At UNDP, Pay to Listen to Clark, Pay to Ask through UNCA, FUNCA Fights

Click here to read this in full @: http://www.innercitypress.com/funca1undpay080313.html

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 3 -- How can people be charged money, $10 for adults and even $5 for children, to hear a UN system official speak about their work for the UN?

  The Free UN Coalition for Access put this question to the UN Development Program's three top spokespeople regarding UNDP Administrator Helen Clark's upcoming August 7 talk at the Baycourt Centennial Theatre in Tauranga City, New Zealand.

  The advertisement says Clark "will be speaking about her work as head of the United Nations Development Program, the peak global body that coordinates development strategy globally, and works in over 170 countries to empower people’s lives while helping nations become more resilient. With a budget of over $US 5 billion a year."

  Five billion dollars a year but Administrator Helen Clark virtually never holds a question and answer press conference at UN Headquarters in New York.

InnerCityPress: Corruption at UN Pension Fund means nothing for Ban Ki Moon. Official mentioned in OIOS report stands for promotion

click here to read this in full @ http://www.innercitypress.com/unpf1deputy071513.html

UN Pension Fund Preps Post for Subject of OIOS Discipline Recommendation

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 15 – As the UN Pension Fund stands poised to designate a new deputy director, sources tell Inner City Press that first among the three finalists is an individual previously recommended for discipline by the Office of Internal Oversight Service, Paul Dooley.

   Inner City Press, contacted by whistleblowers inside the Pension Fund, previously dug into a lack of accountability there. It obtained and reported on OIOS' "Investigation of conflict of interest, favoritism and mismanagement at the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund" describing how through the Pension Fund's Paul Dooley, millions of dollars in contacts were given to a company called Sprig, Ltd, run by Gerald Bodell, who was previously Dooley's supervisor at Guardian Mortgage Corporation. 

  Recommendations 1 and 2 of the OIOS investigative report directed that "appropriate action be taken” regarding Dooley as well as Dulcie Bull.

Previous chief Bernard G. Cocheme refused to implement the recommendation for discipline. Farhan Haq, then as now a UN spokesperson, confirmed to Inner City PressCocheme's decision not to discipline:

Subj: Your question on OIOS and the Pension Fund
From: Farhan Haq [at] un.org
To: Inner City Press

In March 2006, the OIOS completed an investigation into allegations of possible conflict of interest, favoritism and mismanagement at the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund. Based upon the evidence adduced, OIOS concluded that several staff members - including two Senior UNJSPF staff - have acted improperly in connection to contracts for information technology services awarded to a consultant retained by UNJSPF. 

OIOS issued several recommendations in this case, including that UNJSPF management take appropriate action against its two staff. The Chief Executive Officer of UNJSPF informed OIOS that he disagrees with the findings and recommendations of the report of investigation - as regards the actions of his staff - and advised that he "intends to take no action" with regard to them. OIOS advised him that pursuant to its mandate, it will report his response to the General Assembly.

That was one thing. But to now promote the individual to deputy chief? As one Pension Fund source put it to Inner City Press, there is less and less accountability in the UN, the more and more they talk about it elsewhere.

  Back then, the UN fought back against Inner City Press' reports by a spurious Security complaint how Inner City Press went to the Pension Fund to cover a meeting. This was repeated last year when Inner City Press covered meetings of Herve Ladsous' Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations including a Sri Lankan military figure depicted in the UN's own reports as engaged in war crimes.

And this summer, the UN has threatened to suspend or withdraw Inner City Press' accreditation for merely hanging a sign of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, which it co-founded to oppose the earlier type of attacks, against any journalist.

  The process at the Pension Fund is moving fast, with the Board expected to make a recommendation to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon even this week. Watch this site.

Syria: How Many People Have Been Killed? The Procurement of “UN Figures”

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 2 — How many people have been killed in Syria? The day after New Years the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the figure has reached 60,000.

  A major UK newspaper — The Independent — said these were “UN figures.”

  Then at the US State Department’s briefing, spokesperson Victoria Nuland said, “we’ve seen this report by UN Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay.”

