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By Matthew Russell Lee & sources, Exclusive

UN GATE, Dec 14 – UN GATE, December 14 –  From the corrupt UN of Antonio Guterres in New York, the whole UN system has been systematically corrupted, including UNESCO. For two years now, UNESCO is in turmoil after several publications by ICP about the huge misappropriation and abuse of power schemes developed by its French led administration.

Following the articles by Inner City Press, several internal investigations have been launched at the request of Audrey Azoulay and monitored by her buddy and Chief of Office, Nicolas Kassianides. No results yet and the internal oversight service (IOS) proved unable to identify the in-house sources that are so badly shaking the coconut tree.  The French DG is well aware that she cannot continue with the same incompetent senior officials in her management team. Time is ripe for a change. According to our contacts in her Cabinet, at least two ADGs are under immediate threat of dismissal. The first supposed to leave the Agency, is ADG/PAX Firmin Matoko.

His handling of the debate and implementation of the Priority Africa has been severely criticized. The debate fully demonstrated ADG Matoko's intellectual incapacity to defend the policy direction set by his boss Azoulay. The secong stumbilng block to his extension is the management of the major staff problem in the Rabat Office. A staff member in the Rabat office affirmed that his colleagues “have complained several times in the past to ADG/PAX Firmin Matoko, but no action has ever been taken against Golda el-Khoury who is one of his friends. We believe that he will protect her now, even though firing this repugnant woman would only be justice”.   Indeed, Firmin Matoko, himself well over the legal statutory retirement age, supported Golda el-Khoury throughout the investigation launched against her by IOS and got her to stay at UNESCO.

She is still receiving a fat salary without working for months, since the Iranian government did not give its clearance for her to head the UNESCO Office in Tehran. Obviously, Matoko was anxious that she would reveal the embezzlement orchestrated by Matoko and his closest collaborator, Eric Volibi in a number of field offices. She thus traded her silence for another position at UNESCO. Expected to finally retire, Matoko could be the first ADG to leave the Paris-based agency after demonstrating his "high standards of brain-sterility and docile incompetence".

Clearly, ADG Matoko is not an asset to this administration”, said an ambassador usually sympathetic to the French regime. “They are losing it all”.   Another calamity currently on the chopping block is Shamila Nair-Bedouelle of France, ADG for Natural Sciences. Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, originally from South Africa, obtained French nationality and built a career in France. What has happened since her appointment is the total disruption of the work of the Science sector. This toxic situation was deemed acceptable by the French DG, who does not really care about UNESCO, but about her political career in France in a few months.

Nevertheless, when several complaints of moral harassment were filed by Science sector staff, Azoulay had to take the problem seriously. One sector executive contacted Inner City Press, suffering and alarmed by her blatant incompetence, lack of managerial skills, and complete lack of political overtones, which is a must for any ADG. "The Science sector is slowly collapsing.  The staff working under Shamila Nair-Bedouelle is sick of the working environment".

This is precisely what the French DG has facilitated with the appointments to UNESCO of a bunch of French technocrats.  Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, like other senior managers, has spent her time exercising totalitarian control over the staff, including by excessively using intimidation and harassment that forced staff members to fear and obey, but ultimately to formally protest her intolerable management practices.  Clearly, Africa is extremely poorly represented in UNESCO's leadership. At the same time, Africa is one of the two main priorities of the Agency. Therefore, the African group at UNESCO could legitimately expect that these two ADGs will be replaced in 2022 by more competent and honest professionals. 

Two other ADGs are regularly singled out as potentially at risk. Italian Stefania Giannini, ADG for Education, and Gabriela Ramos, ADG for Social Sciences, who got the job only because of the intervention of her intimate friend, compatriot and boss at the OECD, Mexican José Ángel Gurría Treviño. Reportedly, Ángel Gurría personally asked former French president François Hollande to find a job for Gabriela Ramos at UNESCO and DG Azoulay couldn't say no to her beloved protector and benefactor Hollande. We will follow this case closely in the coming months.  

It is clear that the second and final term of French DG Audrey Azoulay begins with the same challenges and problems for UNESCO related to her incompetent management. Several reports containing the findings of investigations and recommendations for sanctions are pending on Director General Audrey Azoulay's desk for decision. Member states must watch closely to see if she will impose fair sanctions or if she will prefer to stifle reports about staff, including about those working in her office. This is where UNESCO is today, an agency where corruption, embezzlement, abuse of power and nepotism thrive.  We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

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