In
Corrupt UN of
Guterres UN
Women Derex
Briggs
and
Phumzile Again
Called Out By
Staff
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive, CJR
PFT
UNITED NATIONS
GATE, April 17 – How corrupt
is the UN under Secretary
General Antonio Guterres?
After banned
Inner City Press
exclusively published a second
complaint concerning abuse
including of DSA (Daily
Subsistence Allowance) by the
director of UN Women's
regional office of East and
Southern Africa, Ms Izeduwa
Derex Briggs, we have received
more complaints from
whistleblowers,
continued impunity in UN Women
and elsewhere under Guterres
despite exposure of blatant
corruption. Now in mid April,
this: "in November 2018, Ms
Izeduwa publicly made known to
the staff that regardless of
the grave allegations against
her, she will remain the
Regional Director of the
Office and that she is there
to stay due to her connection
within the UN hierarchy.
Further she coerced some staff
including but not limited to
those aligned to her to draft
a signed statement
disassociating themselves from
the earlier statement strongly
placing her at the centre of
mismanagement, abuse of
authority, staff intimidation
and leadership crisis in UN
Women East and Southern Africa
Regional Office. As if this is
not enough, and in the
backdrop of the allegations on
the staff first statement, Ms
Izeduwa- the Regional Director
in an attempt to exhibit
contempt on any potential
investigative proceedings, has
proceeded to recruit an
auditor whose brief is
specific, precise and
unambiguous: to undertake
creative accounting in the run
up to any potential
investigative processes. One
Mr. Zachariah Nyakoe –
Zachariah.nyakoe@unwomen.org
who has previously assisted Ms
Izeduwa evade audit queries
while in her former work
station in Sudan, has been
employing the same skills here
at the regional
office-summoning staff and
intimidating them with an
intent to have the staff
withhold any truth related to
any investigative processes.
His scope of work is limited
to reviewing only files
related to the allegations
against Ms Izeduwa. In
exercise of the imagined
authority from Ms Izeduwa,
Zachariah Nyakoe has been
summoning all staff who play a
particular role on the issues
touching on Ms Izeduwa,
majority of which are travel
files, consulting files and
partnership files in bid to
coach them and give false
testimonies to OIOS if at all
they invite these staff.
Without mentioning that
Zachariah Nyakoe has been
under the UN Women ESARO
payroll since January 2019,
the same has been met with
utter shock as the recent
ejection from the UN Women
Nairobi Regional Office and
the deactivation of his emails
intimate as much-a rogue
auditor! 2 In
February 2019, Ms Izeduwa in
complete disregard of the
existing policies and the
Secretary General’s guidelines
on what comprises of eminent
persons, she defiantly and
adamantly ordered the
Procurement Officer to book 25
traditional leaders, majority
of whom were from Nigeria, on
business class tickets to the
AU in Addis Ababa attending
the launch of the council of
traditional leaders thereby
making the UN Women East and
Southern Africa lose USD 86000
while the rest of the leaders
(None Nigerians) 41 of them
traveled on economy class.
Despite the Director-
Management and Administration
Division based at the HQ in
New York disapproving the use
of the business class tickets
in line with the travel
policy, Ms Izeduwa still
proceeded to have the same
issued, perhaps motivated by
the fact that they are all
Nigerians- a country of her
origin. While at it, and in
continuation of the abuse of
power on the part of the now
besieged Regional Director,
the traditional leaders in
their capacities as
participants, were given full
Daily Subsistence Allowances-
Full DSAs and acting in
ignorance as to what amounts
to full DSAs, they were
provided with lunch packages
and the same was billed to UN
Women. In yet another
intriguing event, Ms Izeduwa
hired Four (4) consultants to
oversee the meeting in Addis
Ababa notwithstanding that
there were Eleven (11) Staff
members flown from Nairobi to
Addis Ababa in yet another
city where there is a Country
Office: - all this was not
meaningful as it ended up
plundering UN Women resources
as these are roles that could
be carried out by the country
office in providing the
logistical and technical
support to the mission. On a
comparative basis, the first
meeting of traditional leaders
on ending child marriage and
FGM was held in Nairobi in
August 13-17 2018 and was
attended by 77 participants
whose logistical and technical
support was excellently
provided by only 4 UN Women
staff members, on the contrary
this one was attended by 56
participants yet 4
consultants, 11 Staff from
Nairobi and a number of staff
from the Country Office
presided over. In essence, the
number of staff participating
and supporting the event was
slightly under 50% of the
number of total participants.
