UN
Official Mendoza Gets Political
in Philippines Law UN of
Guterres Weakening OIOS
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
follow up
UNITED NATIONS,
September 20 – At the UN, even
the Security Council's website
is a prize to quietly be given
to a top official's spouse,
with no competition or
transparency. And the UN
Office of Internal Oversight
Services, to which Inner City
Press submitted this and other
information including about
Security-brutality by UN
Lieutenant Ronald E. Dobbins,
the role of Secretary General
Antonio Guterres and his
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
and Communicator Alison Smale,
does nothing. In fact, the
head of OIOS Heidi Mendoza who
has been on leave for some
time. When Inner City Press
Dujarric, before being roughed
up and banned now for 79 days,
he said he doesn't keep track
of his colleagues' movements.
Now Mendoza has publicly been
commenting on politics in her
own country, the Philippines,
calling a government body she
headed there "we."
This is contrary to the duties
of an international civil
servant, but it is the
atmosphere that Guterres has
created. Beyond his own
self-interest, in Portugal and
as we've reported Angolo, Sao
Tomo, Timor Leste, Namibia and
Cabo Verde - and Cameroon -
Guterres benefits from a
weakened, less credible OIOS.
We'll have more on this. In
May prior to being banned from
the UN in July by Secretary
General Antonio Guterres,
Inner City Press was
exclusively informed by
whistleblowers that Department
of Political Affairs chief of
staff Kyoko Shiotani's husband
John van Rosendaal has been
brought in to run the
Council's website, as if the
UN and its Security Council
were a small business suffused
in nepotism. After its
reporting, Inner City Press
was approached by a senior UN
person and told to drop the
story, or else. Then, in the
middle of a speech by Guterres
on June 22, Inner City Press
was pushed
out of the UN by UN Lieutenant
Ronald E. Dobbins and four UN
Emergency Response Unit
officers who, equipped with
automatic weapons, refused to
give their names. On July 3,
after a written alert
by Inner City Press to
Guterres and his team
including about
"irregularities in even how
the UNSC's website is run," a
more violent ouster
and 73 day ban
since. (The ban was, without
hearing or appeal, ostensibly
made permanent
by Guterres' head of "Global
Communications" in an August
17 letter
ruling that said written
questions would still be
answered. So on
September 13, Inner City Press
asked: "September 13-4: Please
confirm that the husband of
DPA's chief of staff, of whom
Inner City Press has
previously asked you and
reported, did not have his
contract renewed - since your
office said his employment was
entirely legitimate, this
update should be given - and
state who has replaced him,
the nationality and how
selected." And on September 14
from Guterres' deputy
spokesman Farhan Haq, this
which we publish in full:
"Regarding question 13-4, on
the consultant, he was working
on a project and his
assignment ended. A position
opened up to continue the
project based on the work
already done and there was an
internal recruitment." From
whistleblowers in DPA given
anonymity due to fear of
retaliation, this: "Love your
blog. Keep it coming. Just to
update you on what’s going on
at DPA. The ordeal with the
Security Council website
continues and took an ironic
twist. After you reported
about the husband of the chief
of staff getting the
unnecessary P-5 job running
the website, he is now
apparently out. Word is that
Di Carlo wanted the Dutchman
gone, even after the
spokesperson told you he was
properly hired. Apparently, Di
Carlo forced SCAD to hire an
even less-qualified American,
without interviewing that
person. Di Carlo is American.
So, DPA went from a Dutch scam
to an American scam. There’s
also still talk of getting
OIOS or DSS to go after the
people who leak(ed) to you, so
be careful. A DPA staffer."
