As
WFP's
Sheeran Claws
for
Reappointment,
of Staff
Anger, Famine
and Astroturf
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 14 --
Alongside
Italy's
political
chaos, the
Rome-based UN
World Food
Program is
seeing its own
fight to
retain power,
by Executive
Director
Josette
Sheeran whose
term is
expiring.
Sources
tell Inner
City Press
that Sheeran
is having
senior staff
lobby Member
States to make
statements
supporting her
at the
just-opening
WFP Executive
Board. Members
of Sheeran's
inner circle
are pushing
for an
Astroturf --
fake
grassroots --
staff petition
to
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon to
reappoint her.
Now
more WFP money
is being
wasted, for
Sheeran's
attempted
re-appointment.
Sheeran
planned a big
50th
anniversary
celebration
for WFP at
this Executive
Board meeting.
It is not
really the
50th
anniversary of
the agency, as
WFP did not
start
operations
until 1963,
but it is
the
anniversary of
the signing of
the Agreement
to start WFP.
Anyway,
several
officials have
declined to
come, or
canceled --
some, sources
say, not
wanting to be
part of
Sheeran's
re-election
campaign.
(c) UN Photo
Sheeran gets
picture from
Ban, Astroturf
not shown
Ban
has written to
Executive
Board members
asking for
nominations
for the
Executive
Director,
though he has
not excluded
reappointing
Sheeran in the
letter. The US
has already
made a
submission --
with, multiple
sources say,
more than one
name.
As
one Inner City
Press source
puts it, "the
whole thing is
turning into
an
embarrassing
circus and
Sheeran
neglects the
Horn of Africa
and other
crises like
WFP's troubled
budget to
spend all her
time
campaigning."
And so it goes
in this UN.
, 
