UNDP Bangladesh director quits following staff resentment
Submitted by admin4 on 11 April 2008 - 2:08pm
Muslim World News
By IANS
Dhaka : Manoj Basnyat, the UN Development Programme's (UNDP) country director to Bangladesh, has quit before the end of his tenure due to a vote of no-confidence from his staff after many of them were laid off.
"His departure comes hot on the heels of a vote of no confidence in him by his staff in a recent survey and several unofficial government complaints about his interference in development projects," The Daily Star newspaper said Friday.
The UNDP Global Staff Survey 2007 for Bangladesh obtained by the paper showed that "86 percent of international staff and 62 percent of local staff at UNDP Bangladesh had no confidence in their country director".
UN Resident Coordinator Renata Lok Dessallien told the paper that Basnyat was "simply being posted somewhere else because he is needed there".
The newspaper quoted unnamed sources to say that Bangladesh Foreign Adviser Iftekhar A. Chowdhury "informally discussed" the change of country director with Desallien during a meeting Monday.
A UNDP spokesperson said that the high disapproval rate for Basnyat was a direct result of a radical overhaul of the UNDP offices here, which included sacking or retrenchment of 45-50 percent of the staff.
The organisation undertook the massive changes after competency exams carried out by its New York headquarters found nearly half of the staff in Dhaka were not up to the mark, according to the spokesperson.
The laid-off staff, who had worked for the UNDP for more than five years, received golden handshakes.
Both the government and the UN, however, denied that Basnyat's departure was due to government pressure or the "survey fallout" within the UNDP.
Basnyat could not be contacted for comment.
Basnyat, currently on leave for three weeks, took up the post of country director of Bangladesh for UNDP in December 2006.
The UNDP spent $55 million in its development projects in Bangladesh last year.
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Showing posts with label bangladesh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bangladesh. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
InnerCityPress Exclusive: On Silva, Ambassadors Meet With UN Peacekeeping, Rice Says Concerned, Immunity Letter from USUN Surfaces
By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
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.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
UNDP offers support for digitisation
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is ready to support digitisation of Bangladesh's land records, population registration and criminal data, its top official said in Dhaka yesterday.
The UN unit would also assist Bangladesh to formulate its climate change risk adaptation and management mechanism, stated Helen Clark, the UNDP administrator.
Former New Zealand premier made the remarks after a meeting with Finance Minister AMA Muhith at his official residence.
"We have discussed how we can support the digitisation process as part of modernisation of the state apparatus," she told reporters after the meeting with the finance minister.
Ms Clark, the third-highest ranked UN official after the secretary general and deputy secretary general, is in the capital to join the nationwide launching of information service centres.
"I think for the steps to be really effective we need access to records in a timely fashion. The citizens should have access to the archives. It also helps the transparency agenda," she said.
The UNDP is looking forward to support the country with a capacity to formulate strategies, said Clark, adding this would integrate development and climate change risk adaptation and mitigation.
Finance Minister Muhith said they have requested the UN body to play the role of a coordinator among donors to implement the government's digitisation programmes.
"We can ask the donors for a coordinator in the whole programme. I have requested them to take up the role. We will finalise the issue after discussion with others. The UNDP has also agreed to coordinate," said the minister.
The UN agency also aims to ensure a win-win situation for the people involved in the fight against climate change. “We look for win-win for the community like we saw in Char Kukri Mukri yesterday (Thursday), where ladies are earning from growing the mangrove, which is also going to protect the charland," mentioned Clark.
"It is win-win for tackling poverty efforts and also for getting better environment protection. These kinds of things can be scaled up nationwide," she added, referring to her visit to Charfashion upazila in Bhola district. She spoke to the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from there through a video-conference after the opening of information services centres.
Muhith told journalists that the government is going to conduct population registry after the census due for March next year. "The UNDP has already worked in various capacities such as preparing voter identification card. So I think they can play a role in conducting the population registration process."
The minister observed that access to information is not the only aspect of land digitisation. "There are many other issues involved… The UNDP can help us formalise that. They can also help us in the areas of financing and identifying possible outputs."
The major portion of global climate change fund should come as grants, so that it could be helpful for the countries like Bangladesh, pleaded Muhith.
"We did not get any money from any sources for effluent treatment plants in the leather sector. But it is very important for climate change. If the donors had any grants, then we could have facilitated more," he added.
The minister did not expect the criminal record digitisation to start very soon. "The concept is not clear yet. The police department is not thinking in the way that we are on."
The issue of transfer of technology between the project teams working in Bangladesh was also discussed. "We have our own project teams and the UNDP has theirs, but there is no transfer of technology. The technology is destroyed once their project team departs," he added.
"We don't know how to assimilate the two, but we discussed the problem, so we need to do something about it."
The meeting also featured issues of climate change and migration, the minister said.
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