By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 5 -- While many try to insulate today's UN from the open corruption of the recent past of President of the General Assembly John Ashe, there is continuity to that UN scandal. So too with the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund, now under Sergio Arvizu and Ban Ki-moon's direct representative Carolyn "Hedge Fund" Boykin, see below.
Inner City Press focused on the bribery scandal in its lone round of questions to UN Under Secretary General for Management Yukio Takasu on May 4, but updates on the Pension Fund decay, below.m
As UN officials including Cristina Gallach, whose involvement in the scandal is detailed in the UN's own Office of Internal Oversight Services audit at Paragraphs 37 to 40 and 20(b) have moved to evict Inner City Press from the UN premises (video here) and restrict its access, Inner City Press on May 4 asked UN Under Secretary-General for Management Yukio Takasu about two portions of the OIOS audit. Video here.
Takasu has been petitioned to reign in Sergio Arvizu from a Gallach-like power grab; recently the Department of Management reported to staff that Arzu is working to fix the months-long backlog in starting to pay benefits.
This is contested -- "the backlog was only reduced by 7%, a fifth of the 36% claimed by management. On current trends it will take 14 months to clear the backlog" -- and so like on Gallach's Press eviction, Ban Ki-moon is petitioned. But Ban just flies around the world collecting honorary degrees and, apparently, hoping these scandals can be kept under wraps until he leaves, with an eye to a final sinecure. Ban is being mis-advised. Pro tip: censorship is not the way to go out.
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How was indicted Ng Lap Seng's Global Sustainability Foundation's “sponsorship” of the UN slavery memorial opening event, featuring Ban Ki-moon, accounted for in the UN budget?
Takasu gamely said that “in-kind” contributions are not quantified or listed. If so, how many other events did Ng Lap Seng entities sponsor? Inner City Press asked how Takasu's Assistant Secretary General of the Office of Central Support Services allowed Ng Lap Seng's June 30, 2015 event in the UN Vistitors Lobby, also with no due diligence by Gallach's DPI, to go forward. Things slip between the cracks, Takasu said, indicating that he would like to tighten things up.
So how much more slipped through the cracks? And how was Gallach allowed -- or encouraged -- to retaliate against the Press which is pursuing and asking about this story? Given that Gallach clearly should have recused itself, when will Inner City Press be restored to its shared office and Resident Correspondent accreditation status?