Click here for this story in full at: http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-how-many-people-have-been-killed-the-procurement-of-un-figures/5317891

InnerCityPress: Ban Ki-moon Crime Report Has Moonlighting, Pipe Attacks, Sex for Hire, Guns

By Matthew Russell Lee

Click here to read this @InnercityPress.com

 

UNITED NATIONS, August 22 -- Some say, with reason, that the UN was too weak in Srbrenica, in Rwanda and now with its observers fleeing Syria. 

  But Ban Ki-moon's report to the General Assembly on misconduct and criminal behavior paints a picture of violence and threats in the UN, with armrests torn off chairs, firings based on gun threats, physical assaults with pipes. Here are excerpts:

23. A staff member physically assaulted another staff member by detaching an armrest from an office chair and throwing it at the other staff member’s face, resulting in injury to the staff member’s right eye and forehead. Disposition: Dismissal. Appeal: None.

24. A staff member physically assaulted another staff member by hitting the other staff member in the head with a metal pipe, resulting in injuries to the staff member’s head. Disposition: Dismissal. Appeal: None.

26. A staff member on three occasions acted in a verbally disrespectful and disruptive manner by arguing with colleagues and supervisors; on one occasion the staff member destroyed property during an argument; on two occasions the staff member made threatening remarks about the use of guns in the workplace. The staff member admitted the conduct with regard to the first two incidents and apologized to the persons involved. Disposition: Separation from service with compensation in lieu of notice and with termination indemnity. Appeal: None.

  Having seen how the UN conducts its interviews, some of these admission may be dubious. But the descriptions continue, with sexual exploitation:

"A staff member attempted to obtain sexual favors from a job applicant, who was a beneficiary of assistance, in return for offering to provide assistance with the United Nations recruitment process. The staff member falsely suggested to the applicant that there was a problem with the application form, and invited the applicant to the staff member’s residence to review the application. In the context of the invitation to the applicant, the staff member made sexually suggestive remarks. Disposition: Separation from service, with compensation in lieu of notice, and without termination indemnity. Appeal: None."

  There were stolen laptops and hard drives, airplane tickets and even copper wire. Some were more sophisticated:

"A staff member created a false note verbale on official letterhead on their United Nations computer. The staff member forged the signature of another staff member, and sold the note verbale to another staff member in order for the latter to obtain a non-immigrant visa. Several false documents, such as fake diplomas, were found on the staff member’s United Nations computer."

  And now, we'll perform or try to perform some detective work. Ban Ki-moon reports:

"A staff member was employed by their government for one year while employed with the Organization, without the approval of the Secretary-General. A conflict of interest existed between the nature of the staff member’s outside activities and their status as a staff member. The time taken to conclude the investigation and subsequent disciplinary process were taken into account in determining the disciplinary measure. Disposition: Separation from service, with in lieu of notice and with termination indemnity. Appeal: Filed with the Dispute Tribunal, where the case remains under consideration."

  This double employment, unless occurring more than once, sounds like a case Inner City Press has asked the UN about, that of Jeffery Armstrong. 

  Since the UN's ODS system has problems with direct links, Inner City Press is putting the report online through its Scribd, click here and watch this site.

InnercityPress's "mole" inside Bratislava Office reveals the secrets of Cihan Sultanoglu plan to become ASG os RBEC

A year ago Cihan Sultanoglu purchased a 1 Million dollar condo (as if she knew that her stay in New York would be extended). Now Innercity Press (Matthew Russell Lee) reveals the inside secrets of how Cihan managed to stage her rise to ASG of RBEC ...

=======

UN Bratislava Center Slated to Be Moved to Turkey, By Turkish UNDP Official

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

Click here to read this on InnercityPress.com

 

UNITED NATIONS, August 16 -- The UN is poised to close its Bratislava Center and move dozens of jobs held by Slovaks to an increasingly powerful country in the UN and the world, Turkey, sources tell Inner City Press.

   Giving rise to complaints not only in Slovakia but elsewhere in the UN system is that the official making the stealth move is herself Turkish. 

  Six months ago, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named "Ayse Cihan Sultanoglu of Turkey as Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States" for the UN Development Program.

