In UN Is Ban Ki-moon Pushing for USGs Like Ladsous to Get 10% Raises, As Staff Unions Say, or Just For "Decompression"?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 23 -- In the UN system, is Ban Ki-moon pushing for pay raises for the highest paid officials and cuts for those below or is it just "decompression"?

  Last week Inner City Press reported on and asked about what multiple sources told it of the proceedings of the International Civil Service Commission, of which staff union said 

"Ban Ki-moon has successfully obtained the approval of the ICSC to pay more to senior staff, financed by cuts to junior and mid-level staff. Under the revised salary scale, top bosses at the Under-Secretary-General grade get 10% more pay (so up to $25,000 a year more) while new graduate entry staff at P-1 grade will be 6% poorer. This at a time when the Secretary-General claims to be campaigning against inequality and all the time cutting frontline jobs."

 Inner City Press published a story, and twice asked the UN about Ban Ki-moon's position. On March 23, Ban's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq returned with this, at the noon briefing:

I was asked last week about some communications made by staff representatives about the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) and salaries of senior officials at the United Nations.

I have been informed by the Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM) that what was tweeted and broadcasted by staff representatives is incorrect.  First of all, the conditions of service, including the salaries, of Assistant Secretaries-General and Under-Secretaries-General are set by the General Assembly and not by the ICSC or the Secretary-General.

At the moment, the International Civil Service Commission is reviewing the compensation package of the International Professional staff from the P-1 to the D-2 levels and as part of this review it is considering the structure of the salary scale.  Whatever the Commission decides in this respect will be presented to the General Assembly for its decision.  The General Assembly is the one to decide on all the recommendations.

 Any questions?  Yes.

Inner City Press:  I have some other questions, but I wanted to ask about the answer you gave for the questions from last week.  Thanks for getting that.  What I'd like to ask… I wasn't actually asking what they put on their Facebook page.  I'm asking about a document that's called Report of the Working Group on the Remediation Structure Refined Salary Scale Models/Structure.  It is an internal document of ICSC, but it very much describes increasing the number of steps and the amounts paid to higher ranked staff.  And I wanted to know what is the Secretary-General's position on what's been approved by ICSC then would be subjected to a GA vote?

Deputy Spokesman Haq:  As far as I know the ICSC's recommendations are due not right now but later this year, I believe later in the summer, and would be considered by the General Assembly still later in the year.  The process first of all is still ongoing.  I don't believe that the ICSC has concluded that process.

Beyond that, in terms of the question, the question not about raising people's pay at one level and decreasing at another but about whether the wage scales will be compressed or decompressed.  In other words, when you enter a level, how long do you stay at… within that same wage scale before you go up another step and another step beyond that?  You know, do you ascend quickly from one… from one step to the next step if you're at one particular level?  Or does it happen more slowly?

And, you know, and is there that much of a difference from when you enter and when you leave, between the highest rank… the highest level at which you're paid entering… entering a level and the lowest level, the entry level.  And on these cases, the question is really one of compression versus decompression in other words.

And what we're trying to see is how the United Nations stacks up against other international organizations and whether our scales are comparable to theirs, are better or worse.  We want them, you know, in the broadest sense to be comparable, and that's where we basically stand.  But in terms of formulations, that is really in the hands, like I said, of the International Civil Service Commission, and then beyond that once they've come up with their recommendations later in the year, it's in the hands of the General Assembly.

Inner City Press:  When you say we, you mean the Secretary-General?  That is his position is to favor this…

Deputy Spokesman Haq:  The Secretary-General's position is basically that we want to make sure that whatever packages of whatever compensation we afford at any level is comparable to the best practices of other organizations so that we're in line with… with where they are.  How that is applied is really a decision for the Civil Service Commission.  Yeah, and like I said, it's not… again, it's not a question as was discussed last week of raising rates at one level and decreasing them so much as it is one of the question of compression versus decompression.  

  But one in the know replies that decompression means increasing the salary difference between the top grades (D-1/D-2/ASG/USG) and the bottom grades (P-1/P-2), not with how long you spend in a grade. Decompression is very much about increasing the pay gap and in this case they chose to decrease pay at bottom grades (which will affect newcomers and llimit the top of the P-1/P2 scale for actual staff) and increase top grades.

Process-wise, the GA has to approve the ICSC recommendation. But the ICSC is the biggest hurdle and that hurdle was overcome last Tuesday. From start to end, the UN, and organizations, have been supportive of and pushing for this new decompressed scale. Their reasoning is that they have no trouble attracting staff at the entry-level but do have trouble getting good candidates for top grade jobs. But when a D-1 or D-2 is advertized or ASG or USG, there is plenty of competition. 