In order to perfect her
retaliation tendencies on
staff who she accuses of
having reported her for
investigations, she has
recently pushed for a HR
Business Partner-Ms Tamara
Cummings-John who was
previously the Global
Workplace Relations Advisor at
UN Women HQ to join the
regional office as a HR
Business Partner. Ms Tamara
Cummings- John is married to
Mr. Darren Peters (Operations
Manager UN- Women Sudan
Country Office). Staff do not
trust the new HR Business
Partner and would prefer
reporting any HR related
issues to HQ and other
platforms as she has a long
standing history of supporting
management at the detriment of
staff. Madam Executive
Director, you should note with
great concerns that you have
placed the lives of your staff
in the hands of a Partner who
is not a HR Specialist and has
only been a Legal Officer in
the Office of the Legal
Counsel in the Office of Legal
Affairs, as well as working in
both the office of the
prosecutor in the
International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda and the
Special Courts for Sierra
Leone. Madam Executive
Director this previous
positions do not in any way
give her enlightenment as far
as HR is concerned. As a
specialist of Human Rights, Ms
Tamara has ZERO experience in
Human Resource Management and
does not understand the
fundamental principles of
Human Resource Management.
Instead, Ms Tamara is in
cohorts with Ms Izeduwa, to
partner with her in order for
her to clean up Ms Izeduwa’s
mess. Ms Tamara has adopted a
radical, unprofessional and
intimidating approach to staff
marked by Ms Izeduwa as
witnesses of the investigation
process against her and has
been the guiding princess for
Ms Izeduwa on how to handle
any investigations process
including the recent internal
auditor hired to undertake
creative accounting for Ms
Izeduwa. To show the
collusion, Mr Darren Peters
was recruited by Ms Izeduwa
who is a close ally of Ms
Tamara and who in turn ensured
that Ms Tamara is transferred
from UN Women HQ to UN Women
Regional Office for East and
Southern Africa. Madam
Executive Director are you
confident that 3
your staff are safe in such
hands? We request that you
protect whistle blowers and
staff who continue to suffer
in the hands of Ms Izeduwa who
has planted lieutenants to
intimidate staff as a way of
indirect retaliation strategy.
The last thing we want to
report is on haphazard,
misguided and mismanaged
recruitment of staff amidst
budgetary challenges. This
year, Ms Izeduwa has allocated
USD 300000 solely for her
travels and missions. She has
instructed all thematic units
that there is no programme
funds and that only USD 300000
is available for
programming-an amount
equivalent to her travel
allocation for 2019! The cause
of the programming challenge
being a bloated organogram-
caused by the recruitment of
consultants amidst the
existence of the staff. While
Ms Izeduwa has continued to
muzzle staff, she continues to
order for recruitment of
duplicate roles and positions
which continue to engrave the
funding crisis. Her intention
is to create a situation for
another functional analysis-we
did one in 2016-when she just
joined. She intentions to use
the functional analysis to
eliminate all staff who she
perceives as key witnesses of
her investigation process.
Madam Executive Director, in
the midst of the unregulated
hiring of consultants by the
Regional Director, some staff
have openly complained of lack
of workloads and that they
left well meaningful jobs only
to be allocated very minor
duties-like photocopying,
filling in travel
authorizations and documents
or completing and filling in
F10 forms for Advisors-which
are not in line with the terms
of refences to which they
applied for. Yet, Ms Izeduwa
continues to recruit with
directions on who to recruit
for what position. In the
worst instance, staff have
been summoned and asked what
they are doing at UN Women and
how they came to UN Women. In
fact, some staff have been
asked to identify their proper
placement in the organogram.