   And now she moves the UNDP Bratislava Regional Center for Europe and the CIS to Istanbul -- "subject to a feasibility study but that will no doubt come up with the right answers," as one Inner City Press source puts it.

   Inner City Press has previously covered this Bratislava Center, getting UNDP to admit that then-director "Ben Slay sometimes works from the Vienna office" while ostensible running the Bratislava Center. This was part of a series on UNDP, resulting in a press release against Inner City Press by UNDP, since mimicked by others. 

 

   Now the Bratislava Center is slated to be closed, and some 80 Slovak jobs put in jeopardy.

   Inquiring into the process of this decision making, a well place source tells Inner City Press that Cihan Sultanoglu

"informed the acting director of the Bratislava Regional Center on or around Monday 13th August. The director designate, Olivier Adam, was visiting the Bratislava Regional Center at that time and claimed that he did not know prior to this. The acting director made an announcement at a staff meeting in Bratislava on 15th August. No announcement has been made by Cihan herself.

"The only person who appears to have known in advance of her intentions is Dmitri Mariassin. He is the 'partnerships adviser' in Bratislava and reputed to be Cihan’s close confidante. She thus apparently shared her views with one member of staff while the 70 Slovaks who will probably all lose their jobs, the acting director, and director designate were not informed. 

 

"It is also known by the way that the recruitment of the new Bratislava Center director was a pure fix and that Cihan had decided he should get the job in advance. At the same time she has arranged to bring back Ben Slay, who used to be the Bratislava director, as a Practice Manager – of course without any recruitment procedures (apparently as 'a move within the same business unit'). Junior staff are livid since they all have to apply for jobs in the normal way, plus Ben was known as an awful manager. The Ombudsman’s office has picked up on this one."

   We'll see -- watch this site.

UNDP Scandal: In Afghanistan Helen Clark' boyz intentionally overrided $11 Million dollars for LOTFA (in any Western democracy you'll go in jail for much...much less)

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS EXCLUSIVE

@InnercityPress.com

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS EXCLUSIVE

@InnercityPress.com

The Guardian: UN journalists threaten to expel reporter

Click to read full story on The Guardian

An extraordinary row has broken out among journalists who cover the United Nations at its New York headquarters. A reporter who works for a small investigative news site, Inner City Press, is in danger of being ejected from the UN correspondents association (UNCA) at the behest of journalistic colleagues.

According to an article in the National Review, Matthew Lee is being investigated for alleged unethical and unprofessional behaviour by a so-called "board of examination" set up by UNCA.
The Review's writer, Brett Schaefer, says: "Journalists both inside and outside the UNCA say the situation is one in which personal animosity has overridden professional judgment."....

Click to read full story on The Guardian

InnerCityPress: On Syria, of Kofi & "Mission Impossible," Double Pensions & Boutros, Baker

By Matthew Russell Lee

Click here for this on @InnerCityPress

UNITED NATIONS, February 24 -- Around the UN in New York the day after former Secretary General Kofi Annan was appointed joint Arab League - UN special envoy to Syria, diplomats and staff were abuzz about other candidates considered, and what the naming of "Kofi" meant.

Sources told Inner City Press that the other candidates considered included not only Finland's Martti Ahtisaari, who garnered Russian opposition for his Ahtisaari plan for Kosovo independence from Serbia, but another former UN Secretary General, Boutros Boutros Ghali, vetoed by the US for a second time.

An American, James Baker, was in the mix, as was Algerian former prime minister Mawloud Hamrouch and Kuwaiti former foreign minister Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah.

Annan was selected. Inner City Press asked his former chief of communications Edward Mortimer, who replied, "I salute Kofi for his courage in undertaking what looks like the ultimate 'mission impossible.'"

Another long time UN source told Inner City Press that this work might be a way of "making Kofi pay for his two pensions," referring to his double dipping of pensions as former UN staffer and then Secretary General. Inner City Press has asked Ban Ki-moon's top two spokesmen about this, and how Annan's mission will be funded, after for an answer before noon. Watch this site.

