By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, October 9 -- The week before the UN's General Debate, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff Susana Malcorra told other department heads to prepare to cut five percent of costs, and to move or outsource jobs, according to a UN Staff Union message to Malcorra obtained by Inner City Press, which is putting the message and reply online here.
Malcorra replied to the Staff Union the next day (September 21, 2012) that yes, "we have brought together all Senior Leadership to discuss the strategic framework within which we will be working. That is the meeting you refer to in your email to Secretary-General. We had a very constructive exchange with Senior Advisors from New York and all overseas locations."
But not apparently Staff Union Representatives, who have complained to Ban, Malcora, Kim Won-soo of Change Management, Yukio Takasu of Management and Catherine Pollard of Human Resources that "this would mean that the budget for Executive Offices in departments, the entire Department of Management, UNOG [Geneva], UNOV [Vienna], UNON [Nairobi] and administrative units in Regional Commissions will be cut by 5%."
Other Staff Union sources describe 10% of jobs to be outsourced, and 10% to be "offshored" -- they say, perhaps self-servingly, that it is strange that the US Administration is supporting these changes that would result in a loss of jobs in the United States and, in many cases, for Americans.
Yesterday Inner City Press reported, also exclusively, on moves to reduce jobs in the UN Publishing Section in part by not ordering supplies for the GOSS printing machines and, workers there tell Inner City Press, increasingly doing printing jobs "off the books" so that the UN appears more paperless than it is.
These cuts are larger, and will be the subject of an upcoming video conference -- and more reporting by Inner City Press. Watch this site.