These are reflections of a
failed leadership. On the
issue of office typology, we
encourage HQ to employ
impartial approaches that will
not harm staff but will ensure
that the fundamental
principles of UN policies are
upheld. This includes the
order of retention policies,
appropriate compensatory
policies, adequate
consultations with staff and
the Joint Staff Association,
among other best work place
practices. With the blessing
of a new Deputy Regional
Director, whom staff continue
to have confidence in, the
office continues to run
without Ms Izeduwa who
continues with her airflow
missions. We request you Madam
Executive Director to give a
conclusive guidance on the
office to reactivate the
confidence and motivation of
staff. The JSA, who continue
to support staff, had
indicated to us that you will
institute an internal review
on the conduct of Ms Izeduwa.
To date, we have not received
any single indication of the
review. Ms Izeduwa continues
to boast of her closer
relationship with your office
at the detriment of staff who
are demotivated and paying for
the price of absent
leadership, abuse of
authority, misadvised
expenditures and recruitment
processes, staff intimidation
admitted through conduits
planted by Ms Izeduwa,
retaliation on staff through
contractual threats,
dysfunctional senior
management team dominated by
Ms Izeduwa and allies and
dictatorial management. We
have been patient Madam
Executive Director. But we
need answers! Yours, Concerned
Staff Members." Back on March
5-6, this: "Dear Mr. Matthew
Lee, You have been
doing an excellent job of
reporting to the misconduct
and abuse at the United
Nations. Following your
recent articles about travel
costs in UNEP and the
harassment and misconduct in
UN Women, we think that it
would be good to share with
you some of the travel
expenses of Mrs Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka, head of UN
women, to show that the
problem of high costs of
travel, not only is limited to
UNEP or UN women's East Africa
regional office as previously
reported. UN women spent
$240,567 in expenses for
travel of our executive
director in 2018. This
does not include the journey
of anyone who is traveling
with her and security costs or
other costs paid by the local
offices. During
the last 2 years UN women
spent more than $467,000 in
travel of ED which is almost
identical to Mr. Erik Solheim
of UNEP but UN women is a much
smaller agency. UN women
has spent more than $1,255,550
on travel for the director
since Mrs Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka was hired in
September 2013. Some of
her flights have cost as much
as $37,057! Also the UN
Women ED traveled for 170 days
in 2018. That's over 65%
of the time not including
annual holidays or public
holidays of the United
Nations! She also had
strangely four visits to her
home country of South Africa
paid by UN Women. How
can the UN Women expect that
their regional directors like
Ms. Izeduwa Derex Briggs does
not abuse and travel all the
time or save money in travel
when the ED is setting the
standard? As you said "a
fish rots from the
head". God
bless.
Sincerely,
Personnel of UN women." Keep
it coming. And what will
Guterres, with his own
extensive travel waste despite
hypocritically forcing Erik
Solkeim out for far less, do?
In Antonio Guterres' UN, the
fish is rotting from the head.
Stay tuned. The unauthorized
spending of $86,000 but who's
counting? A fish rots from the
head - and that is the censor
Antonio Guterres. Leaked to
Inner City Press who Guterres
had roughed up and banned 287+
days: "From: Izeduwa
Derex-briggs
<izeduwa.derex-briggs@unwomen.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 7,
2019 9:47 AM To: Brenda Wawaka
<brenda.wawaka@unwomen.org>
Cc: Aleyda RUIZ-CEDILLO
<aleyda.ruiz@unwomen.org>;
Akhtar ZAZAI
<akhtar.zazai@unwomen.org>;
Charles Okoko
<charles.okoko@unwomen.org>
Subject: Re: Business Class
Waivers Dear Moez, Thank
you for your response.
We are not aware of the policy
from the SG that traditional
leaders don’t qualify as
eminent personalities.
We are aware that traditional
authorities in their own right
are recognized as heads of
extremely important
institutions at local
government level. Heads of
states and governments also
defer to them as such.
