In
UN of Guterres Even Staff Union
Raffle Is Corrupt Deploying Same
Security Used Against Press
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS,
July 26 – The UN of Secretary
General Antonio Guterres is
immunity from legal
accountability, ranging from
the killing of 10,000 Haitians
with cholera to the roughing
up and banning of what
critical Press remain(ed) in
his UN. So the UN Staff Union
is one rare opportunity for
oversight of his management.
But how it is being run? On
July 24, the 21st day of Inner
City Press' ongoing ban by the
vacationing Guterres, it
e-mailed Guterres' Deputy SG
Amina J. Mohammed, his chief
of staff Maria Luiza Viotti,
his also vacationing
Communicator Alison Smale and
his two spokesmen: "Please
confirm or deny that, in the
UN Staff Union (and UN DSS
under the control of the SG),
there was recently an attempt
to seize the raffle ticket
books, worth $60,000, hoping
to keep the cash from the
sales and circumvent the new
spending rules. “An incident
ensued to which UN security
had to be called.” - confirm
or deny." Two days
later, there has been no
answer to the question, and
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
did not even break stride when
Inner City Press sought to ask
him questions from the curb
outside the UN Staff Entrance
on July 25. The question was
based on this account received
by Inner City Press as it
works from the bus stop in
front of the UN Delegates
Entrance: "Dear Matthew:
Following concerns about how
services were procured and
money spent at last year’s
staff day, the union treasurer
instituted strict financial
controls. Worried about how
these controls would affect
her ability to freely
overspend this time around,
union second vice-president
Cristina Silva, whose main
role together with union
president Bibi Khan, is to
organize parties and redesign
the union logo rather than
help staff, seized the raffle
ticket books, worth $60,000,
hoping to keep the cash from
the sales and circumvent the
new spending rules. An
incident ensued to which UN
Security had to be called.
Luckily other union members,
with the help of first
vice-president Patricia
Nemeth, managed to force Silva
and Khan to hand over the
raffle tickets. This isn’t the
first difficulty to beset
president Bibi Sherifa Khan.
Two weeks ago the union passed
a resolution
of no confidence in Khan
following outbursts in front
of Jan Beagle in New York and
at a meeting at ESCAP. Second
vice president Cristina Silva
has also faced scrutiny from
the council. Besides her
mismanagement of the
interagency games, which she
organized in Long Island in
2014 and which incurred a
large financial loss, she has
also been under fire for
recruiting an ECLAC retiree,
friend, countrywoman and
member of the Internal Justice
Council as a union legal
advisor, on a generous
retainer, without approval by
her union. Bibi Khan’s
keenness to be photographed
with Antonio Guterres has also
been mentioned as a reason for
the ease with which Jan Beagle
and Christian Saunders were
able to recommend the
abolition of 100
administrative posts in New
York, much to the horror of
other union officers. Some
suspect that Guterres has
simply manipulated Khan to
play divide and rule with the
union." Again, that is the
account we received; we are
aware of and in fairness
report Bibi Khan's concern at
sexual harassment in ICSC.
Guterres and Smale are
hindering Inner City Press'
ability to report, but we'll
have more on all this. And
this: 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. Inner City Press
is 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. On May 24, as
part of its exclusive
reporting, Inner City Press
asked UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres' 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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