By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- The day after Tegegnework Gettu of Ethiopia was given the top job at the UN Department of General Assembly and Conference Management, some of the reviews among even African diplomats were less than positive.
A representative of another large African country complained to Inner City Press, “Under Gettu, UNDP moved so many of its operations on the Continent to Addis.” Another agreed, but shrugged. To the victors go the spoils.
Inner City Press covered Gettu when he was chief of staff to UNDP Administrative Kemal Dervis. There was the stonewalling about irregularities in the North Korean program of UNDP.
Later Inner City Press was complained to by Mathieu Koumoin about diversion of funds from Africa to European companies by the UNDP Global Environment Program; Gettu apparently did nothing with the complaint. But would he now?
On the other hand, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is described as “cheap with USG spots” for Africa. He made Maged Abdelaziz of Egypt his Special Adviser on Africa and many say it's, diplomatically, a hard transition. How will Gettu do? Watch this site.
