In Other Media-eg New Statesman, AJE, FP, Georgia, NYT,  Azerbaijan, CSM Click here to contact us     .

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive Memo

UN GATE, Oct 14 -- While UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres cries poor and scales back "official travel," he has just made another high cost hire for his propaganda / vanity shop: "Zoe Paxton, head of media at the Department for International Development (DfID) and a rising star in the Government Communication Service, is leaving for a top comms job at the United Nations." This comes right after his hiring from McKinsey of Peter Reid for a position that even Ban Ki-moon left empty, because wasteful, for a decade. This is Guterres' hypocrisy.

  But after having roughed up and banned the critical Press, Guterres is not subject to the must rudimentary oversight. The New York Times, rightfully active on many other fronts such as these days Honduras (along with Inner City Press), flat out lied for Guterres, stating he has stopped hiring and not mentioning his many flights to Lisbon on the public dime. Here it is:

"Facing ‘Cash-Flow Crisis,’ the U.N. Cuts Hiring, Heating, Escalators and the A.C.

The organization said it was quickly running out of cash largely because a number of countries, chiefly the United States, have not paid all their annual assessments. 

 By Rick Gladstone Oct. 11, 2019 

  No new hiring, after-hours meetings or late-night receptions at the United Nations headquarters. No more optional travel. No new furniture or replacement computers unless absolutely necessary.  Heating and air-conditioning will be curtailed between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. Expect document delays, fewer translations and no conference freebies, like water. And at the 39-story Secretariat building, some escalators and the decorative water fountain outside are shutting down.  These were among the money-saving measures announced by United Nations budget officials Friday, in response to what they called the most acute cash shortage in years confronting the global organization, which to keep operations running relies on prompt payment of the assessments billed to its 193 members.  “This is not a budget crisis, it’s a cash-flow crisis,” Catherine Pollard, the under secretary general for management strategy, policy and compliance, told a news conference" - from which Inner City Press was banned by Guterres for the 463rd day, its written budget questions unanswered by Spokesman Steph Dujarric and by Melissa Fleming.

