| Amid UN80
Pay to Play Moves on UN
Pension Fund as ESCAP Fat
Cats Stay as Local Staff
Cut
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
UN GATE,
Jan 26 – How corrupt is
today's UN under Antonio
Guterres? Now after Guterres
fled Davos before speaking,
only to robo-tweet from the
Sutton Place mansion he lives
in, UN staff fret his cuts
will be unfair, citing just
that as ESCAP and elsewhere.
Now in from
Vienna: "as part of its
approval of the Pension Fund’s
budget on 31 December 2025,
the General Assembly included
in its resolution an
invitation to the Pension
Board to undertake a review of
the entire pension scheme.
Specifically, the Board is
invited (read “requested”),
“to review the pension scheme
holistically, including the
Pension Adjustment System, and
to assess options for pension
scheme designs, such as
defined contribution and
hybrid schemes as well as
adjustments within the
existing scheme, that lower
contributions, maintain the
sustainability and long term
viability of the Pension Fund
and respect accrued pension
rights, and requests the
Pension Board to provide to
the General Assembly, at its
83rd session, a report
outlining such options, and to
update the General Assembly
on progress in its next
annual report.” Several
Member States are facing
budgetary challenges and have
taken measures in recent years
to reduce public pension
costs. Thus, the Assembly
considers that it is
appropriate to look at the
cost of the UNJSPF. There
appears to be diminishing
political will to support what
some Member States perceive to
be a generous compensation
package."
This as UN
staff tell Inner City Press
things have hit a new low
about which his spokespeople
Stephane Dujarric and Melissa
Fleming refuse all Press
questions. This is about
inequitable cuts at UN ESCAP
in Thailand:
Dear Matthew
Russell Lee,
The plan for
abolishment from
UN-ESCAP is directed
only at GS staff, while senior
positions—P-5, D-1, D-2, and
USG—remain untouched. The
salary of a single one of
these officials is equivalent
to that of fifty or more local
staff members. If justice
truly mattered, it would be
these high-level posts under
review—not the livelihoods of
ordinary staff.
Guterres
appears increasingly
surrounded by what staff
describe as “phone-call human
resource advisors and legal
officers.”
Martha Helena Lopez, the
Secretary-General’s senior
advisor on human resources,
has become emblematic of this
“don’t care” policy. Observers
note she looks fatigued, more
focused on retirement than on
strengthening governance.
Ironic.
Guterres,
they say, should end
censorship. Application was
made on June 19, 2025, denied
six months later still without
any explanation at all. Watch
this site.
***
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