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By Matthew Russell Lee & sources, Exclusive

UN GATE, Jan 19 –  From the corrupt UN of Antonio Guterres in New York, the whole UN system has been systematically corrupted, including UNESCO.

Inner City Press, banned from the UN by Guterres, has reported exclusively on the appalling situation at UNESCO. Today, new developments shed additional light on the hidden internal discussions among ambassadors about replacing DG Azoulay. 

So far, the candidates are mostly from the Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and possibly Qatar. Latin America could also be represented in the competition by the current ADG for social sciences, Gabriela Ramos, who has reportedly indicated that she might be interested in the position, noting that no qualifications are required for DG’s post, since Audrey Azoulay was able to get it.

Other potential candidates include Egypt and, of course, China, which will lose the top ITU post and will certainly look for another UN agency to lead.  In fact, China is potentially the most interested candidate to date. Currently China directly heads the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Thus, Beijing knows how to win (or really, buy) elections at the UN.

  Chinese deputies are present at the top in nine other agencies: the World Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), UNESCO, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), WHO, and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This is why, China is considered a serious contender in the 2025 UNESCO election, which will begin in less than a year. 

The fact that the ambassadors are raising the issue of replacing French DG Audrey Azoulay at such an early stage tends to seriously annoy the current occupant Azoulay. From our sources in Paris, several people spoke of Audrey Azoulay's tangible irritation after being informed of this premature political speculation. It is true that never before have such discussions taken place at UNESCO so early, immediately after the re-election of a DG. This speaks volumes about the internal atmosphere.     

Some UNESCO member states have already begun to regard Azoulay as a lame duck, long before this usually happened with her predecessors.  By addressing this issue, member states are sending a signal to Azoulay that something is wrong with her leadership. However, since DG Azoulay is apparently still not getting the message and continues to openly wonder why the political ball is starting to roll so early, here are ten points to answer her conjectures: 

First, member states are fed up with Ms. Azoulay's arrogant disregard for most of them but France and with her national interest approach to multilateral issues within the agency's mandate. 

Second, she went too far, even in the opinion of some EU countries by appointing mainly French nationals and representatives of former French colonial countries in Africa. The most recent and blatant examples are the appointment of two Cameroonians - Lazare Assomo as Director of the World Heritage Centre and Bernardin Assiene as Director of IOS. Two Directors from the same African country appointed in just a few months. Clearly, English-speaking African states do not have competent experts to propose who could please the French DG. 

Third, the misappropriation of funds on a large scale by the Azoulay administration is also troubling for member states. As Inner City Press has revealed over the past three years, the examples of fraud and abuse of authority to cover up fraud are numerous and disturbing. The politics of smoke and mirrors included hidden corruption that was propagated by promoting incompetent but obligated employees of the Azoulay regime or mistresses of those with decisive power such as Chief of Cabinet Nicolas Kassianides. 

Fourth, the accumulated errors in positioning the organization within and outside the UN system have made UNESCO irrelevant. There is not a single remaining issue that is properly addressed within its mandate. UNESCO is no longer visible on the international institutional map. The recently adopted normative instrument on artificial intelligence, for example, of which Azoulay is so proud, has no mandatory force. Rather, it is a compilation of wishes and recommendations which, unlike the binding provisions of the conventions, has only advocating purposes to the member states. Another example of the weakness of her political initiative, Azoulay will be the only UNESCO DG who has not had any convention adopted during her mandate.  

Fifth, the collapse of intellectual work at UNESCO. Highly qualified and competent staff members have been replaced by administrators, mostly French, who push papers all day long. This will have lasting consequences for the agency, as the remaining institutional memory will disappear in the next few years and this loss will be irreversible. 

Sixth, the politicization of UNESCO has become its central occupation under Azoulay, with major programs and activities being put on the back burner. Gradually, the only aspect of UNESCO’s work, perceptible by the general public, became the political struggle at the level of the states involved in it. 

Seventh, the laboratory of ideas function has been totally abandoned by Azoulay and her team. It is now a laboratory of empty statements and fancy press releases. UNESCO has become purposeless. For example, France's top priority today is the inscription of French bread, the baguette, on the World Heritage List.  President Macron himself is campaigning for this with the active participation of Azoulay. Is this what the Member States expect from a DG? Probably not, but for the French DG, the promotion of the baguette will prove to be an impactful activity for UNESCO, especially in  Africa and in other least developed countries worldwide...  

Eighth, instead of appreciating and caring, Azoulay has shown total disregard for her staff, by approving the elimination of most staff rights, by abusing of her power in a management style of disrespect for the staff associations and for the established rules and regulations. Indeed, since 2018, DG Azoulay has set aside the HR manual and exempted most of the recruitments from HR rules. These include the one of ADG for culture (Ernesto Ottone Ramirez), of the DDG appointed directly by China with no recruitment per the rules (the semitransparent Xing Qu), as well as of more than two dozen French nationals who got cushy positions in the Paris based UN Agency.  

Ninth, the strategic transformation initiated by Audrey Azoulay is at a standstill. It is very likely that if she is held accountable, she will blame her inaction on COVID-19. But this will be a hard sell when other institutions are doing their work under the same sanitary conditions. 

Tenth - and perhaps the most crucial factor for member states to project themselves into the future even now - for four years Audrey Azoulay never really grasped what the DG's real function was, what UNESCO is actually about and how to make it function properly. The abuse of power for personal interests, the appointment of French nationals and the misuse of public money cannot and should not be the main priority of a DG.  Still, the next three years will probably be nothing but more of the same. The French DG will keep protecting the incompetent senior officials in her management scheme and there is no reason for her to stop appointing French technocrats to UNESCO. Covered by Director HR the Japanese Ogawa, the appointment of so many of Azoulay's French compatriots is of course an embarrassment even for her EU supporters but member states will probably have difficulties to put a stop to it.   

  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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