 We'll have more on this.

 In the UN system, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is campaigning for the highest paid officials to get back even more, while only the lower rank professionals' pay is cut.

   Inner City Press is informed that Ban Ki-moon's team, after in essence breaking the staff union in New York, has procured approval to change to the salary scale so that Director-1 staff and above would get pay rises, paid for by cuts to Professional-4 staff. Under Secretaries General like Herve Ladsous would get a 10 percent pay rise -- up to $25,000 more a year --  while entry-level P-1s get a 6 percent cut.

  This at time that the UN pays lip-service to reducing inequality.

  This is not "performance based" -- under Ladsous for example UN Peacekeeping has been exposed for positions being sold and for sexual abuse, on which Ladsous refuses to answer Press questions, for example on March 17, here.

 As the UN talks about workers' rights and collegiality, inside the Glass House things can be quite different. On July 31, 2014, Inner City Press reported how the head of the UN Department of General Assembly and Conference Management Tegegnework Gettu calling female critics "emotional," here.

 On March 9, multiple sources told Inner City Press that Gettu told complaining staff "I am warning you," cutting them off while saying We are all equal, including me." Really? Leaked audio exclusively put online by Inner City Press here.

 What will Secretary General Ban Ki-moon do? Under his management, the UN Staff Union in New York has been broken. But is this rant appropriate? Previously, Gettu said, if we all fart together, it doesn't smell. Really?

 Back on July 31 Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced he is shifting Catherine Pollard from the Office of Human Resources Management over to become Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management (DGACM), replacing Franz Baumann of Germany.

  As Inner City Press previously reported, Pollard had declared herself the poster child of Ban's “mobility” policy, to only hold the same post -- or was it duty station? -- for five years. 

   No matter that, for example, Robert Serry has said on television he's been in his post six years. Pollard has made a lateral move, and Baumann's next move is not yet clear.

  What does DGACM do? As a sample, Inner City Press has already exclusively received a number of complaints about a meeting held by DGACM chief Tegegnework Gettu, also on July 31. According to sources, Gettu used the meeting to tell staff how well he is doing, how objective he is, that he has no personal agenda. (Click herefor previously Inner City Press report.)

  But when he opened the floor, the first staff member who dared make a suggestion -- that verbatim is now nearly identical to translation -- was cut off and told that his was only a personal opinion.

  A female staffer who made a criticism was told by Gettu to not be “emotional.” Eventually Gettu was telling the assembled staff that the UN “is good” and “if you don't like it, walk away.”

  In fact, it was in DGACM that the staff member elected vice president of the Staff Union in December was terminated -- Gettu says he didn't re-apply for a job so he clearly didn't need one -- and it was in DGACM that staff members were subjected to bed bugs, among other things, in the Albano Building.

  On July 31, the sources exclusively tell Inner City Press that Gettu told DGACM staff that they may remain in the Albano Building on 46th Street until 2017 when, he says, the UN may have a “DC5” building, proposed to be built on the Robert Moses playground south of 42nd Street. Click here for Inner City Press story.

  There are many hardworking staff in DGACM, and even some in management may mean well. 

   But the type of self-serving speechifying at staff described to Inner City Press by sources on July 31 is indicative of the same UN which, for example among the press, evicted the News Agency of Nigeria from its work area claiming a lack of space while giving a large room to its favored UN Censorship Alliance (UNCA) -- which now says it will leave the room empty and locked from August 1 to August 19. We and the new Free UN Coalition for Access will have more on this. We'll have more on this.

   

At UN Under Ban Ki-moon, Under Secretaries General like Herve Ladsous to Get 10% Raise, While Entry Level P-1s Are Cut 6%

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 17 -- In the UN system, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is campaigning for the highest paid officials to get back even more, while only the lower rank professionals' pay is cut.

   Inner City Press is informed that Ban Ki-moon's team, after in essence breaking the staff union in New York, has procured approval to change to the salary scale so that Director-1 staff and above would get pay rises, paid for by cuts to Professional-4 staff. Under Secretaries General like Herve Ladsous would get a 10 percent pay rise -- up to $25,000 more a year --  while entry-level P-1s get a 6 percent cut.

  This at time that the UN pays lip-service to reducing inequality.

  This is not "performance based" -- under Ladsous for example UN Peacekeeping has been exposed for positions being sold and for sexual abuse, on which Ladsous refuses to answer Press questions, for example on March 17, here.

 As the UN talks about workers' rights and collegiality, inside the Glass House things can be quite different. On July 31, 2014, Inner City Press reported how the head of the UN Department of General Assembly and Conference Management Tegegnework Gettu calling female critics "emotional," here.

