"No Confidence" vote for Ban Ki-moon and the only reason was: "he and his wife spend too much in air fares" ! While at UNDP: Samaras seem to be OK with moving Bratislava Centre to Turkey

In the looser world of UN's Staff Union, the only thing wrong with the current secretary general (Ban Ki-moon) is:

Aware that the travel costs of the Secretary-General and his entourage, including his spouse, constitute a significant expense to the Organization;

That's the only thing the leadership of Staff Union, who scratches their scrotum all day and get paid for doing nothing, (& never-ever defended any staff) could think as problematic with the dysfunctional United Nations system !

And here is their ridiculous, useless Staff Resolution :

Click here to read this @ InnerCityPress: http://www.innercitypress.com/ban1noconreso012413.pdf

Click here to read this @ InnerCityPress: http://www.innercitypress.com/ban1noconreso012413.pdf

Ah..and for the UNDP audience, this is what's coming your way:

"We estimate that a US$50 million dollar cut from previously planned spending will be needed this year to keep UNDP’s core liquidity balance at a minimum of three months at the end of the year.” Click here for this

Let's see what UNDP's own staff council will say about this...since it seems that they failed to protect the Bratislava staffers from loosing their jobs who are due to be transferred to Turkey.

Many say that Dimitri Samaras (a Greek) has agreed with the Turkish ASG of RBEC about the move.

In case you want to say smth about contact the Staff Council these are your representatives:

 Click here for a UNDP Staff Council link: http://www.staffcouncil.org/index.cfm?module=ActiveWeb&page=w&s=your_representatives

Armenia's Government strongly opposes Cihan Sultanoğlu's plan to move UNDP Bratislava to Turkey

Cihan Sultanoğlu 

Scandal !

Click here to read this in full @ PanArmenian : http://panarmenian.net/m/eng/news/142052

Foreign Ministry addresses issue of UNDP office transfer to Turkey

Armenian Foreign Ministry is currently addressing the issue of the planned transfer of UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre for Europe to Istanbul, Ministry spokesman said.

As Tigran Balayan told PanARMENIAN.Net, Cyprus and Slovenia share Armenia’s concerns over the plan to move UNDP center to Turkey.

Armenian civil society representatives addressed a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, voicing deep concerns over the plan to move UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre for Europe to Istanbul, head of For Sustainable Human Development NGO and UNEP National Committee said.
As Karine Danielyan told a press conference, Armenia’s 15 NGOs joined the initiative, with the decision on the move taken once the information was released.

“Armenian Foreign Ministry has already issued an official statement; however, we found it appropriate to take relevant steps on the issue,” she said.

Ms Danielyan further noted that Armenia finds it inappropriate to move a regional center to a country that failed to recognize the Armenian Genocide and establish diplomatic relations with some of the states in the region.

“Moreover, Turkey is not an EU member. It is still guided by Article 301 of Constitution, which restricts freedom of speech, hampers the free development of national minorities, the latter, in turn, bringing about internal conflicts and deaths of prominent public figures (Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink’s murder),” she said.

“We hope that the UN will be committed to its principles and won’t prioritize the funding Turkey offers,” Ms Danielyan said, urging the international community to focus on the problem that may adversely affect the implementation of the programs of the UNDP Regional Center both on regional and country level.

According to her, Cyprus and Slovenia have already joined the call, with Russia also having expressed concerns over the plan.

Click here to read this in full @ PanArmenian : http://panarmenian.net/m/eng/news/142052

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 ...

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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.

IPS NEWS: U.N. Chief Exercises Selective Transparency in Key Posts

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS ON IPS NEWS

By Thalif Deen

Sussana Malcorra of Argentina has been appointed as the secretary-general's new chief of staff. Credit:UN Photo/Mark Garten

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 2, 2012 (IPS) - As Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Friday the appointments of two of his most senior officials, he has also broken new ground in his global search for a new team: an advertisement in a British weekly calling for applicants for vacant high-ranking jobs in the Secretariat.

But the ad in the current issue of the Economist is confined to only four senior posts in the Secretariat: the under-secretaries general (USG) for public information; management; economic and social affairs; and general assembly and conference management.

"Advertising available posts in the Economist is not new," Samir Sanbar, a former assistant secretary-general and head of the department of public information, told IPS. "But advertising USG posts is new."

"A decision to advertise USG posts seems to be a move in the right direction, as long as the final decision remains really with the secretary-general, who is the only accountable official selected by the Security Council and elected by the General Assembly," said Sanbar, who has served under five different secretaries-general.