We're always careful -
anonymity assured, even as
Guterres' guards rough
us up. Note that DSS
- Guterres' Department of
Safety and Security - has
still not acted on Inner City
Press' formal complaint to USG
Peter Drennan about targeted
harassment and assault by Lt
Ronald E. Dobbins but is said
to have a role, without
transparency or
accountability, in banning
Inner City Press from covering
#UNGA73 - this after Inner
City Press has written stories
based on leaked documents
about Drennan, about Matthew
Sullivan, and others. Today's
UN is corrupt, and
unaccountable: there is no due
process or transparency, only
abuses of power. Earlier
information from sources about
the UN website corruption:
"Further to your article,
let me inform you that van
Rosendaal was hired at a P5
level (something that takes a
lifetime for career UN staff
to accomplish). And that he
won't be even making the web
site, that will be done by
another department, he will
just show up to meetings from
time to time. He has
absolutely no expertise in
design or development of web
sites and will not make any
contribution to the actual web
site. His contract was again
extended, and will probably
get another extension after
the new year. Similar sites
done by DPI in the past were
done with internal resources,
no extra cost and usually by
lower P level staff or G level
staff. In addition to this he
is asking for additional money
to hire external contractors
that are suppose to do some of
the actual work." Inner City
Press, from the bus stop in
front of the UN Delegates
Entrance where is it working
since banned by Guterres,
asked a follow up question, as
it cannot due to UN
Spokespeople given Guterres
ban: "what has USG Rosemary
DiCarlo (or anyone else) done
about this, since it was
exposed?" The reply: "Nothing
much was changed. I believe
only you reported it and they
don't consider that as much
negative exposure. So pretty
much business as usual. This
project is financially
supported by the Dutch
government and John is Dutch
so... The total cost with his
P5, the other offices involved
and external contractors that
John is hiring could reach
probably close to half million
dollars" or, we're told,
double that. So it was simple
for Guterres' (and it seems
DiCarlo's) UN: do nothing
about the blatant corruption,
just rough up and ban the
Press which alone reported on
it. Finally on July 30, with
Inner City Press still banned
from the UN by Guterres for
the 27th day in a row,
Guterres' deputy spokesman
Farhan Haq after the noon
briefing Inner City Press
could not attend emailed this,
which we publish in full: "If
there are allegations of
misconduct they should be
taken to the internal
oversight offices and
mechanisms. Unfounded
allegations do not constitute
a formal complaint. Mr. Van
Rosendaal was hired via proper
channels in accordance with
standard procedures. He is
fully qualified for the job.
The Security Council website
has not been “given” to
anybody. Mr. Van Rosendaal is
the project manager for SCAD.
Other UN offices are also
involved in this
project. We will leave
it up to the Member State to
announce its involvement, but
Mr. Van Rosendaal’s position
is outside the budget provided
by the Member State. His
nationality had nothing to do
with his hiring." So it seems
that the information provided
to Guterres and his team on
July 25 was not even passed on
by him or his team to OIOS.
We'll have more on this OIOS -
watch this site. Back on May
24, before it was banned from
the UN noon briefing by
Guterres, Inner City
Press asked his spokesman
Stephane Dujarric about it.
From the UN transcript:
Inner City Press: people that
work in your UN Department of
Political Affairs (DPA) have
been confused and surprised to
see, according to them, that
the husband of the Chief of
Staff, Kyoko Shiotani, a John
van Rosendaal, has been
designated to run the Security
Council's website. They…
they found it kind of strange
because there was… there was
no need for it. He was
brought in without any
competition, according to
them, and it seemed like a
classic case of nepotism and
affecting the Security Council
itself. So, I'm
wondering… maybe you don't
have the information at your
fingertips, but can you find
out how it is that… that it's…
I've seen this thing.
He's now called a senior
programme officer after being
a self-employed consultant.
Spokesman: I'm not aware
of the case, and I'm sure all
the rules were followed.
Carole?
Inner City Press: How
are you so sure?" This was not
answered. On LinkedIn, van
Rosendaal lists
himself as “Strategic
Communications Consultant at
United Nations” as well as
Self-Employed, Photographic
Wanderings.
Here
is van Rosendaal's website,
Photographic Wanderings dot
com: “Professionally, I’ve
worked as a journalist, media
company manager and
communications consultant. I
plan to combine my passion and
my expertise to build this
site into something
interesting, useful and
entertaining. I’m originally
Dutch but left Holland in
1989. Since then I’ve mostly
lived in or close to New York,
with stints in Switzerland,
Cyprus and Austria.”
He's a
communications strategist with
39 Twitter followers. Now he's
to run the Security Council's
website. Why not?
Inner City
Press asks, how did this "self
employed communications
consultant" (with 39 Twitter
followers) become, as his
signature block now says,
"Senior Program Officer,
Security Council Affairs
Division"?
This is
the UN of Antonio Guterres.
Rosemary DiCarlo has just
taken over at DPA. Guterres
and his spokesman Stephane
Dujarric banned Inner City
Press from covering the
ceremony where Dicarlo
presumably pledged to serve
the public. It is impossible
to know since UNTV did not
film it and Inner City Press
was then and now banned from
its own livestream Periscope
broadcast on Guterres' 38th
floor.
Now what will
DiCarlo, or perhaps despite
his spokesman's knee-jerk
defenses of and evictions for
anything the UN does Guterres
who is already charged with
overseeing cover ups of sexual
harassment in the IAEA, do?
Watch this site.
***
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