Inviting such a large number
of traditional leaders
to dialogue with heads of
states and governments is a
very important intervention
under our Africa strategy and
a key element of the EDs
vision. Now that we know
that we must explain all our
programmes to all units at HQ,
outside of programme,I will
advice ESARO colleagues to
comply. You may be
aware that traditional
authorities are in classes.
First class traditional
authorities travel with aides.
Some of them up to 5 per
leader. We have negotiated
with them for support of only
one aide. The list of
traditional leaders we are
asking for waivers are the
class A leaders only.
This meeting is at the
instance of the heads of
states, led by H.E. President
Lungu of Zambia. These
leaders will not travel
economy class. This would be a
huge embarrassment to UN Women
if we cancel at this stage.
Meeting is on Sunday
morning. Thanks for your
support. Warm
regards Zed Sent
from my iPhone The additional
cost of upgrading these 25
travelers will bring the total
to nearly $80,000 ($46,000 the
cost of upgrading to business
class only) and will more than
double the cost of regular
entitlement
airfare.
UN Women is not refusing to
appreciate the traditional
authorities as eminent
personalities. An
eminent person, as defined by
the Secretary General, “is a
current or former Head of
State or Government.”
Our procurement policy follows
the aforementioned
instructions of the
Secretary-General. Recently
the UN Secretariat has
communicated to us that the
“traditional leaders do not
fit this definition since they
are not Presidents, Prime
Ministers of a
Country.”
It would have been helpful if
your office could have checked
with us about the travel class
before inviting such a large
number and what seems to be
their
dependents.
From: Izeduwa
Derex-briggs Sent:
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
11:34 PM Subject: Fwd:
Business Class
Waivers
Please refer to trail of
mails. I am shocked that UN
Women refuses to appreciate
our traditional authorities as
eminent
personalities.
We are having a meeting of
heads of states with
traditional leaders in Africa
and have requested waivers for
business class
tickets. Can the
Queen if England travel
economy?
I need your help please
.
Warmly
Zed Sent from my
iPhone Begin
forwarded message: From:
Charles Okoko
<charles.okoko@unwomen.org>
Subject: Re: Business Class
Waivers I think the
concept of African Traditional
Leaders and their role in
society on the the continent
of Africa is not understood.
..or even their equivalents in
other societies...we have many
Princes and Queens around the
globe. Also, just from a
programme point of view, this
is not understood.
Regards Charles
From: Brenda Wawaka Sent: 06
February 2019 05:26:23 To:
Charles Okoko Cc: Izeduwa
Derex-briggs Subject: FW:
Business Class
Waivers
Dear
Charles,
Please see Pamela’s response
below concerning the waivers
we
submitted.
Regards Brenda
From: Odudoh, Pamela
<pamela.odudoh@unwomen.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 6,
2019 4:28 AM To: Chapeta,
Lister
<lister.chapeta@unwomen.org>;
Aleyda RUIZ-CEDILLO
<aleyda.ruiz@unwomen.org>
Cc: Brenda Wawaka
<brenda.wawaka@unwomen.org>;
Willis Ochieng
<willis.ochieng@unwomen.org>
Subject: RE: Business Class
Waivers
Dear
Lister,
Following procurement’s
review, these requests may not
be processed as the travelers
do not meet the definition for
eminent person that is in the
TTS.3 form and in the past
reports of the
Secretary-General to the
General, i.e.: “A traveller is
considered an eminent person
if he or she is a current or
former Head of State or
Government.” The
traditional leaders in the
TTS3 forms do not fit this
definition since they are not
Presidents, Prime Ministers of
a
Country.
