From UN, South Koreans Choi & Kang To Go, Eyes on DGACM, Opaque

From UN, South Koreans Choi & Kang To Go, Eyes on DGACM, Opaque  

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive 

UNITED NATIONS, August 23, updated -- Citing the five year mobility rule of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Ban's fellow South Korea Choi Soon-hong is set to leave his Chief Information Technology Officer post at the UN. They are taking resumes for his replacement until September 17.    Sources tell Inner City Press Choi asked for a six month extension but was offered only three; he has decided to leave. Inner City Press asked about this at Thursday's noon briefing.    Meanwhile in Geneva another native of South Korea, deputy High Commission for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang, is also set to go. On this, resumes are being accepted until October 15.    And so insiders tell Inner City Press, there must be a South Korea Under Secretary General in the works, since two Assistant Secretaries General are leaving.    

There is only one high profile USG post left at UN Headquarters, the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management post currently held by a Belgian "acting" director Jean-Jacques Graisse who, as first reported by Inner City Press, was the one who brought Ban's current chief of staff Susana Malcorra into the World Food Program.   Graisse's UN "Biographical Note" states that "Mr. Graisse’s most recent position was as Senior Deputy Executive Director responsible for the World Food Program’s (WFP) multibillion-dollar emergency, development and logistics operations around the world."    Unstated but significant is that after Graisse took over in January 2004 as "Senior Deputy Executive Director (Operations Department)," in July 2004 he brought into WFP as Deputy Executive Director (Administration) Susana Malcorra.    He was named as "acting" head of DGACM rather than the position going on an interim basis to Franz Baumann. Other ascribed this to staff complaints against Baumann and austerity; others to the fact that Baumann is a candidate for this USG post.    But given recent moves, the sources say, watch for a South Korean native to get this post, combined with the Protocol post, a triple play or even clean sweep. Another asked, perhaps connected, all this to upgrade Kim Won-soo to USG?  

  For DGACM, resumes are accepted through September 10.     Inner City Press weeks ago asked the UN to state if Malcorra recused herself from the process by which Graise was put in at DGACM. So far, no answer.

 Watch this site.

At UN on Wikileaks, Ban in Glass Houses Won't Throw 1st Stone, Korea Spying “Legitimate”

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 3 -- While at the UN public speakers Thursday tried to put the Wikileaks scandal behind them, UN officials more quietly told Inner City Press of their concerns. While the UN ostensibly reports to all 192 member states, there are initiatives undertaken by the Executive Office of the Secretary General which are mandated neither by the Security Council nor the General Assembly.

Ban Ki-moon for example has a particular interest in the Korean peninsula. Early in his term, Inner City Press obtained a copy of an internal memo about how the UN should use its “advantage” to become a central player on the peninsula. Later Ban's senior advisor Kim Won-soo, among with UN political chief Lynn Pascoe, went to North Korea and provided a cursory readout upon their return.

More recently, a document emerged about an upcoming December 6 Policy Committee meeting about the Korean Peninsula. When Inner City Press asked about it, Ban's acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq said the memo had somehow not been seen by any senior Ban administration official.

Just as he has refused to provide Inner City Press with any requested information about the frequent flyer miles retained by Ban, Pascoe and USG Alain Le Roy, Haq refused to answer if a meeting would still take place on December 6.

Several officials and diplomats used Ban's Korean initiatives as an example of something a state might “want to spy on,” even “legitimately” as one UN official put it.

As to why Ban has not fought back more strenuously against the directive signed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that his and UN Under Secretaries Generals', SRSGs' and force commanders' e-mail passwords and frequent flyer miles account numbers be collected, it was pointed out to Inner City Press from UN sources that under Ban's Chief Information Technology Officer Mr. Choi, these officials believe that all of their communications and computers are surveilled by the Ban administration.

One well placed official asked rhetorically, “How can Ban complain about being spied on if he is spying himself?” Watch this site.