InnerCityPress Exclusive: On Silva, Ambassadors Meet With UN Peacekeeping, Rice Says Concerned, Immunity Letter from USUN Surfaces

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

@InnerCityPress

UNITED NATIONS, February 17, updated -- Three weeks ago Inner City Press began asking the UN and then the US Mission to the UN how they could accept as a UN "Senior Adviser on Peacekeeping Operations" General Shavendra Silva, whose Division 58 is repeatedly named in connection with war crimes in Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Panel of Experts report on Sri Lanka.

On February 14, Bangledesh's Permanent Representative told Inner City Press he, India and Pakistan were telling Sri Lanka to "fix it."

On February 16, Pakistan's Permanent Representative confirmed this and said there was a meeting on February 17 on the topic. That meeting, of ambassadors with the two Under Secretaries General for peacekeeping, Inner City Press understands, took place Friday at 9:45 am.

At 10:30 am Friday, Inner City Press asked US Ambassador Susan Rice about a letter it found that that Russell F. Graham, Minister Counselor for Host Country Affairs at the US Mission to the UN, provided to Silva's lawyers to tell a US Federal Court that Silva, as Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative, has diplomatic immunity. On that basis, this case against Silva was dismissed.

Inner City Press is putting the letter online, here.

Ambassador Rice took the question, some from Inner City Press on Sudan, and said, "These are two different things. The State Department has to respond on immunity. He unfortunately or fortunately is an accredited diplomat."

Then, more generally on Silva, Rice told Inner City Press, "it's very concerning that someone with his background would be selected to serve on this advisory group. We have conveyed this to member states, as well as to the Secretariat. There are a lot of efforts underway to address [this], probably best not to be discussed publicly."

Moments later, another Security Council Permanent Representative approached Inner City Press and said, "on the Sri Lankan, you have done well." Inner City Press has sent questions to USGs Malcorra and Ladsous:

"Hello. Asking for an answer before noon: I understand that on the matter of Shavendra Silva, who is named in the S-G's Panel of Experts report on Sri Lanka as in charge of Division 48 which is described engaged in war crimes, ambassadors met with UN Peacekeeping today. I am asking you directly to confirm this, and to state the status of Mr. Silva on the Senior Advisory Group, and at this stage, your view."

At Friday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked again, and Ban Ki-moon's Deputy Spokesman Eduardo Del Buey said he had no information, to "ask DPKO's spokesman."

Update of 6:34 pm: DPKO's spokesman has written in to note that in response to the request for a confirmation before the noon briefing, he "visited" and sent a text message. Noted. But the request was clear: confirm, which could be done even in a 160 character text message. The problem here is substantive: a UN Secretary General and Under Secretaries General who "have nothing to say" about an alleged war criminal -- or a commander of a division accused of war crimes - advising them.

Inner City Press reiterated, it is a question for Ban and his spokespeople, including because Ban's own High Commissioner for Human Rights wrote him on this topic - as she told Inner City Press at the General Assembly stakeout on February 13 -- and because Silva is in Ban's own report. We are still awaiting an on the record response, which has been re-requested from Ban's office as well as from USG Malcorra and her spokesman.

Update of 2:20 pm, Feb 17: Inner City Press has been sent this by the DPKO spokesman:

"I can confirm that DPKO-DFS leadership today facilitated a meeting with some Member States. As the spokesperson's office has previously said, the selection for this position on the Special Advisory Group is for the Member States. Since the selection has become known to the Secretariat, we have actively facilitated Member States in their discussions to consider this matter. We have nothing to say at this stage on our views of the membership of the Special Advisory Group."

What does it say about Ban's UN that it "has nothing to say" about the nomination as a "Senior Adviser" on Peacekeeping of a military commander named in Ban's own Panel of Experts report on Sri Lanka as engaged in the shelling of hospitals and presumptive execution of those seeking to surrender?

Prior to these developments, the Sri Lankan Mission's action was to send a letter of complaint to Inner City Press, sending a copy to Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky as well as to some in the UN press corps.

Inner City Press in less than 24 hours published and responded to the letter, citing only some of the many references to Silva's Division 58 in the report.

Watch this site.