Kind regards,
Pamela From: Chapeta,
Lister
<lister.chapeta@unwomen.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 29,
2019 8:36 AM To: Aleyda
RUIZ-CEDILLO
<aleyda.ruiz@unwomen.org>;
Procurement Support
<procurement.support@unwomen.org>
Cc: Brenda Wawaka
<brenda.wawaka@unwomen.org>;
Willis Ochieng
<willis.ochieng@unwomen.org>
Subject: FW: Business Class
Waivers
Dear
Colleagues,
We have received the attached
request for Business Class
ticket Waivers from
ESARO – please see additional
information below and
attached. There are 23
requests, kindly advise if
each person should have their
own TTS3 form. Look
forward to hearing back from
you soon, the travel is for
the 8th of
February.
Best
Regards,
Lister.
From: Brenda Wawaka
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2019
5:45 PM To: Chapeta, Lister
<lister.chapeta@unwomen.org>
Cc: Izeduwa Derex-briggs
<izeduwa.derex-briggs@unwomen.org>;
Charles Okoko
<charles.okoko@unwomen.org>
Subject: Business Class
Waivers
Dear
Lister,
I trust this finds you
well.
Kindly could you assist with
processing waivers for the
attached eminent persons who
will be attending High Level
Event on Traditional Leaders
and Head of Heads of States
and Government on ending child
marriage and FGM in Africa at
this years AU’s
summit.
The invitation letters are
with EDO’s office which we
expect the ED to sign and
attached is a copy of the same
for your
reference.
Let me know if you have any
questions.
Regards Brenda." We'll
have more on this. We already
ran this, more uncorrected
abuse: "From: JN
Date: 2 December 2016 at
21:50:47 EAT
To: Izeduwa Derex-briggs
<izeduwa.derex-briggs [at]
unwomen.org>
Subject: Re: Accreditation of
UN Women Regional Director
Dear. Madam Zed
I refer to your
call on Friday 2nd
Dec 2016 at 20:09hrs
concerning your accreditation.
My Superiors are aware that
you were issued with a blue
card which I returned to MFA
for exchange of a red one.
With all due respect I do not
think it is acceptable for you
to call me on a Friday night,
to be precise at 20:09hrs
shouting at me on official
matters. I try to
pic all my all calls both
on weekend and even at
night. Just in case a
colleague needs help. But this
does not warrant you as the
Regional Director of UN Women
to call me after working
hours. furthermore you
insisting on talking to me as
I drove my children from
beautiful Christmas concert.
I repeatedly told you that I
was driving with my children
but due to your anger you kept
raising your voice and
instructed me to put the
phone on speaker.
You did not even consider
requesting me to pull aside.
This tormented them a great
deal.
You went ahead and insisted
that I give you Marks number
so that you could call him
personally. I politely
explained that he had been on
a Presidential trip and that I
I met him during HLM2 and
reminded him to replace the
card.
If this is not good enough
then. I stand to be corrected
but bullying is not allowed in
the work place.
As much as The Vienna
Convention on Diplomatic
Immunities and Privileges
allows for facilitation of
diplomatic missions and their
international staff to be
accredited by the host
country, he onus is with the
Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. Not JN nor
UN. We can only
facilitate and request for
speedy action in a candid and
diplomatic manner.
Has this become
personal? Do I have to
use the same tone and words to
force GOK to sign your card
and accredited you?
I stand to be corrected.
JN." But in Guterres' UN, none
of his friends are corrected,
while those who question him
are roughed up and banned.
After our first publications,
below, Inner City Press before
9 am on November 27 asked
Guterres, his deputy Amina J.
Mohammed, his two spokesmen
including Stephane Dujarric
and his Communicator Alison
Smale who had promised
answers: "November 27-5:
Please immediately confirm or
deny that UN Women's Ms.
Izeduwa Derex-Briggs kept a
publicly funded vehicle in
Nairobi that she allowed her
daughter to drive around, that
the ED of UN Women called her
“my warrior” to those
complaining of abuse from her
and when she (the ED) visited
Somalia she did not pay for
her accommodation and left a
national staffer, the
operations manager, to do so,
and that Ms. Izeduwa
Derex-Briggs of UN Women, on a
retreat in Zanzibar, requested
(and separately took) DSA
while seeking to stay for free
in a less expensive hotel
other staffers were in, and
took DSA for her daughter
while she stayed at her house
in Nairobi. Immediately
explain why Izeduwa
Derex-Briggs is reportedly
forcing staff to write/sign a
letter of support for her."
