Thursday, July 26, 2018

Exclusive: UN Claims It's Owed $810M But Real Number Is 1,286 Billion Inner City Press Learns While Banned


By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, Patreon

UNITED NATIONS, July 26 – The UN on July 26 misleadingly put the amount it is owed for its regular budget at $810 million. The real number for “Outstanding Regular Budget” in the UN's internal Status of Contributions website, as of July 26, is $1,286,496,899.22, Inner City Press can exclusively report. See Status of Contributions printout, exclusive, here on Scribd; if any problem, here via Patreon.

   Inner City Press was banned from the July 26 UN noon briefing where Secretary General Antonio Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric made this claim, and so could not ask questions. It submitted five questions, only one of which was partially answered.
  Inner City Press has been banned from the UN since July 3, when while it was covering the UN Budget Committee meeting as it has for years its reporter was assaulted by UN Security Lieutenant Ronald E. Dobbins and another officer the UN still refuses to name.
   In front of UN Department of Management official Christian Saunders (previously embroiled in a UN procurement scandal) Inner City Press' reporter was physically removed from the UN. After filing a New York City Police Department criminal report on July 4, Inner City Press was blocked by UN Security from entering the building on July 5, and has been banned for 23 days since.
   Guterres, who was informed on June 25 that Lt Dobbins was targeting Inner City Press which has published a similarly leaked UN document calling into question his and others' promotions in UN Security, refused on July 20 to answer why Inner City Press is banned, and set off on a two week vacation, location undisclosed.

  On July 13 as Inner City Press worked outside the UN on the bus stop bench on 45th Street and First Avenue in front of the UN Delegates Entrance it was informed by a source that “the US has stopped paying its dues and Guterres is asking for 5% cut all around” Being banned from the building Inner City Press has been trying to confirm and expand on this, being told by another source that “I have heard that there are important Member States that have delayed payments (US, Japan, Brazil, Mexico for instance) and that evidently do create a cash challenge.” We'll have more on this - and on Guterres' ongoing censorship.