WFP
High Spending
on Cousin's
Housing &
Chicago Trip,
Dubai Junket,
Golden Chutes
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 30, updated
-- The UN
World Food
Program's
executive
director
Ertharin
Cousin today
issued a
statement on
WFP's
assistance to
people living
with AIDS in
Ethiopia and
Zimbabwe.
Earlier in the
month before
US
Thanksgiving
her office
issued video
of Cousin
visiting
Syrian
refugees in
Zaatari Camp
in Jordan.
But
WFP has not
answered a
series of
questions
about its and
Cousin's
spending which
concerned WFP
staff have
exclusively
provided to
Inner City
Press, seeking
to reform what
they see as
injury to
their agency
by waste and
even fraud.
Sources
and
documents
obtained by
Inner City
Press show WFP
Executive
Director
Cousin asking
for an increase
of nearly
€24,000 euros
for her
housing
allowance, up
to €160,000
per year.
They
show use of
WFP funds for
a recent
Thanksgiving
trip to
Chicago which,
several WFP
staff say, was
not mostly WFP
work.
Click here for
itinary of the
November 20-25
trip, of
which a WFP
staff member
complained to
Inner City
Press that
WFP's
"Executive
Director has
also taken it
upon herself
to fly
(business
class no less)
on the UN’s
dime*
to spend
thanksgiving
at home in her
hometown of
Chicago, stay
at a nice
hotel,*
attend a
homecoming
reception, and
speak at the
International
Law Committee
-- none of
which has
anything
remotely to do
with WFP’s
work of
responding to
emergencies
and
eliminating
world hunger."
The above is
not an
"anti-UN"
perspective,
but that of a
long time UN
worker anger
by perceived
waste and
abuse, which
should be
answered.
The sources
point to what
they call a
sole source
consulting
contract
Counsin gave
to Piers
Campbell for
"consulting,"
without
transparency.
Agencywide,
Inner
City Press has
asked the cost
to WFP of the
global
management
meeting next
week in Dubai
-- how many
WFP staff will
stay in the
Hotel Atlantis
the Palm at
Palm Jumeirah,
and elsewhere
in Dubai, at
what cost and
for what?
Cousin
was
a major Obama
administration
appointee, and
the
adminstration
often speaks
at the UN in
New York
against pay
increases for
staff, and
about "interns
flying
business
class."
It is not
clear how that
is applied to
the above, or
to the
Cousin-proposed
$20 million
package of
"golden
parachutes"
for WFP staff
(in paragraph
227 of the
Management
Plan)
regardless of
their
performance,
as e-mailed
out by Ruth
Grove, Acting
Director of
WFP's Human
Resources
Division.
Inner
City Press,
despite having
documents,
would have
liked to have
and included
WFP's and
Cousin's
responses.
Two days ago
Inner City
Press asked
four separate
WFP
spokespeople,
in Rome,
London and New
York,
including
Emilia
Casella, Vichi
Demarchi and
Gregory
Barrow, the
following
"questions for
WFP on
deadline:
1)
Please state
the cost to
WFP of the
global
management
meeting next
week in Dubai
-- how many
WFP staff will
stay in the
Hotel Atlantis
the Palm at
Palm Jumeirah,
and elsewhere
in Dubai, at
what cost and
for what?
2)
Please deny or
confirm and
comment on the
WFP Executive
Director asking
for an
increase of
nearly €24,000
euros for her
housing
allowance, up
to €160,000
per annum.
3)
Please deny or
confirm and
comment on the
Executive
Director
giving a six
figure
($150,000 we
are told)
non-competitive
contract to Piers Campbell for
"consulting"
-- what were /
are the
deliverables
and terms of
references,
and past
personal
contact?
4)
Please comment
on the $20
million
package of
"golden
parachutes"
for WFP staff
(in paragraph
227 of the
Management
Plan)
regardless of
their
performance
5)
Please state
the cost to
WFP of the Executive
Director's
Thanksgiving
trip to
Chicago,
how much of it
was WFP
business (and
please
explain, for
example the
speech)."
But
rather than
answers, to
questions
which are
based on
documents,
there came
only another
statement by
Executive
Director
Cousin. The
questions
should be
answered --
and,
ironically,
asked by
Cousin's US
government
which is so
funding WFP.
Watch this
site.
Update:
on December 3,
WFP sent a
number of
answers, which
less than an
hour after
received Inner
City Press
reported here.
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