More than 12 hours later, no
answer at all. And so this
second update from
whistleblowers, part of a
series: "It was mentioned
earlier that Ms. Izeduwa has
threatened to disband
corporate oversight committees
(Procurement review committee
and Programme Appraisal
Committee) and replace its
membership with her cronies
from country offices. A case
in point is a memo that had to
be withdrawn by the current
operations manager (OM) after
some of the membership
complained.
Ms. Izeduwa flew two
participants, one of them from
New York to Maputo in
Mozambique to make a fifteen
minutes presentation to the
shock of UN Women staff who
had accompanied her.
Abuse of missions
Official missions in UN Women
ESARO are skewed and approved
based on the quality of gossip
her loyalists provide,
sometimes quoting staff
members verbatim. A review of
travel Purchase orders will
show the frequency and skewed
way some marked staff members
are rarely sent on missions to
country offices or New York.
Again, one might ask, what
happened to virtual working.
Is UN Women all about burning
money?
A thorough investigation will
reveal many more malpractices.
She always staff tells any
staff offering technical
corporate policy advise ‘It’s
not your mother’s money, pay
it”
UN Secretary General, António
Guterres, sent a memo to staff
on 4th May 2017 advising them
to curtail unnecessary travel
costs where possible (letter
attached) due to ever
escalating costs.
If there is anything in this
world that excites Ms. Izeduwa
is her love travel, and on
business class. Ms. Izeduwa is
literary on air by blink of an
eyelid. But wait, she calls
Kenyans the most corrupt
people. Her open partialities
against East Africans can be
attributed to her manipulation
skills and her ignorant
thinking that West Africans
are the most competent human
beings on earth. How does UN
Women HQ allow such kind of
open misuse of resources if
they are not party to such? We
demand an answer.
We are unable to put a value
to total cost of tickets
utilized by Ms. Izeduwa
because this requires
microscopic review of physical
procurement files which are
under lock and key, but a
sample below will support our
claims. Atlas – UN Women
operating system – does not
offer such privileges at a
cursory look on Purchase order
reports. This therefore will
require a forensic
investigation by office of
internal oversight (OIS).
To collaborate the just
released dossier about misuse
of travel privileges, on 7
February 2017, Ms. Izeduwa’s
ticket to New York cost UN
Women usd. 10,637 because she
kept changing itinerary until
it was late for booking.
Plausibly, a normal ticket
cost as at that date would
have been usd. 3,120. In this
case, UN Women lost Usd. 7,511
which can be reviewed under PO
no. ESA 2802 dated 7th
February 2017.
Under PO no. ESA 3474, Ms.
Izeduwa’s ticket to New
York cost UN Women usd.
7,080.
In the third quarter of 2017,
Jean-Luc Boris (Secretary to
the board) was offered a
mission to Nairobi that costed
UN Women Usd. 25,681 in
allowances instigated by Ms.
Izeduwa. Now, Jean-Luc
declined to take a ticket
prior purchased by the
Regional office. UN Women
hence procured two tickets
under PO no. ESA. 3303 dated
23 August 2017. (One of the
tickets was paid by UN Women
HQ - UNFEM). What were his
outputs?
In early June 2018, Yassin
Fall, a former UN Women senior
staff was invited for a
workshop in Dar Es Salaam. She
ably accepted a ticket that
had been previously bought by
UN Women and acknowledged
receipt. She later complained
to Ms. Izeduwa that she had
not been consulted on her
itinerary and demanded an
extra day DSA in Dar Es
Salaam. Off course Ms. Izeduwa
approved this because the
traveler is her friend and
chastised staff for damaging
the reputation on UN Women – a
line she has used on many
occasions. Please refer this
to PO.no ESA 3197 dated 31 May
2018 as well as 4197 dated 31
May 2018.
