As
UNOPS Bungles
Into Mexican
Election After
Barcena A Rare
Reply From
UNresponsive
UN
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Video
UNITED NATIONS,
June 1 –
The UN of Antonio Guterres,
refusing to answer basic Press
questions about the UN budget,
has on Friday evening denied
it is taking sides in Mexico's
election. It's another case of
Thou Doth Protest too much. In
May Inner City Press asked the
UN about the propriety of
Mexican frontrunner AMLO
citing Barcena as a future
Mexican Ambassador to the UN.
Now the amorphous UN agency
UNOPS has written to AMLO's
campaign, "Allow me to confirm
that we are ready so that,
after the election in Mexico,
we can begin conversations in
order to work together in
strategic projects, as well as
in technical assistance in
strategic acquisitions, as
well as in the independent
diagnosis of those proposals
that you want to take to our
consideration." Of
course it was inappropriate.
But bigger picture, what is
the rationale for UNOPS?
People might ask, What IS this
UNOPS? There is also Guterres'
unilateral decision to
move UN jobs out of New
York and Geneva, not only to
Budapest and Nairobi but also
Mexico City. The UN, which
refuses basic questions put to
them at their noon briefing
and at the UN Security Council
stakeout, put this out: "With
regards to recent media
reports related to the
presidential elections in
Mexico, referring to a letter
from a United Nations staff
member addressed to one of the
candidates, the United Nations
wishes to underline that it is
and remains impartial in any
electoral process. The
content of the said letter
should not be interpreted as
an expression of support to
any candidate or as an
official position of the
United Nations.The United
Nations will remain a partner
to any future Government in
Mexico." We'll have more on
this. Guterres has held the
position of UN Secretary
General for seventeen months,
amid few accomplished reforms
or political conflicts solved,
and ongoing censorship / restriction
of the Press. On May 31 he
will belatedly take “a few”
questions, on what's called
his reform of the UN
development system.
Inner City Press
on May 30 sought to ask
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric a question in
advance. But Dujarric, who
evicted Inner City Press from
the UN Press Briefing Room as
it pursued the still unresolved
story of UN bribery and keeps
it restricted, ran off. Video
here.
So here is the question: why
even for this reform has
Guterres not prepared the UN's
usual “Program Budget
Implication” statement? How
much will the reform cost? On
May 31, Inner City Press asked
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric who offered an
evasive answer and then ran
off the podium. From the UN's
sanitized transcript:
Inner City Press: I wanted to
ask you about the development
system reform. In
talking to some people on the
Fifth Committee, they said
that it's strange that there's
no Program Budget Implication,
PBI, filed in connection with
this pretty major
proposal. Like, even for
the envoy on Myanmar, there
had to be a PBI. How can
it be something this big
doesn't have a price tag?
Spokesman: Well, I mean,
I think everything was
negotiated with the Fifth
Committee, and I think they
got all the documents they
needed." And then he ran off.
So Inner City Press went and
asked the question to
Guterres, repeatedly, who
ignored the audible question
(but appeared to give a small
wave). Video here.
This while Guterres
accompanied by Dujarric and
Alison Smale wined
and dined no-question
correspondents with pan seered
corvina
and restricting Inner City
Press which alone asks about
these budget issues, and
corruption. Today's UN is
corrupt - and a censor.
On June 1, Inner
City Press asked Guterres'
deputy spokesman Farhan Haq,
UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: yesterday in
the… in the meeting to… on
the… on the development system
reform, there was a sort of
formal statement of the
Secretariat that said, quote,
"The Secretariat is not in a
position to provide a detailed
statement of programme budget
implications (PBI) prior to
the finalization of the
implementation plan." So
I wanted to ask what I was
trying to ask Stéphane
yesterday. What is the…
usually, I mean, at least in
my experience, usually the PBI
is done before the vote.
Maybe this is… I'm sure States
agreed to this, but what is
the plan for the
Secretariat? What's the
time frame to actually say how
much it's going to cost?
Deputy Spokesman: What's
happening now — we're very
appreciative of the adoption
of the resolution yesterday by
the Member States. We
had informed the Member States
in a note of our… of the
process that we're going
through, and what we're going
to do now is that we are
engaging… as of now, we're
engaging with the Fifth
Committee to provide more
information, and we'll do this
so that, as the
Secretary-General made clear,
we can hit the ground running
on 1 January 2019.
Inner City Press: So
that's in this May section, in
this… in this current session,
that… that this information is
going to be provided, the PBI?
Deputy Spokesman: Like I
said, we have started, as of
this past day, we're starting
our dialogue with the Fifth
Committee on this." But the
resolution says during THIS
General Assembly - and the
final Budget Committee session
of this GA ends soon...
The
reform, such as it is, is to
move authority for the UN's
resident coordinator system
from the UN Development
Program over to Guterres'
deputy secretary general Amina
J. Mohammed. Guterres had
wanted to get regular assessed
budget funding for this, but
he lost in that attempt. An
undefined “hybrid” funding
system is yet to be specified,
despite a rubber stamp vote
being calle on the reform on
May 31. How will it be paid
for? It is undisclosed, just
like Guterres' visit to his
home in Portugal on May 28 was
undisclosed until Inner City
Press asked.
According to what
senior Fifth (Budget)
Committee sources exclusively
tell Inner City Press,
Guterres claims he can't
estimate the cost or PBI until
he finds out what states will
voluntarily give him. Then how
can this reform be voted on
and be claimed to be
completed, a rare victory for
Guterres? (The sources also
tell Inner City Press that
Guterres made his appointment
of Achim Steiner to replace
Helen Clark as head of UNDP
contingent on Steiner
supporting UNDP's loss of the
resident coordinator system to
Amina Mohammed.) Dujarric did
not want to answer, and if the
past is any guide he will
pre-select the questions to
Guterres from among his
allies. Watch this site.
***
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