Now from Inner City Press, Guterres' memo to Departments, leaked by staff disgusted by Guterres' hypocrisy, online in full here: "Measures  4. Effective immediately, official travel will be limited to the most essential activities. In addition, it will be necessary to reduce all other non-post expenses to the extent possible. This includes postponing purchases of goods and services, implementing energy-saving and other measures to reduce utility bills and temporarily curtailing expenses on managing facilities.  5. Events occurring before or after official meeting hours and during weekends will no longer be booked at all headquarters duty stations, effective 14 October 2019. Agreements for events that have already been booked will be reviewed to determine whether such events can be held.  6. Managers are directed to explore avenues to further limit expenses during the last quarter of 2019 and to curtail expenditures to the extent possible in their areas of work. This includes, but is not limited to, the postponement of conferences and meetings, the postponement of or refraining from the engagement of consultants and individual contractors or temporary contractual personnel, cutting back on the use of overtime and seeking ways to reduce related expenses by adjusting services.  7. Existing measures already in place, such as limits to hiring against vacant regular budget funded positions during the last quarter, remain in place.  UNITED NATIONS · INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM  NATIONS UNIES. MEMORANDUM INTERIEUR  PAGE  8. The Organization does not have sufficient financial resources to maintain services for conference services, facilities management, information technology services, and security and safety services at existing levels. Accordingly, staff, delegates and visitors will inevitably experience a reduction or degradation of some services.  Impacted Services at UNHQ  9. Below is a list of the impacted services at United Nations Headquarters. Offices away from Headquarters and Regional Commissions may issue their own local guidance applicable to their respective duty stations. These measures will enter into effect on Monday, 14 October 2019 and, as a result, the following services will be impacted:  Conference Services  10. Meeting Services  • Provision of interpretation and meeting services will be limited to meetings included in the official Calendar of Conferences and Meetings of the United Nations, as approved by the General Assembly. Among others, meetings of regional and other major groupings of Member States will not be serviced.  • Provision of in-room services for meetings, such as water, documentation distribution, ushering and seating protocols may be curtailed or discontinued.  • Flexibility to service parallel or additional meetings of intergovernmental bodies will be reduced. There will be no provision of services to meetings above and beyond the entitlements of meeting bodies.  • There will be no provision of services to meetings of intergovernmental bodies outside of normal official hours, with or without interpretation.  11. Documentation Services  • The issuance of Verbatim Records of the Security Council, the General Assembly and First Committee, will be significantly delayed, with the resulting accumulation of backlogs, which can become insuperable.  • Summary records for entitled bodies, including Main Committees of the General Assembly will be significantly delayed.  . Member States communications will be issued with significant delays.  .  All treaties and publications will be placed on hold and not issued.  • All NGO statements will be issued in the language of the original submission only, without translation.  UNITED NATIONS · INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM  NATIONS UNIES. MÉMORANDUM INTÉRIEUR  PAGE 3  • Publication of the PDF and paper versions of the Journal of the United Nations will be suspended.  • Timely and simultaneous issuance of parliamentary documents will be negatively impacted in the mandated languages, resulting in non-compliance with mandates.  OI  • Word-limit mandates will be strictly enforced with respect to all parliamentary documents processed by the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management.  12.  Facilities Management  The following services will be impacted:  • Air conditioning and heating will be reduced outside the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays and throughout weekends and official holidays, and the thermostat set to 70°F for heating during hours of occupancy.  • Non-mandated events (for example receptions, catered events, etc.) may not be held before 9 a.m. or after 6 p.m. This includes activities in the Delegates' Lounge which will close at 5 p.m.  • No new bookings will be taken for exhibits.  • Catering facilities will operate with reduced hours. Services in all facilities, including the Delegates Dining Room may be impacted.  • No new furniture will be supplied. Only furniture that is beyond repair will be replaced.  • Escalators with light usage, on floors already serviced with elevators, will be closed.  . Only the most essential renovation, electrical and other maintenance work will be provided.  •  The Secretariat fountain will be shut down with immediate effect.  13. Information Technology Services  • Replacement of ICT equipment is suspended. Only very critical exceptions will be considered.  UNITED NATIONS · INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM  NATIONS UNIES. MEMORANDUM INTERIEUR  PAGE 4  • Services for meetings, especially those provided by contract sound engineers and other contract personnel, will be restricted to normal United Nations working hours.  • Webcasting will only be provided for formal meetings when strictly necessary.  necess  14.  Security and Safety Services  • Regular security operations for screening and access control will be restricted to the hours of 8 a.m. through 6 p.m. on weekdays (excluding official holidays). Vehicular traffic requiring access to the premises outside those hours, on official holidays and on weekends must use the duty station specific entrance for weekend vehicular traffic.  • During closing hours and on weekends, pedestrian access to the premises is via the 43rd street main gate, while pedestrian egress from the premises is via the 42nd street revolving gate. However, vehicular access and egress during these same closing hours, for both delegation members and United Nations staff, is via the 43rd street  entrance.  • The Visitors' Entrance will operate between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays (excluding official holidays).  •  The premises will be closed to visitors on weekends and official holidays.  15. Expenditure patterns will be carefully monitored by the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance to ascertain whatever additional appropriate action may be required, depending on the evolving liquidity situation  16. It is fully recognized that these measures will hinder the work of the Organization. The understanding, cooperation and assistance of all staff is sought to continue operations despite the ongoing significant financial constraints."

 We'll have more on this, and on Guterres' lawless censorship and banning of Press to try to cover up his own corruption.

This follows his hiring of a man from McKinsey, Peter Reid, to join fully six other speechwriters, and refusing to answer banned Inner City Press' written questions on the cost. Is this an organization that should get more money? Guterres is a corrupt censor and is destroying the UN.

He has for months taken secret trips to his real home in Lisbon without disclosing the cost to the UN. Inner City Press which asked about the cost was roughed up and has been banned from the UN for 465 days by Guterres and his spokespeople Melissa Fleming and Stephane Dujarric.

  Fleming refused to answer any of four letters sent to her. At 4:30 pm on Friday, August 30 her MALU issued a one-line denial of access: "Greetings Matthew Lee from Inner City Press,  Your media accreditation request, with reference no: M5413398, has been declined for the following reason: Media accreditation was withdrawn on 17 August 2018."   

  So Guterres' lawless UN can withdraw a critical media's accreditation for daring to ask why he omitted from his financial disclosure payments from a company selling its oil company to a Chinese government bribery vehicle - then use the withdrawal to automatically deny access to the UN General Assembly, the so-called global parliament of "We the Peoples."   

  If press freedom means anything, and if the UN is anything more than a dictatorship of a single corrupt censor, this cannot stand.

 Inner City Press will be reporting on the UN and its UNGA either way - but demands to be allowed to enter and cover the often shameful deals of undemocratic nations, like the hundreds of their state media that Guterres lets in to praise him.

The peoples demand the fall of this Guterres regime.

***

Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron.

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

Past (and future?) UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA
For now: Box 20047, Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
SDNY Press Room 480, 500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA

Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

 Copyright 2006-2019 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com for