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By Matthew Russell Lee & UNESCO sources

UN GATE, Oct 10 – Inner City Press exposes most of the corruption and insanity going on at UNESCO and at the UN led by Antonio Guterres. Still, after hitting the least possible low, the UNESCO chief of Agency Audrey Azoulay started digging. Having a head of an Agency leaving her post for attending a sports event last Friday during working hours is a breach in the rules totally abnormal even for the corrupted UN System (photo here). 

  What will Guterres do this time? He is jus as or more corrupt. But member states and the dubious media should demand action. Will he scold her privately now that for years the reputation of the UN is under severe criticism under his leadership? We will follow that closely and ask questions to the spokesman Dujarric about it. Also, what will member states do about it?

Will they take a stance and firmly object having their tax payers’ money spent for defraying the fat salary of DG Azoulay while she enjoys the autumn sun at the Roland Garros clay courts during working hours? It is but time they ensure that the unauthorized actions and behavior of DG Azoulay that are actually known, be duly judged by the governing bodies of the Agency? We will follow that closely as well. 

This is the first time, proven by photos, that DG Azoulay is flagrantly caught in her unprofessional behavior. Rumors were going on for a while at UNESCO of her taking rumba dancing classes during working hours but unfortunately no photos available of her on the dance floor.

Also, she is regularly attending festivals in France having nothing to do with her DG obligations, all paid by UNESCO’s money, but until now, no political reaction whatsoever from the member states. With the photos of last Friday this can change though, as the rules are very clear about unauthorized absences and provide for the withholding of the UNESCO staff member salary in case of unjustified absence (HR Manual of UNESCO Item 6.16. ‘Unauthorized absence’, Staff Rule 105.5 and HR Manual Item 10.6 ‘Abandonment of post’).  Following their exposure in the press, a number of high UN officials resigned after demolishing the reputation and the credibility of their respective agencies.

 Four Heads of UN agencies had resigned after internal investigations proved their mismanagement, corruption and abuse of power practices.

First dismissed - Michel Sidibe, the former Executive Director of the UN agency for HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, stepped down in June, six months before his term was set to expire after an independent panel said that his “defective leadership” tolerated “a culture of harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying, and abuse of power.”

Second fired - the Head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency Pierre Krähenbühl resigned after becoming embroiled in a scandal involving accusations of nepotism and abuses of authority. The leaked investigation depicted an “inner circle” around Krähenbühl who were suggested to have benefited themselves. They were accused of “engag[ing] in misconduct, nepotism, retaliation ... and other abuses of authority.”

Third resignation - The UN’s environment chief, Erik Solheim, following severe criticism of his internal rule-breaking. Nothing compared to Guterres' mediocre hypocrisy, however.

The audit said Solheim had “no regard for abiding by the set regulations and rules”. Fourth dismissed – the UN biodiversity Chief quitted amidst accusations of serious misconduct. Cristiana Pasça Palmer resigned after internal audit documents described a chaotic work environment at the Secretariat, widespread staff illness and resignations and allegations that Pasça Palmer discriminated against African staff members on the basis of their race. 

After the Friday scandalous tennis excursion and the scam cases exposed by Inner City Press including on the misuse of tax-payers money in large proportions when the financial services of Azoulay authorized a payment of some 450,000 US dollars to an unknown financial institution in London (those funds vanished in someone’s pocket), DG Audrey Azoulay must join their club.  The fundamental question is why member states, and especially the Nordic countries, are not taking any reprisal action on the disclosed cases of abuse of power, corruption, traffic of influence and embezzlement.

Obviously, the European Union rich-countries-club solidarity is playing a role so as to pledge institutional impunity to the French DG Azoulay.

As underscored by a senior staff member of UNESCO, “Nordic countries will most probably try to defend her once more by arguing that this is ok, no big deal really, since she is working so hard for saving Lebanon for instance, which was already done by attending the concert in support of Beirut in Paris at the Olympia Hall - ha.

After all those prodigious achievements she definitely deserves some relaxation in the peaceful Roland Garros environment”.  The plain and simple truth is that under her administration the Paris based Agency was brought to stupor.

Still, it is not too late to have member states imposing the enforcement of the existing rules and regulations adequate to keep the Agency behaving legally, ethically, and competently. We will have more on that. Follow this site.

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