| In
Corrupt UN Of Guterres UNESCO Azoulay
Spins Venice Vacation Into an Official
Mission
By Matthew
Russell Lee &
sources,
Exclusive
UN
GATE, April 28
– Inner City
Press has been
reporting on
serious
malfeasance by
the Azoulay
administration
at UNESCO in
Paris,
almost as bad
as Antonio
Guterres'
corruption in
and of the UN
in New York.
Not a day goes
by without
another
startling
discovery
about the
breakdown of
rules and laws
at UNESCO.
Most
of the time, corrupt politicians enjoy and
profit from money stolen from the public
purse. But sometimes they struggle and suffer.
This has been the case with the French
Director General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay
since the publication by Inner City Press of
the information about her decision to go on
vacation to Venice, Italy, and pay for a
‘vacation boat’ with funds from the regular
budget of the Agency's culture sector (here).
After being considerably angered by the
revealed scam, the last ten days have been
spent by her Cabinet building a
counter-offensive to the revealed facts and
trying to avoid Azoulay's public disgrace in
front of increasingly curious member states.
So far, for two of the five days of her
stay, the Cabinet has managed to fabricate
justifications for her trip to Venice. DG
Azoulay also spent a day in Paris on Tuesday
to meet with U.S. senators, then returned that
evening to the "vacation boat" to spend the
rest of the booked days with her husband and
two children. Moreover, not only was the
"vacation boat" rented with public money, but
it was revealed that Azoulay used her UNESCO
corporate credit card to pay for meals and
other vacation expenses for her family.
Inner City Press has also been informed
that the information note for Azoulay's visit
to Venice was sent by the Cabinet directly to
the Italian ambassador instead of using the
usual protocol channels. Why was this done if
there was nothing to hide? The Italian
ambassador Massimo Riccardo, a good friend of
DG Azoulay, was therefore perfectly aware that
this visit was private. This is the reason why
the Italian authorities actually refused to
ensure the protection of her and her family
stay by the prefecture of Venice.
In addition, Audrey Azoulay, in her usual
arrogant and pretentious style, has requested
a larger "vacation boat" than the one
initially rented by the UNESCO office in
Venice. It is worth mentioning who heads this
office and who, strangely enough, just got a
one-year extension approved by Azoulay after
the legal retirement age. It is the director
of the office, the Brazilian Ana Luiza
Thompson-Flores. In April 2016, leaked minutes
of a private session of the UNESCO Executive
board revealed that the UK ambassador to
UNESCO at that time, Matthew Sudders, launched
a withering attack on DG Bokova's decision to
make Ana Luiza Thompson-Flores, an
'under-qualified' Brazilian civil servant, her
Assistant director-general for strategic
planning.
The British ambassador cited a
suspicious embellishment of Mrs
Thompson-Flores's CV and a job advert that was
mysteriously rewritten to lower the post's
criteria specially for her. DG Bokova denied
any fraud, but a month later, however, she
removed Thompson-Flores from the post and
appointed her as the Director of the UNESCO
Venice office.
Upset by the revelations about her stay,
Audrey Azoulay left Venice on Friday instead
of staying as planned for the grand gala
organized by Dior, which is normally the main
bling bling event there. After landing in
Paris on Friday, DG Azoulay started tweeting
frantically about her "productive mission" in
Venice. No one was fooled by this ridiculous
attempt to divert attention from the
disturbing questions about her full
responsibility for the misuse of public
money. A directly related and relevant
concern is the unethical behavior of the ADG
for Culture, Chilean Ernesto Ottone.
If his boss Azoulay asks him to jump out
the window, would he do so without hesitation?
So why was he in such a hurry to provide a
budget code from his Sector for the "vacation
boat" instead of playing his role of
safeguarding the interests of the Culture
Sector and using the Sector's budget for what
it was voted by the General Conference. He is
therefore as much at fault as Audrey Azoulay
and his responsibility is fully engaged in
this matter as well.
There is a solid ground to be concerned
and IOS must learn to investigate fraud and
not leaks. Ernesto Ottone and Nicolas
Kassianides, Azoulay's head of Cabinet in
charge of the subsequent cover-up plan, could
obviously be the first clients of IOS in this
serious scandal. Instead of spending
time and energy looking for internal leaks,
the IOS Director should instead instruct the
verification of all of these disclosures.
On the other hand, if IOS investigators were
truly trustworthy, instead of writing to Inner
City Press, the whistleblowers would have
contacted IOS directly with the above factual
information.
Now, for all those ambassadors to UNESCO who
claim that Inner City's first report on the
Venice trip was "fake news" because "the whole
thing is too big to be true", they could ask
their good friend Audrey Azoulay why, if she
was really on a mission, instead of staying in
a hotel near the UNESCO office and the
buildings of the national authorities, she
opted to stay with her family in a quiet and
cushy vacation spot on the Giudecca island of
the Venetian lagoon and not on the central
island. In addition, they may want to visit
the hotel of her stay - the Hilton Molino
Stucky Venice, at least virtually, as it is a
very expensive one, but the visit is really
worth it --
see here -- and
check the gallery with the “60 reasons to love
our hotel”. Then, whether this is a hotel for
a DG on assignment and mission or a hotel for
a DG on vacation is the question they may be
able to answer on their own and in good
conscience after this virtual tour that Inner
City Press politely facilitates.
The Executive Board Bureau members -
the ambassadors of Germany, Poland, Argentina,
China, India, Guinea, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait
- have yet to decide whether to ask the IOS to
investigate the matter. It has already been
pointed out that in recent times several heads
of UN agencies have resigned after their
records of mismanagement, corruption and abuse
of power were exposed.
This is the UNESCO of today - a UN agency
propitious to the flourishing of corruption,
sexual performances-based promotions, abuse of
power and nepotism. We will have more on that.
Watch this site
***
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