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By Matthew Russell Lee & UNESCO sources

UN GATE, Oct 6 – Inner City Press has been reporting regularly on the messy situation of UNESCO. For months, DG Azoulay and her team downplayed the Coronavirus warnings and exposed the staff to heavy risks of contamination. 

Yesterday Inner City Press reported that half of her closest collaborators from the Cabinet, including the Director of her cabinet Nicolas Kacyanides, got COVID-19 positive tests. It also showed that Antonio Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric briefs maskless in a windowless room.

 In response to our publication, today the Assistant DG for administration, the eminent member of the corrupted team Nicholas Jeffreys sent the following email to all staff and convened a meeting of the totally useless internal “Coronavirus coordination team”: 

From : UNESCO Info Sent : Tuesday 6 October 2020 To : UNESCO-HQ Subject: Covid 19 measures - update    

Dear colleagues,    Considering the evolution of the Covid-19 situation and the fact that the authorities of the host country have encouraged to increase telecommuting, we request that as of 7th of October, until further notice, the overall staff density at Headquarters will be further reduced from half of the normal full staffing to a third.   Unless for specific reasons, new modalities would be 2 days per week in the office, and the rest telecommuting. Practical arrangements (days of work at home/days of work in the office, specific tasks, distance from home to workplace considerations etc.) will be defined between the concerned staff and the direct supervisor. Supervisors are requested to ensure the basic minimal physical presence whenever needed and also to maintain or organize continuous contact with the colleagues telecommuting, in order to avoid isolation.   Additionally, and until 30 October, only conferences, meetings or events with less than 10 participants can be held at Headquarters. UNESCO statutory meetings are the only exceptions to this rule as well as meetings explicitly authorized by the ADG/ADM.   We must remain careful and continue to respect the preventive measures put in place, either in the workplace or in public places. Preventive measures, such as the use of masks, or specific travel restrictions, including quarantine in some countries, will be most likely part of our daily concerns for the coming months.  (…)   My continued thanks and appreciation to all staff for their understanding and cooperation during this challenging period.     ADG/ADM  

“This is too little too late. Teleworking must be granted to all staff for at least the next two weeks”, said a senior member of the staff union, “but because of the stubbornness of the DG Azoulay and her Cabinet puppets, our colleagues are expected to assume enthusiastically the contamination risks.”  The Agency is run by blackout on information and rumors, and no one is deeming necessary to inform the potential victims of the new COVID cluster created in the Cabinet.

From his home, Kacyanides is blocking all access to reliable information about the recent developments in a desperate effort to enforce an embargo on the spread of the virus from his office.  Since the very outset, the Cabinet of DG Azoulay did clearly not take the threat of COVID-19 seriously.

Instead of preparing the institution for it, nasty jokes were made at internal meetings by ADG/ADM Nicholas Jeffreys and Director Cabinet Kacyanides about the coronavirus being a “great opportunity for getting rid once and for all of ambassadors criticizing the French DG Azoulay and of staff protesting against their current working conditions…”.   This week, clearly, the tables have turned. Now the same who joked inappropriately are being contaminated themselves. 

 This is where UNESCO stands today, a Zombie land propitious to the flourishing of abuse of power and nepotism dangerously detrimental to staff members and to their families.  And Dujarric is still maskless, now with PGA spokesman Brenden Varma too. Watch this site.

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