 14 million dollars remaining under the Emergency Fund created for voluntary contributions by member states. Aspiring for an even higher position in the UN, Wozencroft assisted Bokova in this failed attempt to use those funds for projects that were to serve as masked bribery to Security Council member states while running for the UNSG position in 2016. When this scheme was rejected by the Executive Board of UNESCO, the sources say Bokova then covered the misdeeds that were planned in her favour. Another accomplice in this scheme: the Assistant Director General of UNESCO for strategic planning, the Brazilian Thompson Flores, benefitted from the same administrative coverage and despite the overwhelming report by IOS , she was sent by Bokova as Director of the Venice office of UNESCO instead of being fired.   The question now is whether current Director General of UNESCO Azoulay will take any action on CFO Wozencroft or again, in the usual culuture of the UN of Guterres, she will be provided with an option to spend some time in a cozy position in one of the Field offices of UNESCO like it happened to Thompson Flores. We will have more on that - and on this: while the Saudi kingdom is still stonewalling on the role of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, UNESCO has a Memorandum of Understanding to train the staff of MBS's Misk Foundation, Inner City Press can today report and exclusively publish, here on Scribd; for download on Patreon here. It is signed between UNESCO and Ali Alzabarah, CEO, Misk Initiatives Center, and begins: "Considering the mutual désire of Misk Initiatives Center at MiSK Foundation (hereinafter "Partner Institution") and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (hereinafter "UNESCO"), to establish a general framework of collaboration between them and to provide an opportunity for the Trainees to acquire a firsthand working experience at UNESCO; The Partner Institution and UNESCO (together referred to as the "Parties") hâve agreed to establish the
Sponsored Traineeship Programme as follows:
ARTICLE 1 Purpose
1. The purpose of theSponsored Traineeship Programme is threefold:
a) To offer to the selected Trainees specialized in the areas related to the work of UNESCO, the
opportunity to enhance their knowledge and consolidate their experience through practical work assignments;
b) To expose Trainees to the work of UNESCO, and enable them to gain a better understanding
of its mandate, programmes and processes, and thus promoting and strengthening UNESCO's
work in the areas of its mandate;
e) To benefit from the input of professional individuals, who can bring new ideas."
A fish rots from the head: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who earlier this year took a $930 million check from MBS, himself also partners with Misk through his  Envoy on Youth, Jayathma Wickramanayake. But the training role of UNESCO under Audrey Azoulay is particularly ghoulish. It comes as a Saudi diplomat is trying to get the post in UNESCO in charge of the protection of journalists, reported here by Inner City Press which is now informed from an insider in the bureau of human resources, that the Director of HR, Hong Kwon and close friend of Ban Ki-moon (as we already reported – see here and here) signed and MOU with the MISK Foundation to train staff. Inner City Press' sources, who see UNESCO being destroyed under Azoulay and Guterres, view this as a total breach of the UNESCO values and basic principles. Not abrogating the MOU after the murder Khashoggi is a new low - but follows Guterres continuing his Youth Envoy's MOU.
This is not the first time Hong Kwon is exposed to severe criticism inside UNESCO  for dealing with serious matters in a non-professional and incompetent manner. Seconded to UNESCO from the UN where he was promoted almost every two years by his countryman Ban Ki-moon, who pushed Bokova to appoint him with a promotion at UNESCO last year. Most of the staff is keenly expecting his departure back to New York like his predecessor Ruth de Miranda by the end of July 2019. Furthermore, the introduced illegal changes by Kwon Hong in the reclassification of staff policy last August, superseded the decision-making power of the General Conference of UNESCO. These changes are since then severely objected by the two staff unions of UNESCO and, together with other pending files reflecting accumulated problems due to the total malfunctioning of the bureau of human resources may lead to an official disruption of the relations between the staff unions and the administration of Azoulay. This is consistent with Guterres' contempt for staff's rights and even lives, as shown in the DRC. The newly appointed ADG for Administration from the UK is now expected to request his departure in the coming weeks, but this may be objected by the Korean Ambassador to UNESCO and close friend of both Ban Ki moon and Hong Kwon. We will keep following closely what the final say of Azoulay will be on that one and whether she will be politically strong enough to challenge the Korean Ambassador who is also the Chairman of the Executive Board of UNESCO for 10 more months. This as UNESCO, like Guterres, used also in decay UN Security to physically oust people based on their views.
Another Guterres echo: the July 3 so-called altercation, ban, and bogus review
 
On July 30 Guterres' sleazy basis for roughing up and banning Inner City Press was reported in the Columbia Journalist Review:
Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric has gone further, in an article published July 30 by the Columbia Journalism Review. Dujarric - who Inner City Press directed to the CJR reporter to - is quoted that " Lee Periscoped while shouting, 'F*ck you!' repeatedly. (Lee says he was complaining that Dujarrac had given the Al Jazeera crew a private interview, and excluded him.) 'He creates an atmosphere of incivility within our working environment,' Dujarrac says."  This is a lie. Inner City Press on June 19 when Dujarric gave a "private briefing" to Al Jazeera about Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo announcing the US pull out from the UN Human Right Council said in the hall that is was a "sleazefest." After closing the door of the focus booth it has been confined to work in for two years by Dujarric, and long after the Al Jazeera trio including James Bayes and Whitney Hurst were done, said on Periscope, F-You. Periscope video - still online during this 27 day "investigation" - here. So Dujarric is a censor, justifying the beating up and banning of a journalist for something he broadcast in a soundproof booth to his audience. This is disgusting, all the more so because as Inner City Press has reported, Dujarric told an interlocutor on June 20, before the two beat-downs of Inner City Press, that things would be worse for it. Guterres and Dujarric and it seems Smale are.. thugs. Dujarric spoonfed sound bytes to Al Jazeera and is working with them to try to further restrict Inner City Press, here - Inner City Press was in fact ousted on June 22, video here, story here

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