As
UN Pension Fund Mismanagement
Continues, Staff Union
Still Excluded, UNreformed
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Series
UNITED NATIONS,
May 17 – With UN Pension Fund
problems including late payments
still unresolved, the UN
Pension Board will meet in
July to consider whether to
extend the contract of CEO
Sergio Arvizu. But the UN
Pension Board has yet to
recognize and seat UN Staff
Union representatives elected
last month, leading to charges
that some 18,000 UN staff will
not be represented at all.
We'll have more on this. The
Pension Fund's Boykin, after
previous Inner City Press
coverage, sent a gag order to
staff, here.
On February
2, when Inner City Press asked
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric
about the gag order, he
claimed UN staff
misinterpreted it. From the UN
transcript:
Inner City Press:
You'd sent me an answer about
the so-called hospitality log
at the Pension Fund.
That was fine. They
published it. Since
then, the employees of that
unit have all received a, what
they call a gag order from Ms.
Carolyn Boykin telling,
reminding them that only the
Secretary-General can speak
for the Organization.
And they see it as basically
they thought that they…
Spokesman: I don't… I,
you know, people can interpret
whatever they want in whatever
way they want. My
understanding is that what was
circulated are the current,
the current media guidelines,
which actually say that people
should be able to speak in
their areas of, their area of
competency.
Inner City Press: So,
what level of UN employee is…
is authorized to disclose if
they think they saw… they see
corruption? They took
this as very much a threat to
punishment.
Spokesman: I'm sorry
they interpreted it that way.
Inner City Press: What
does it mean?
Spokesman: Mr. Abbadi.
We'll stay on this.
Inner City
Press continued its series on
January 26 with this from the
UN Joint Staff Pension Fund,
which whistleblowing staff
tell Inner City Press
maintains a "Hospitality Log"
of its wining and dining of
brokers, leaving General
Service staff to (mis) fill in
the information.
The
whistleblowers tell Inner City
Press of a directive from Sandhya
Peerthum,
citing Ban
Ki-moon's
corrupt
boondoggle
UMOJA:
"With the
implementation
of UMOJA,
assistance
from EO has
been
drastically
reduced.
Assistants can
help schedule
interviews,
print PHP,
book rooms,
take notes,
enter guests
in workspeed
for access
etc. They can
better support
the SIO’s by
taking on more
administrative
roles to free
up the SIO’s
time so that
they can focus
on their
respective
portfolios.
Also, trading
has been
absorbed by
Vicky so there
is a lot of
excess
capacity."
The staff
whistleblowers
tell Inner
City Press
there is a
problem with "accurate
record keeping including the
Hospitality Log – Hospitality
log is the responsibility of
the P-staff (Investment
Officers) who wine and dine
with brokers, advisers and
other investment
professionals. So how would a
GS staff know when and where a
P-staff would be enjoying
lunch, dinner and beer (and
what else) on any given date
or time to update the
hospitality log? This is
totally illegal"
And needs
investigation. The UN's
holdover Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric answered only two and
a half of Inner City Press' 22
questions, and on January 25
and January 27 left the
briefing room as Inner City
Press was still asking
questions. Then on January 27,
this:
From: UN
Spokesperson - Do Not Reply
[at] un.org
Date: Fri, Jan 27, 2017 at
12:35 PM
Subject: Your question on the
Hospital Log of the UN Joint
Staff Pension Fund
To: Matthew.Lee [at]
innercitypress.com
Cc: Stephane Dujarric [at]
un.org
We have the following
information provided by the
UNJSPF:
The purpose of the Hospitality
Log is to record events which
Investment staff attend as
part of their official
functions, which may include
meetings, conferences, meals
or receptions. These
events are to the benefit of
the Fund, as they enable
investment staff to network
and gather information which
is helpful to their
research. As most of the
Fund is internally managed,
attendance at such events is
not unusual.
The Investment Management
Division (IMD) has a Gift and
Hospitality Policy, which was
reviewed by the UN Ethics
Office and the Pension Fund’s
Audit Committee. This policy
requires events to be logged
and it requires them to be
reasonable and customary in
cost. Additionally, the
Investment Management Division
conducts annual ethics
training."
After this
spin, Carolyn Boykin,
representative of the
Secretary General (that would
be, now, Antonio Guterres, "reminded"
staff that they have no right
to speak to the Press, that
everything should be
through... Dujarric, who
stonewalled Inner City Press
on Ban Ki-moon's and Cristina
Gallach's corruption, threw it
out of the Briefing Room and
then the UN.
There is a
need for an entirely different
approach, and new officials,
at the UN. Watch this site.
In
Washington executive orders
are being prepared to cut up
to 40% of the US'
contributions to the UN, and
to fully cut funding to
entities blamed for violation
of human rights.
One
obvious question is whether
the total denial of due
process for whistleblowers -
already part of US law - and
investigative press which covers
UN corruption
constitutes such a violation.
We'll have more on this.
***
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