In early 2017, Ms. Izeduwa
made a stopover in London
disguised as an official
mission yet we can confirm
that she was visiting her
children who were studying in
London. The daughter was later
in October 2018
nominated into the youth
conference steering committee
alongside two other allies
based in London and travelled
business class paid by UN
Women in violation of
duty travel chapter.
Toward the end of October
2018, Ms. Izeduwa flew all
Somalia staff from their
locations namely; Hargeisa,
Gaarowe and Mogadishu to
Nairobi for a meeting. What
kind of impunity is this?
United Nations office at
Nairobi has excellent video
conferencing facilities that
she should have been used for
this meeting by her. Or,
better still, Ms. Izeduwa
should have flown to Mogadishu
or any other central location
and met colleagues. The cost
of tickets and DSA should have
guided her decision making.
There is this facilitator from
Nigeria called ORITSEJOLOMI
DAVID GBENEBICHIE. ORITSEJOLOM
has facilitated all meeting,
workshops and anything that
can make him travel. David has
been consulting for UN Women
since Ms. Izeduwa’s days in
South Sudan. A native of
Nigeria which is Ms. Izeduwa’s
home country but currently
living in Zambia. In 2017,
ORITSEJOLOM was paid usd.
24,411.68 (PO Nos. 3174,
3182,3252, 3255,3316, 3490,
3497, 3544 and usd. 26,716(PO
Nos. ESA30- 3678,3693, 3779,
4767, 4818) to give talks in
countries where we have
competent motivational
speakers. Are they related in
any way? Ms. Izeduwa’s right
hand man, a driver, always
ensures that Oritsejolomi's
room is adjacent to Ms.
Izeduwa.
In mid-2018, the Somalia
Programme manager diligently
declined manipulation by Ms.
Izeduwa to hire Oritsejolomi
as a motivational speaker and
couch for Somalia team. This
would have been another
fleecing opportunity.
In one of her missions to
South Sudan in 2017 arriving
early morning from Rwanda, Ms.
Izeduwa demanded to be paid
double allowance on the same
day (Juba and Kigali). This
was paid through receipts
provided.
Contrary to corporate guidance
on provision of accommodation
and allowances, Ms. Izeduwa
directed that she be paid 100%
allowance during office
retreat in November 2017 at
Serena hotel in Mombasa.
We demand that all of Ms.
Izeduwa’s travel be subjected
to forensic audit and be made
to account for all the
irregularities." We'll have
more on this. The first
update: "We have been
emboldened by the recent
dossier on UN Women Regional
Director for East and Southern
Africa (ESARO), and we hereby
support this dossier.
There have been complains
against Ms. Izeduwa Derex-
Briggs by staff in the office
that requires urgent attention
by UN Women. These
complains are real, sober and
calling for urgent overhaul of
the entire UN Women office in
Nairobi. Unspoken, is the
incredulity that - United
Nations system - known for its
laxity and incompetence when
it comes to top leadership
implicated in impropriety will
act with speed, the
allegations against UN Women
head is awaited with baited
breath.
We are going to address these
issues under three thematic
areas namely; Incompetent
leadership, abuse of missions
and procurement
irregularities.
Incompetent Leadership
It is a matter of open
interpretation that when Ms.
Izeduwa joined UN Women ESARO
in August 2016, the
environment changed. Those
perceived to be close to the
then Operations Manager (OM)
were targeted and looked at
with open suspicion. Equally,
it's an open secret that the
OM was told by Ms. Izeduwa
‘’We don’t want you here, you
need to go’’. The OM had to
look for an opportunity and
leave in early 2017 in
consultation with UN Women
Headquarters (HQ).
Ms. Izeduwa has perfected the
art of intimidation, ridicule
and threats to staff perceived
not to be loyal to her.
Perhaps in a way to ensure
their separation from UN Women
and give her an opportunity to
surround herself with loyal
lieutenants and generals.
These are those staff whose
jobs terms of reference are
skewed and intentionally
drafted to suit their
qualifications.
It is known to staff that Ms.
