UNITED NATIONS, May 17 -- A rift has emerged among senior UN officials about inaction on the bedbug infestation and the "right to return" to UN Headquarters once it is renovated. In a memo leaked to Inner City Press by a whistleblower, Under Secretary General Shaaban Shaaban on May 11 told USG Angela Kane that his staff won't long stay in the "uninhabitable" Albano Building.
The memo reveals that Shaaban has been told that his staff, of the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management, may not as promised be allowed to return to their offices in UN headquarters.
The UN press corps has been told this as well. Their spots on the third and fourth floor, it now appears, may be given for another use. This would leave the press corp in the "whistleblower free zone" above the Library, where all conversations can be heard. Complaints have been made, but thus far with as little effect of the UN's fumigation on the bed bugs.
The press has been given until the end of May to argue against losing the spots they had for fifty years, and against the imposition of rent, which is again being threatened.
The effect would be to drive smaller and more independent press out of the UN, even as the UN gets less and less press coverage, and fewer and fewer reporters attend the UN noon briefing.
At the noon briefing of May 12, Inner City Press asked
Inner City Press Press: It’s come to my attention, Inner City Press has received a copy of an intra-UN e-mail indicating that in the Albano Building swing space, that up to 90 per cent of the building is infected by bed bugs; that this problem that began earlier during the move there has not been fixed and has in fact gotten worse. I’m wondering: what steps is the UN taking? Why is it that, months after they were first discovered, the bed bugs remain in the UN swing space and what steps are being taken to protect the people that work there?
Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Let me find out about that. Clearly, if there are any concerns about staff health or safety they need to be taken very seriously and looked into. So, let me find out.
The next day, Nesirky's office replied
Subject: your question on bedbugs in the Albano building
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply
Date: Thu, May 13, 2010 at 12:02 PM
To: matthew.lee [at] innercitypress.com
Six months after the fumigation of the whole Albano building, as is standard practice, the bug sniffing dog returned to examine the building on 6 May. The dog found evidence of bugs on a number of floors. However, the dog is not able to distinguish between alive and dead bugs that may remain from the previous infestation. As a precautionary measure the whole building was fumigated again on the weekend of 8-9 May.
This Monday 10 May a staff member reported a bug found in their office. This was examined in the lab and found not to be a bedbug, further analysis to determine what the bug is continues. Preliminary advice indicates that the insect found is a clover mite which does not bite or sting.
We note that since the fumigation in November last year one staff member reported a suspicious bite but this turned out not to be from a bedbug.
We continue to monitor the situation very closely and urge any staff member who experience suspicious insect bites to seek medical confirmation whether a bedbug was the cause and to advise us, and to advise us if any bugs are found in the building and we will investigate. For the moment though there have been no more confirmed cases of active bedbugs in the Albano building since the fumigation in November 2009.
Shaaban's memo, a copy of which Inner City Press is putting online here, complains of the failure to deal with the bedbugs on which Inner City Press first reported, on problems with the elevators and heating and air conditioning in the Albano Building.
"Each one of these issues represents a serious lapse on the part of the organization's responsibility," Shaaban wrote, "but all three together border on a situation making the building uninhabitable."
He continued, "In my meeting with Mr. Adlerstein five weeks ago, I never agreed that the Albano staff will be stacked there... So, in the stacking proposal you sent to Mr. Nambiar on 4 May 2010... I read in the appendix twice that 'based on initial consultations with DGACM, agreement has been made to retain the use of the Albano Building,' which does not reflect my discussion with Mr. Adlerstein."
Angela Kane is organizing a congratulatory cocktail reception for Capital Master Plan chief Michael Adlerstein. One images that the bedbugs and disputed right to return will be raised there, and at a press conference with Adlerstein scheduled for May 20. Watch this site.
Footnote: Shaaban himself is the subject a damning UN Dispute Tribunal ruling, that his behavior in denying promotion to an underlying was so outrageous as to militatate for him personally paying damages of $20,000. Ban Ki-moon has filed what some call a knee-jerk appeal. Now what?