In the UN, Resistance to Financial Disclosure Is Pervasive, from Two Top Peacekeepers through UNICEF to UNDP

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1findisclosed012908.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 29 -- Resisting a call for financial disclosure by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the UN officials who have not made public even their decision to maintain financial confidentiality include the head of the UN Population Fund, Thoraya Obaid, Assistant Secretaries General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet and Dmitry Titov, whose title includes "the rule of law," two ASGs in the UN Development Program and three in UNICEF, the UN's honorary USG on poverty issues, Jeffrey Sachs and the UN's own Controller, Warren Sach.

The top 190 UN officials were asked by Ban to voluntarily disclose some of their finances, in order to give conflict of interest assurances to the general public as well as member states. In response to Inner City Press' questions on Tuesday, the UN spokesperson stated that of these 190 officials, 92 have agreed to participate, by including their names on the Secretary-General's financial disclosure web site. Ninety-two of 190 is less than half, and as Inner City Press pointed out, more than half of the 92 names on the site do not have live links to any disclosure forms. Of those with live links, at least sixteen have written on their forms that they "choose to maintain confidentiality." Inner City Press asked, are you counting these as participating in disclosure? The answer was yes, click here for the transcript.

This means that nearly 100 senior UN officials, or half of those to whom Ban directed his request, have not even consented to make public their decision to maintain confidentiality. While it should be easy to determine who these reticent UN officials are, the UN does not make it easy to determine to whom it has given Under Secretary General and Assistant Secretary General status. The spokesperson on Tuesday said that the "audience of this was 105 Assistant Secretaries-General and 85 Under-Secretaries-General, and 92 have elected to" participate. But the UN Protocol and Liaison Service's online "USG / ASG List" identifies only 76 USGs (29 in New York and 47 "away from headquarters") and only 94 ASGs (36 in New York and 58 away from HQ). That is, there are nine unlisted USGs, and 11 unlisted ASGs.

Even limiting the analysis to those senior officials listed by the UN's protocol service, following the UN spokesperson's public explanation on Tuesday, over 90 of these senior officials did not consent to disclose their decision to maintain confidentiality. Limiting ourselves for now to the non-reporters based in New York -- on the theory that it has taken longer to get the message out to the field -- those USGs based in New York who have by Spokesperson Okabe's logic not even consented to disclose their decision to maintain confidentiality include:
Thoraya Obaid, the USG head of the UN Population Fund; Jeffrey Sachs, USG advisor on Millennium Development Goals; Cheick Sidi Diarra, who holds two separate USG titles; Susan McLurg, the new head of ACABQ; Joseph Verner Reed, special adviser USG; Kingston Rhodes, USG chairman of the International Civil Service Commission; Wolfgang Stoeckl, USG vice-chairman of the International Civil Service Commission; Ibrahim Gambari, USG envoy for Iraq and Myanmar, currently in India.

UN Assistant Secretaries General based in New York who have by Spokesperson Okabe's logic not even consented to disclose their decision to maintain confidentiality include: Omar Abdi, ASG deputy at UNICEF; Catherine Bragg, ASG for humanitarian affairs; Choi Soon-hong, ASG for technology; Katherine Cravero-Kristoffersson, ASG at UNDP (who past deadline UNDP claims has filed, but is still not on the list); Francis Deng, ASG on genocide; Sylvia Fuhrman, ASG at UN International School; Dieter Goethel, ASG on Staff Management Committee; Rebeca Grynspan, ASG at UNDP for Latin America; Saad Houry, ASG at UNICEF; Hilde Johnson, another ASG at UNICEF; Kwame S. Jomo, ASG at DESA; Angela Kane, ASG for Political Affairs; Purnima Mane, ASG deputy at UNFPA; Haile Kenkerios, ASG for political affairs; Dmitry Titov, ASG for Peacekeeping and rule of law; Warren Sach, ASG Controller (another who did not respond to a request for explanation); and Edmond Mulet, ASG deputy for peacekeeping, who wrote to Inner City Press on Wednesday that "I am not certain what you are referring to, since I made my financial report long time ago. I am now traveling and unable to answer your queries but I will ask my colleagues in NY to follow-up with you." The on-the-road response was appreciated, but no follow-up was received.

Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesperson Marie Okabe on Tuesday for Ban's reaction to this pervasive non-filing. Ms. Okabe read out a note that "available on that website that we mentioned [earlier] is the current list of those UN officials who have elected to provide a public summary of their disclosure." Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1findisclosed012908.html