UNITED NATIONS, September 2 -- When the UN's criminal complaint against former UN Development Program staffer Nicola Baroncini was dismissed on September 2, Baroncini told Inner City Press that, far from feeling vindicated, he felt disgusted.
The underlying incident was triggered by an e-mail from now retired UN official Alan Doss, who wrote to UNDP asking for “leeway” that his daughter be hired. Doss' e-mail, Baroncini pointed out on September 2, was two months before the recruitment process. “Doss knew she would get the job,” Baroncini said. “If that's not nepotism, I don't know what is.”
But Doss was never punished. He was allowed to retire. Inner City Press, which broke the Baroncini story -- which other media quickly dubbed the “biter” story, since after being pepper sprayed, Baroncini allegedly bit UN Security officer Peter Kolonias -- has continued asking about Doss.
Without further detail, UN official Catherine Pollard said that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon studied two reports, by UNDP and the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services, and decided not to impose any punishment.”
Baroncini, on the other hand, lost thousands of dollars defending himself in court, lost his job, his friends, “everything,” as he put it on September 2. “Now the other reporters, they call me the biter. They say the judge made me take anger management. I decided to take it, because I realized the Un could and would come to court and lie.”
“I could sue the UN,” he said. “But it would cost me fifteen thousand dollars, to win what, ten thousand?”
“I was retaliated against,” Baroncini continued. “But not in the UN's definition. They make up the words, they make up the rules.”
Baroncini said that he kept expecting someone in the UN to come and apologize to him. But it never happened.
He says he was contacted and told the report was finished, and would advise Administrator Helen Clark on ways to “improve the recruitment process.” Nothing about nepotism, or discipline for Alan Doss. Doss' mission in the Congo has recently been found to have done nothing as at least 240 women were raped near Walikali. A fish rots from the head.