The UN Under Ban, See No Evil, Say Nothing About Egypt, StratFor Hack

By Matthew Russell Lee

@InnercityPress.com

UNITED NATIONS, December 29 -- In a week of civilians killed by air strikes, of armed rebels reportedly entering the UN's newest member state South Sudan, and the raiding of non-governmental organizations in Egypt, the UN of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on December 29 declined to confirm or take a position on any of these events.

At noon on Thursday questions about the raids on NGOs in Egypt, of opposition party headquarters and media organizations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and tear gassing of protesters in Sudan were submitted to Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky by Inner City Press.

By day's end, Ban's spokesman's office sent identical responses that "we are aware of the reports. We'll let you know if we have any comment" to the Egypt and bombing questions, and lumped the Sudan, South Sudan and DRC questions together and replied, "On the questions related to peacekeeping, DPKO is looking into them."

Not one of the questions was answered. Ironically, the only answer provided was to "confirm or deny that the UN was / is a client of StratFor, which was hacked by Anonymous."

Ban's spokesman office replied, "the United Nations subscribes to Stratfor, as it does to other news information services."

Inner City Press had also asked, "What type of information or analysis was the UN obtaining from StratFor? Under which UN budget item?"

These questions were not directly answered. But perhaps now with StratFor hacked, the UN knows nothing at all, even in countries like Sudan and the DR Congo where it is spending more than $1 billion in member states' funds purported to protect civilians.

Meanwhile, the head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous, the fourth and least competent Frenchman in a row to hold the post, appeared on the UN's web site on December 29 with a monologue bragging about DPKO's accomplishments.

For months Ladsous had dodged the press, canceling Q&A stakeouts and refusing to answer questions about Haiti, Rwanda and his role as chief of staff to disgraced former French foreign minister Michele Aliot-Marie in her flying on aircraft of cronies of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali.

Now, without any questions allowed, the UN on December 29 put online a nearly four minute monologue by Ladsous, recorded on December 5, bragging about the UN's deployment in Abyei (where UN peacekeepers stood by as civilians were killed), about the elections in Liberia and, of course, France's pet project, the toppling of Laurent Gbagbo in Ivory Coast. Video here.

Even in this propagandistic format, Ladsous could not come up with anything to say about the UN Mission in Haiti, charged with importing cholera and beating Haitian civilians, nor the $1 billion mission in Darfur -- "on the questions related to peacekeeping, DPKO is looking into them."

(c) UN Photo
Ladous and Ban Ki-moon: oath to not taking or answering questions?

Here were and are Inner City Press' December 29 questions:

-On Egypt, what is the UN's reaction to / comment on the government's raid of NGOs? Is it the UN's understanding that the NGOs are only those receiving "foreign" funding? Or do they included entirely indigenous NGOs?

-Please confirm or deny that the UN was / is a client of StratFor, which was hacked by Anonymous. What type of information or analysis was the UN obtaining from StratFor? Under which UN budget item?

-What is the UN's reaction to / comment on Turkey's air raid, directed at Kurdish rebels, which reportedly killed civilians?

-Beyond the still pending question about UN response to looting of UDPS headquarters, does the UN dispute, and if not why did it not speak out about and act on, the reported targeting of journalists in the DRC?

Also on DRC, what is the UN's read out (and take-aways) from the meeting with UDPS' Jacquemin Shabani and the abuses he reported to the UN?

Can the UN confirm the entry into South Sudan by JEM whichSudan now alleges?

Separately, and in contrast to yesterday's answer about the (lack of) aftermath to the death of JEM's Khalil Ibrahim, is the UN aware of, and does UNAMID (or Mr. Menkerios) acknowledge some jurisdiction over, protests at Khartoum University by Darfuri students, related to Khalil Ibrahim's death? Either way, does the UN have any comment on the use of tear gas against protesters in a country in which the UN has two acting peacekeeping operations?

And the UN's answers:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 4:11 PM
Subject: Questions
To: Matthew.Lee [at] InnerCityPress.com

On Egypt: We are aware of the reports. We'll let you know if we have any comment.

On Stratfor: The United Nations subscribes to Stratfor, as it does to other news information services.

On reports about Turkish air strike: We are aware of the reports. We'll let you know if we have any comment.

On the questions related to peacekeeping: DPKO is looking into them.

Watch this site.