Izeduwa has deep connections
in UN Women Headquarters (HQ),
and many a times she has
brought HQ staff to the
Regional Office (RO) at UN
Women cost for “Holiday
because they have been working
so hard” she would say which
is meant to buy their support.
As a matter of fact, she is
appraised on all matters of
complains by staff to HQ by
her sources even if they are
genuine concerns as she said
in the 2017 office retreat
“You report, I will be
informed”.
As previously mentioned in the
preceding dossier, Ms. Izeduwa
shouts at staff in the
presence of other parties in
meetings and along the office
corridors. Both senior and
junior staff at the regional
office can give credence to
these allegations. Junior
staff in operations have had
their worst day with Ms.
Izeduwa especially if they
correct her corrupted
interpretation of UN Women
policy guidelines – a subject
she prides herself as an
expert ‘’I was part of the
team that drafted this travel
policy’’, she arrogantly
asserts. The Somalia
Program manager had to
separate because she was
ridiculed by Ms. Izeduwa
before staff.
Because of their differences,
Ms. Izeduwa contributed to the
worsening medical condition of
her then Deputy Regional
Director- (Ms. Simone Ellis
Oluoch-Olunya) to the point
she had to leave the position.
UN Women staff knew that there
was no love lost between the
two. In the same breath, Ms.
Izeduwa instigated the
departure of Somalia Progam
Manager because she could not
stand her demand for loyalty
and was questioning her demand
for allowances when she was
not entitled.
The Senior Management Team
(SMT) is full of her cronies
and has been reduced to mere
ranting about DSA payments and
how they did not get business
class tickets even where they
are not qualified as per
policy. What criteria did she
use to constitute this
committee? How do you reduce
an SMT to discuss, as an
agenda - for example - a staff
member writing a guidance
email to senior staff advising
them of their obligation to
confirm if office transport is
provided to the airport? These
staff members have an
addiction of claiming
terminals when they are not
entitled.
Ms. Izeduwa has misused office
transport system by directing
through an email that all
advisors should be provided
with airport drop and pickups.
The same advisors are paid
terminal entitlements contrary
to UN Women duty travel
policy. She deliberately
ignored advice from the then
OM to dispose off UN Women
office vehicle 40UN 119K as
required by UN Women asset
policy. Her intention was to
provide an avenue for her
friends to use this vehicle
legally and illegally. You
will not that the cost of
running this vehicle is
unimaginable and UN Women does
not get value for money.
Notably, her daughter used
this vehicle on a weekend in
October 2018 to tour Nairobi
National Park. Deliberately
misusing office resources
entrusted in her position.
To demonstrate her loss of
face with heads of country
offices, Ms. Izeduwa demanded
of the Rwanda country office
representative to offer her
accommodation in her house
while on mission despite
receiving allowances for the
same. In Burundi, she forced
to share a room with one of
the senior advisors in ESARO
to her amusement. This is an
art Ms. Izeduwa has perfected
hence putting UN Women name in
jeopardy. How can she lead the
same team? In Zanzibar, Ms.
Izeduwa had demanded that
Tanzania country office
provide her with a hotel room
upgrade. She was finally paid
100% allowance (DSA) and opted
to stay in a different
low-cost hotel different from
the venue of the workshop and
whose cost was met by UN Women
Somalia office.
In August 2018 when UN Women
Executive Director (ED)
visited UN Women Somalia
offices in Mogadishu, Ms.
Izeduwa cajoled the OM to pay
for their accommodation. This
is even though they had been
paid their allowances. It is
worth mentioning that the ED
calls Ms. Izeduwa “my warrior,
she fights for me”. There were
plans to charter a plane from
a company called Citation at a
total cost of Usd. 18, 000.
Please not that an average
ticket would have costed Usd.
320 for a two way ticket."
Now, with Guterres and his
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
still not answering our
questions despite his Alison
Smale's promise to UNSR David
Kaye, Inner City Press on 15
April 2019 re-applied
for access to the UN, the same
access given to dozens of
correspondents who publish
nothing or little, except to
praise Guterres. Watch this
site.
***
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
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