Although the advertisement gives the impression that Ban is being transparent in his appointments, he has named several new officials without recourse to advertising, including the two he announced Friday: Jan Eliasson of Sweden, a former president of the General Assembly, as the new deputy secretary-general, and Sussana Malcorra of Argentina, the former USG for Field Support, as the new chief of staff.

At a press briefing Friday, Ban said his four USG appointments (spelled out in the ad) will be "open and public nominations".

However, a former senior U.N. official who served under Kofi Annan was sceptical of the ad, even though he said it was the right move.

Speaking off the record, he told IPS, "Why the selectiveness (in advertising only four of the posts)? Why not others, like (the USG) for the Office of Disarmament Affairs (ODA) and even the USG for Political Affairs?"

He questioned why the posts of deputy secretary general and chief of staff were also not advertised.

"This is - as far as I know - the first time USG posts have been advertised and it is to be welcomed as a transition towards transparency and open competition for the second tier jobs in the United Nations," he said.

"It will hopefully replace the back-room horse-dealing among great powers and regional groups for key slots where interest groups and not genuine talent was the determining factor," he noted.

The downside is the delay in getting this process under way and the gap between the departure of the old order and the arrival of the new, with negative consequences in the U.N. administration, he added.

The secretary-general has so far announced several new appointments - both USGs and assistant secretaries general (ASGs) - without recourse to any advertising.

But he did write to the 193 member states asking for nominations for some of the vacant posts prompted by his decision to ask all senior officials to resign if they have completed five years of service.

Ban, who began his second five-year term in January, has said he wants a new team of officials to work with.

The three criteria for appointments are merit; gender, with preference being given to women provided they have the right qualifications; and geographical balance.

The USG posts that will fall vacant (and not advertised) include the Office for Disarmament Affairs, the special representative for children and armed conflict, head of political affairs, and the special adviser for prevention of genocide.

Sanbar told IPS that it was generally felt that the secretary-general should have the discretion - and the wisdom - to select his team from as wide a geographical and political representation as feasible.

"I recall when serving on the U.N.'s Appointment and Promotion Board in the late 1980s representing the staff we asked the then- Personnel Director Kofi Annan (later secretary-general) to advertise more widely externally available posts and to invite more participation from all regional/cultural backgrounds.

"And when I chaired the Board (which Annan later abolished) from 1993-1997, we particularly focused on (advertising in) the Economist, the Financial Times and using U.N. Information Offices for relevant regional media, hoping to attract the attention of more young intellectuals worldwide," he added.

Historically, successive secretaries-general have been under pressure either from major donors or the big five powers - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - for some of the plum posts in the Secretariat.

And virtually all secretaries-general have caved in to outside pressure.

Asked if the advertisement was a cover for appointments already decided, Sanbar said, "Even if it is maybe in certain cases a cover for some appointments already decided, the momentum generated by such an open process could help break down long- imposed barriers."

Like any new precedent, he said, it could be either a liberating card to strengthen the hand of the secretary-general or a wild Joker card that could be used by others to tie his hands.

"It depends on who would be the dealer - and whether it turns out to be bridge or baccarat," said Sanbar.

Meanwhile, Ban also announced last week several new ASGs: Kate Gilmore of Australia, as one of the two deputy executive directors of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA); Sima Sami Bahous of Jordan as assistant administrator and director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States at the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP); Jens Wandel of Denmark as UNDP assistant administrator and director of the bureau of management; and Ayse Cihan Sultanogu of Turkey as UNDP assistant administrator and director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS ON IPS NEWS

UNDP's Director of the Office of Human Resources can afford a $1.05 million condo in Lenox Hill (talk about humanitarians)

$1.05 Million for a Condo

UNDP's CHIEF PERSONNEL OFFICER

CLICK HERE FOR THIS

@Manhattan.blockshopper.com

425 E 63rd street

Ayse Cihan Sultanoglu bought a condo at 425 E. 63rd St. in Lenox Hill from Tom Fini and Claudine Fini for $1.05 million on May 20.

The condo is one of the 496 units in the 13-story condo development at 425 E. 63rd St.

Sultanoglu is the deputy assistant administrator and deputy director at the New York headquarters of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

She obtained her master of international affairs and B.A. degree in economics from the School of International Affairs and Barnard College of Columbia University, New York.

According to BlockShopper.com, there have been 312 condo sales in Lenox Hillduring the past 12 months, with a median sales price of $1.075 million.

Filed under: No story tag

Address: 425 E. 63rd Street, Unit: RES
Buyer(s): Ayse Cihan Sultanoglu
Seller(s): Tom M Fini and Claudine L Fini
Sale date: May. 20, 2011