Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un2geneva012208.html
UNITED NATIONS, January 22 -- With Ban Ki-moon in Geneva to meet with staff, in New York on Tuesday the merger and elimination of the Office of the Special Advisor on Africa post was announced. Since the African Group and the Group of 77 had opposed this consolidation, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson about this post and another, the Assistant Secretary General slot of the UN Conference on Trade and Development which was given to embattled former human resources chief Jan Beagle, as part of her shift to Geneva. The spokesperson said she was not familiar with these "administrative details" and, as to the UNCTAD post, that she didn't understand what difference it made, anyway. Video here, from Minute 12:18.
Well, the budget resolution passed by the General Assembly on December 21 says, in Section 12 entitled Trade and Development, that the Assembly "takes note with serious concern of the decision of the Secretary-General to temporarily lend the post of Assistant Secretary General form this program to the UN Office at Geneva."
As so it seems time for a special Geneva edition. Inner City Press' sources noted the departure from the Palais de Nations of the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund. Just like in New York, they say, the Pension Fund is trying to create distance between itself and the Secretariat, to justify salaries for senior officials based on those paid by other pension funds, not other UN bodies. The chief of the Pension Fund's office in Geneva, Belgian D-1 Renata Joanna B. de Leers-Hubert, is said to have tailored for a specific candidate a P-5 vacancy announcement to replace Caroline Lepeu, by requiring the applicant to speak both French and English and a third language (the notice suggests Arabic). The applicant is urged to have profession certification in Employee Benefits or Pension Administration. Meanwhile a simultaneous P-5 vacancy announcement at the Pension Fund in New York, to replace Norah Fitzgerald, has none of these requirements. Click here for Inner City Press' most recent Pension Fund story, the suspended trade of Peter Goddard to the Chad peacekeeping mission.
Sometimes the tailoring and creation of jobs for particular people is even more explicit. We have today examples in Geneva and New York. In the Geneva branch of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, sources tell Inner City Press of the hiring by Inga Britt-Ahlenius of a 61-year old individual, Anders Hjertstrand. There's a history here, and on a delayed basis a response. There are formal vacancies accumulating in the OIOS, a multiplication of people with "acting" in front of their titles, spoils to be distributed to some later victors.
Ironies of UN Accountability: Director Selected in Back Room
In New York, the newly created D-2 "Director of Accountability" post has a convoluted explanation, according to Department of Management (DM) insiders. DM's Alicia Barcena, it is said, is committed to promoting her deputy Simona Petrova up to the D-2 level. [Click here for story, here for another with Ms. Petrova response.]
But there's another who wanted this post: Nancy Hurtz-Soyka, an American D-1 previously head of the Ethics Office. Ms. Hurtz-Soyka has her supporters, who are said to have lobbied the 38th floor. Presto! A new D-2 post is being created, Director of Accountability, "depending on the availability of funds." This last is to get around the inconvenience of seeking General Assembly approval for this new D-2 position. Ah, accountability...
Within the General Assembly, there was grumbling about the African Group having asked the wider Group of 77 for support in its aborted defense of the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa. What caused the subsequent change in position? There's talk of post offers directly to Ambassadors. Time will tell.
The UN preaches the rule of law, but in New York as in Geneva, to the victor go the spoils.
