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By Matthew Russell Lee & sources, Exclusive

UN GATE, Jan 25 – UNESCO, like the whole UN system under Antonio Guterres was been falling apart in corruption and fraud.

  Inner City Press has been reporting on serious malfeasance by the French Audrey Azoulay administration at UNESCO in Paris, almost as bad as Antonio Guterres' corruption in and of the UN in New York. A fish rots from the head.

The UNESCO corruption series is now more than 140 stories long. Audrey Azoulay stepped down in November, and three months later, the same people she appointed continue to manage UNESCO's day-to-day affairs, with tacit disapproval but little corrective actionfrom the new Director-General El-Enany, of Egypt. 

The last General Conference did not approve the program and budget proposed by Audrey Azoulay. For the new Director-General, who has no senior team yet and limited knowledge of the behind-the-scenes politics within the Paris-based intergovernmental agency, remaining surrounded by the same senior officials from the Azoulay era is clearly detrimental.   We wrote about the mistake of keeping Margaux Bergeon-Dars, Azoulay's Director of Cabinet, in her position. (here )

  Other mistakes are piling up. Take, for example, the recruitment panel approved by El-Enany for the appointment of the new Assistant Director-General for Culture. Despite several warnings, the Egyptian Director-General gave his approval to the panel proposed by the French director of his Cabinet, Margaux Bergeon-Dars, who wanted to have a say in the recruitment of ADGs on behalf of the Quai d'Orsay.  As a result, the recruitment panel was composed of Margaux Bergeon-Dars, the ADG in charge of administration, and the DDG who chaired it. Not a single ADG in charge of programs was included. Other options were possible, such as appointing former ADGs to the panel or inviting ADGs from other agencies to participate.  Even more troubling was the fact that one of the members of this recruitment panel was the Director of the World Heritage Center, Lazare Eloundou Assomo, who was thus in fact responsible for selecting and having a say in the choice of his own direct superior, which constitutes a total conflict of interest and is unacceptable by HR standards. 

Finally, another irregularity concerned the questions asked of candidates by the representative of the HR department, Ayna Karliyeva-Mekaouar. Usually, the senior human resources officer attends panels as an observer, but in this particular case for the recruitment of an ADG for culture, the human resources representative, who not only had a low professional level, i.e., below grade D, but was also authorized to ask questions of the candidates, which is in total contradiction with the basic imperative requiring that ADGs be selected by persons with at least a grade D-2, or even the same ADG level.  The issue here is to establish that the Director of the Cabinet, Margaux Bergeon-Dars of France, and the Acting Director of Human Resources, Paul Coustere of France, committed a serious transgression, as they are fully aware of, and familiar with, the ADG level recruitment rules. The fact that they persuaded the new Director-General to accept something that is in fact irregular clearly shows their intention to undermine his authority and damage the entire recruitment process for the ADG for Culture.  By currently holding the upper hand in manipulating the new DG, they both have signed their own dismissal letters, and now these two French nationals should be allowed to pursue successfully their careers outside UNESCO. 

Their biggest problem is that, even if this was not done with the sole intention of sabotaging the new Director-General, in that case it clearly proves their total incompetence, and they must therefore leave their posts at UNESCO as soon as possible, as every day they spend in the office jeopardizes the credibility and authority of the new DG of UNESCO.  The same risk for the new DG applies to the Director of the IOS, whose presence in this new administration is more than strange for staff members after his announced transfer to another UN agency. Inner City Press has written extensively about him (here ), and this information may help the new administration better understand who he really is and whether he is trustworthy to hold again such an important position. 

 However, there have been a few positive developments after eight years in which UNESCO has been plunged into lawlessness. Reportedly, the Director of LA is set to leave the Organization next month, before the end of his contract, which is an encouraging sign. Another positive sign is the decision to dismiss Gabriela Ramos, ADG for Social and Human Sciences, even though this happened only a few days before her planned departure from the Organization. She was dismissed for all the reasons mentioned in our publications concerning the harassment of staff. This is clearly a message to senior officials that harassment will not be tolerated.  Another test will be the following revelation concerning the current Assistant Director-General for Culture, Ernesto Ottone. Over the past years, we have written extensively about his mistresses, his management style of harassing people and transferring them to other departments simply because they told him the truth to his face.

Today, we are writing about information reported to Inner City Press that during his tenure, he made contractual commitments to Chilean friends and friends from other countries. One of these contracts 

concerns Mr. Guzman Martell, who was dismissed from his vice ministerial position for defrauding the national tax authorities by providing false personal statements. He obtained from Ottone several consecutive contracts with UNESCO, as did some Chilean nationals. This is another evident conflict of interest.  Mr. Guzman Martell received money from Ottone only because of personal friendship. The new Egyptian Director-General will have to decide whether or not to look into this matter closely. Just last week, Ottone continued to sign consulting contracts despite the financial crisis and budget constraints.

  The two people in the Culture sector who know everything about it are Dorine Dubois and Emanuel Pivard, respectively head of the executive office and head of the administrative office of the Culture sector. Both are familiar with all the details of the mismanagement of funds, as well as how it was implemented, decided upon, and paid to the consultants. Needless to say, both have remained silent until now, as they were both promoted by Ottone for approving without question the contracts signed with their superior's friends.  UNESCO still stands today weakened and insignificant, ravaged by financial misappropriations, propitious to the flourishing of abuse of power, corruption and nepotism. Watch this site.

This is where UNESCO stands today. We will have more on that. Watch this site.

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