 On March 9, multiple sources told Inner City Press that Gettu told complaining staff "I am warning you," cutting them off while saying We are all equal, including me." Really? Leaked audio exclusively put online by Inner City Press here.

 What will Secretary General Ban Ki-moon do? Under his management, the UN Staff Union in New York has been broken. But is this rant appropriate? Previously, Gettu said, if we all fart together, it doesn't smell. Really?

 Back on July 31 Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced he is shifting Catherine Pollard from the Office of Human Resources Management over to become Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management (DGACM), replacing Franz Baumann of Germany.

  As Inner City Press previously reported, Pollard had declared herself the poster child of Ban's “mobility” policy, to only hold the same post -- or was it duty station? -- for five years. 

   No matter that, for example, Robert Serry has said on television he's been in his post six years. Pollard has made a lateral move, and Baumann's next move is not yet clear.

  What does DGACM do? As a sample, Inner City Press has already exclusively received a number of complaints about a meeting held by DGACM chief Tegegnework Gettu, also on July 31. According to sources, Gettu used the meeting to tell staff how well he is doing, how objective he is, that he has no personal agenda. (Click herefor previously Inner City Press report.)

  But when he opened the floor, the first staff member who dared make a suggestion -- that verbatim is now nearly identical to translation -- was cut off and told that his was only a personal opinion.

  A female staffer who made a criticism was told by Gettu to not be “emotional.” Eventually Gettu was telling the assembled staff that the UN “is good” and “if you don't like it, walk away.”

  In fact, it was in DGACM that the staff member elected vice president of the Staff Union in December was terminated -- Gettu says he didn't re-apply for a job so he clearly didn't need one -- and it was in DGACM that staff members were subjected to bed bugs, among other things, in the Albano Building.

  On July 31, the sources exclusively tell Inner City Press that Gettu told DGACM staff that they may remain in the Albano Building on 46th Street until 2017 when, he says, the UN may have a “DC5” building, proposed to be built on the Robert Moses playground south of 42nd Street. Click here for Inner City Press story.

  There are many hardworking staff in DGACM, and even some in management may mean well. 

   But the type of self-serving speechifying at staff described to Inner City Press by sources on July 31 is indicative of the same UN which, for example among the press, evicted the News Agency of Nigeria from its work area claiming a lack of space while giving a large room to its favored UN Censorship Alliance (UNCA) -- which now says it will leave the room empty and locked from August 1 to August 19. We and the new Free UN Coalition for Access will have more on this. We'll have more on this.

   

For OCHA, UN Formally Solicits Nominations From All States, UK Loses Under Secretary General Post?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 11, video here -- After the UN on November 26 announced the departure of Humanitarian Affairs chief Baroness Valerie Amos, Inner City Press and others reported UK Prime Minister David Cameron's proffering of Andrew Lansley as replacement. 

  Criticism grew. Now the UK may have "lost" the position, in a way that France did not lose UN Peacekeeping, or the US the Department of Political Affairs.

 Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq if the vacancy will be advertised for candidates from all countries, or if it is set aside for Amos' United Kingdom.

  While Haq insisted that the position is "open to people from any region," transcript below, the disposition of the top jobs in UN Peacekeeping (four Frenchmen in a row) and Political Affairs (two consecutive Americans) indicates otherwise.

  Then from the UK came word that Prime Minister David Cameron "has reportedly refused to come up with two alternative candidates, as requested by the UN Secretary General."

  Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric about this on December 1. Video here. He declined to comment on what "may or may not be private diplomatic communications."

  Consider, now, that Lansley's controversies include health care law conflicts of interest, carrying the water of McDonald's and KFC and using public funds to renovate his country house. OCHA, anyone?

  Dujarric, when asked by Inner City Press on December 1, insisted that Ban will put out a call to all member states to nominate candidates. 

  Now we can report, it has happened. Multiple countries' Permanent Representatives told Inner CityPress they had received a "note verbale" inviting nominations.

  This is how it should be done. But why wasn't this done before Ban made Herve Ladsous the fourth Frenchman in a row atop UN Peacekeeping? Maybe they should send out a note verbale about DPKO, it has been suggested. Maybe this should trigger a "big bang" to redistribute these top Under Secretary General posts.

  (Cynics tell Inner City Press that despite the "open call," the process could still be fixed - this happens at the UN, at various levels, regardless of formal recruitment processes and interviews. We'll see.)

  While the UN refuses to be transparent about this "please submit three candidates" form of limited competition for positions already designated by nationality, it is what happened with UN Peacekeeping, multiple sources have told Inner City Press.

