Saturday, April 21, 2012

UNDP Ethics Scandal: Elia Armstrong hired at UN-DESA without a competitive process at a D1 post


UN-DESA calls it a "temporary job"the one awarded to Elia Yi Armstrong, the current Ethics Director of UNDP. No selection was necessary, and sources at UN-DESA say that the process was already pre-arranged since last September 2011.

Elia Yi Armstrong, who came to UNDP from UN-DESA, held her old job at DESA a P5 post for almost 3 years. She was supposed to return to her post as P5, as per UN rules. But being a Korean (South) and an accomplished pianist (her BA is in Piano Pedagogy/Music) she deserves a D1, barely 4 years into her P5 (including the years at UNDP as Ethics Director).



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for highlighting this type of terrible corruption at the UN and UNDP in particular. The manner in which some of the appointments are done even within UNDP for internal posts is scandalous. If citizens and media from donor countries were to get to know the real manner by which such internal selection is done, I am sure that UNDP will stop getting funds. For example, Regional Bureau of Africa headed by Teg Gettu is the worst of the worst. Two recent appointments are examples of this - first, Priya Gajraj who was made a D1 of the mysterious section called Fragile States Unit - but there is no such section at all when even today. It is as if Gettu created such a title just to promoter his once special assistant to the post - she was just a country advisor before this promotion, and suddenly on Gettu's whims and fancy, she was promoted. The second and equally troubling appointment is that of Caroline Mueke, to a P5 post without any perceptible competition to post of Special Advisor to Gettu. Any independent and external audit can easily overcome and reveal these issues. So much of corruption actually going on inside UNDP. If media takes note and exposes, that will put pressure on donor countries to stop funding of UNDP and funds are UNDP's breath and oxygen, without which, it will suffocate.

UNDP WATCH said...

anyone who has anything to say about internal corruption - please send emails with your stories at undpwatchmeister@gmail.com - we will publish everything and maintain full anonymity of sources.