Donors Ask for UN Jobs, America Owns Some, UNHCR Deputy Johnstone Says

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1hcrjohnstone042208.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 22 -- Donor countries ask for jobs, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees L. Craig Johnstone told Inner City Press on Tuesday. In the last week alone, he said, three countries have lobbied him for more representation based on the money they give. "I would cast an eye toward trying to help a country out," Johnstone said.

Following Inner City Press' reporting on UNHCR's agreement with the United States to aim to hire 13% of its professional staff from the U.S., UNHCR's spokesman stopped responding to questions, including about the agency's lack of insurance for those working for it in Algiers, impacted by the December 11, 2007 bombing there. Even without a stonewall from UNHCR, Inner City Press published that story, and one on staff dissatisfaction within the agency. Johnstone came for a 45 minute interview, to clear the air.

Johnstone's selection as Deputy High Commissioner is explained by some close observers as a deal in which the Europeans supported his candidacy in exchange for UNHCR directing its out-posting of jobs not to Asia but to Eastern Europe. Simultaneous with Johnstone beginning at the number two UNHCR post, the agency announced the awarding to Budapest of back-office jobs moved from Geneva.

Johnstone pointed out that the U.S. essentially owns the Deputy High Commissioner slot. He said that High Commissioner Gutteres reserved the right to go outside the selection process if he was not satisfied with the result. "To be perfectly frank," Johnstone told Inner City Press, "I got added to the list to make sure that wouldn't happen."

On a secondary theory, that PriceWaterhouseCoopers was given the job of choosing or recommending the out-posting city in exchange for contributions, Johnstone said, "Ask Wendy," Chamberlin, his predecessor.

Inner City Press asked why Africa hadn't even been one of the four locations considered . (The others were Bucharest, Chennai and Kuala Lumpur.) "Is Africa the right place to establish a procurement center?" Johnstone asked. "A payroll center? What are the capability of the local people to carry out the functions?"

He said that Hungary gave a building free of change. "Did that help? Of course." But is this who the UN should do business, if the result if the exclusion of Africa?

A former UN envoy to the DR Congo, William Lacy Swing, is the U.S. candidate to take over as head of the International Organization on Migration. Johnstone asked, Has his battle with Brunson McKinley been resolved? He said, "to be perfectly frank," that those casting secret ballot in the IOM election need to "think carefully" about not having an American head up an agency of which the U.S. is the major funder. And so we've come full circle.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1hcrjohnstone042208.html