UNITED NATIONS, May 7 -- With the controversies about safety, asbestos, and transparency swirling around the UN's billion dollar Capital Master Plan, the chief of UN Security in New York Bruno Henn was asked if Security Risk Assessments had been prepared. "No comment," Mr. Henn said.
The town hall meeting on the CMP and security had abruptly been closed to the Press, even though the sign outside Conference Room 3 didn't say the meeting was closed. CMP chief Michael Adlerstein's spokesman Werner Schmidt asked two of Bruno Henn's officers to remove this report from the room.
Afterwards, while Schmidt defended the ejection, Mr. Adlerstein said he hadn't been aware of it, and invited the reporter to the next town hall meeting. In the interim, he tried to explain the seemingly back-dated letter in which he acknowledged that the Security Risk Assessments won't in fact be finished until the end of June.
Adlerstein said the letter was a draft on which he was working with the Department of Safety and Security, he decided he had the wrong information and should have torn it up. But DSS' Mohammad Bani-Faris issued a nearly identical letter five days later, saying that the SRAs would finally be done by the end of June.
Adlerstein's spokesman Werner Schmidt then interjected, that because this reporter "didn’t unfortunately attend this meeting, So he didn’t hear that Bruno Henn say that security risk assessments have been done already."
If Bruno Henn said that, it is contradicted by Bani-Faris' letter. Mr. Henn, as noted, issued only a "no comment" when asked about it on his way out. There is a need, at a minimum, for a press conference.
Instead, there is a notice for another town hall meeting, by the Office of Human Resources Management, which some staffers are surprised to see requires one to in advance confirm or reject attendance. Adlerstein now says his future town hall meeting(s) are wide open. He also said, according to attendees, that "stuff happens." They say he has a new nickname: Michael "Stuff Happens" Adlerstein. Watch this space.
Footnotes: Inner City Press is informed by multiple sources that Department of Management chief Angela Kane, who previously in response to simple questions responded in writing that she has no time to answer queries from the Press, just ask them at the noon briefing, is now "vivid" at reporting on complaints about her unit's actions on relocation under the Capital Master Plan, suspension of the National Competitive Exam and mis-management of the UN Medical Service. A representative of Ms. Kane's office made loud inquiries into the UN's media accreditation process, what are the criteria for being accredited as a reporter.
Counter-question is what are the criteria for being accredited as an Under Secretary General, if when surrounded by controversy one refuses to answer press questions, hasn't held a press conference in months, and tries to retaliate against what little press coverage is given to the Department of Management. Ban Ki-moon today praised the press for holding accountable those who exercise power. Apparently, as with the USGs who refuse to make even basic public financial disclosure, Ban's message has not been received.
Perhaps, just as Mr. Adlerstein on Thursday said he didn't know that his spokesman Werner Schmidt directed UN Security to remove the Press from the CMP town hall meeting, Ms. Kane will say she didn't know that her staff were implicitly threatening the Press that reports on the Department of Management. Then again, Ms. Kane is the one who proposed driving up costs for the press at the UN to make reporting on the organization more difficult. Management, indeed...And see, www.innercitypress.com/cmp2risk050709.html
