UN
Staff Slam
Outsourcing,
Reduced Access
to Justice,
Mobility
"Sham"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 15 --
After the
whimpering end
of "the worst
UN
budget
committee
session ever,"
as several
participants
called
it, in December
2012 Inner
City Press
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokespeople
for Ban's
comments on
the deferral
of his
mobility
proposal.
The
question has
yet to be
answered.
Rather, Inner
City Press was
told
that Ban would
be holding a
Town Hall
meeting with
UN staff and
the
question would
be addressed
there.
There
was only one
problem: the
Town Hall
meeting, held
on January 10,
was
closed-door
and could not
be attended by
the Press.
However
Inner
City Press has
learned what
was said, and
the questions
that
were raised by
staff members
not only in
New York but
also in
Geneva,
Vienna,
Naibori,
Kinshasa, the
Hague and
Beirut.
From
Geneva
questions
ranging from
outsourcing of
jobs to
cut-back for
the
merger of UN
libraries with
UNITAR -- to
form "UN
Knowledge"
-- to even
Ban's
acceptance of
a Hyundai
"Equus" were
raised.
(Here is
Inner City
Press on the
Hyundai, here
the UN's
subsequently
provided and
published
answer about
the car.)
The
questioner
said if Equus
means "horse
of the
victorious
general"
it will be
hard for Ban
Ki-moon to
live up to it,
with temporary
staff with
reduced access
to justice.
A
plan by the
Office for the
Coordination
of
Humanitarian
Affairs to
cut 45 jobs in
Geneva was
panned; it is
said to be "on
ice."
When
Ban Ki-moon's
time to
respond to
this came,
there was
little detail.
The libraries
merger was
called
"efficiency;"
lack of
consultation
with staff was
blamed on
deadlines set
by the General
Assembly.
Some staff
interviewed by
Inner City
Press agreed
that Ban
is genial but
answers are
not
forthcoming.
From
the UN in
Vienna came
the suggestion
that Ban
withdraw his
mobility
proposal. The
head of the
Staff Union,
in New York,
said that
consultations
on mobility
were like
"gang rape."
Other
staff have
described the
conflation of
UMOJA and
mobility a
"sham."
In
what seemed to
be a planted
question, a
political
affairs
staffer
with MONUSCO
in Kinshasa
asked Ban what
he could do
about violence
in
Eastern Congo
"including the
apparent
interference
by a
neighboring
country." Was
any polling
done in
MONUSCO, that
this
would be their
question?
By
contrast the
UNDOF
question, also
about
violence,
focused on
conditions and
pay for staff.
On
the podium
with Ban were
Susana
Malcorra,
Yukio Takasu
and deputy Jan
Eliasson, who
yesterday
chose the
questions for
Ban's
predecessor
Kofi Annan,
none on Oil
for Food or Sri
Lanka, which
Eliasson is
working on at
least until
the second
quarter of
2013.
In
the front row
were various
Under
Secretaries
General, from
Jeffrey
Feltman
through Maged
Abdel Aziz ,
Kim Won-soo
and Angela
Kane -- but
no Herve
Ladsous, who
oversees
MONUSCO and
UNDOF and the
other
peacekeeping
missions.
Ladsous
refuses to
answer Press
questions,
even on how
Ban's Human
Rights Due
Diligence
Policy will
be implemented
after the
actuall gang
rapes in
Minova in
Eastern Congo.
To staff,
Ladsous speaks
through
one-way video
monologues.
More on those
to follow.
Watch this
site.
, 
