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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.

***

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