  But even this is often waived. It is UNclear if when B. Lynn Pascoe left as head of the UN Department of Political Affairs, the US put forward anyone beyond Jeffrey Feltman, who has the job.

  For Peacekeeping, as Inner City Press exclusively reported in July 2011, when Alain Le Roy left France put forward three candidates and Ban Ki-moon selected Jerome Bonnafont, then France's ambassador to India.

  After Bonnafont started bragging about having the job, and Inner City Press reported such boast based on sourcing in India and closer, Team Ban decided that Bonnafont was not the team player they were looking for.

  But then president Nicolas Sarkozy, angered, refused to put forward another trio of candidates, instead "dumping" on the UN Herve Ladsous, who had been rejected by Kofi Annan during a previous one-of-three process. Ban Ki-moon accepted these damaged goods, and Ladsous has gone on to cover up rapes by the Congolese Army and now in Darfur, and to openly refuse to answer Press questions,video compilation here, UK New Statesman coverage here.

  How would Lansley be? And how is the UN in such decay? Even for the Secretary General position there wassome limited competition. 

 At a much smaller but not unrelated level, the in-house United Nations Correspondents Association is set to "elect" as president, with no competition, a rarely present Italian scribe Giampaolo Pioli, who tried to censor Press articles about Sri Lanka in his previous tenure, click here for that. Also under Pioli, UNCA was used to try to censor, or censure, Inner City Press' reporting about how Ladsous was foisted on the UN, here.

  One reason the UN is in such decay is that few questions are asked, and even fewer are answered, at the UN. Here's the UN's transcript of what Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq on November 26:

Inner City Press: on the Under-Secretary-General position for OCHA, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, could describe what the process for recruitment will be in the context that many people say that at least the top three jobs are pretty much assigned by country, for Humanitarian Affairs that was John Holmes and then Amos; the US had [B. Lynn] Pascoe, now Mr. Feltman; that France has had peacekeeping four times in a row.  Is this job going to be put in The Economist?  Are you seeking candidates from any Member State that chooses to step forward, or is it essentially designated for the United Kingdom?

Deputy Spokesman Haq:  The idea that there are spots that are designated is more a popular myth than reality.  As you know, many of the positions that have been said to be earmarked for this or that country have not over time proven to be that way.  There was an idea that Political Affairs was reserved for someone from the United Kingdom.  It hasn’t been that way for quite some time.  There’s been talk of how different agencies are headed by Americans or other nationalities, for example, UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), and over time you see that hasn’t held true.  That’s the case with this position, as well.  We’re seeking applicants from every area.

Inner City Press:  Will it be like in The Economist?  Is there going to be some public process to seek candidates?

Deputy Spokesman Haq:  We are seeking candidates.  We don’t talk so much about the appointment process as it’s in procedure, but certainly it’s open to people from any region.

  We'll stay on this.

  There have been rumblings, noted by Inner City Press, of DPA chief Jeffrey Feltman leaving -- and of the US perhaps trading Political Affairs for Peacekeeping. But that theory seems to have been that US State Department Number Three Wendy Sherman would move up to William Burns' deputy spot, opening her position for the return of Feltman.

  Now that the Obama administration has put Tony Blinken into the State Department Deputy post, as one insider told ICP, “Feltman stays at the UN.”

Even without any double switch, Ladsous is under fire atop DPKO, not only for refusal to answer questions, back to rapes in Minova in DR Congo, but now in Tabit in Darfur as well. 

 Haq, like lead UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on November 26, would not when Inner City Press asked confirm receipt of a letter, critical of Ladsous' DPKO, from Darfuri groups, here. 

 Outgoing UN Security Council president Gary Quinlan of Australia not only confirmed receipt of the letter - he circulated it to the other Council members. A press officer of UK mission to the UN told Inner City Press, "I can confirm that we received the letter indirectly." We'll have more on this, and on Amos' work while at the UN, and perhaps reason(s) for leaving, including as, like Lansley, may related to UK politics.

  We might also suggest, if the UN under Ban is to remain so captured by Permanent Members of the Security Council, a more deserving British candidate, in connection with the April 2015 arrival of Matthew Rycroft atop the UK Mission to the UN.

  On November 25, it was Quinlan and not Amos who took question after Amos' briefing on Syria. How much will Amos speak, publicly, before her departure at the end of March? Much, is the hope and goal of the Free UN Coalition for Access. Watch this site.

   

UN Doles Out "Secret" USG Post to Mahiga After Somalia Post: Ban Ki-moon's UN

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 8 -- When Augustine Mahiga was replaced as the UN's envoy in Somalia by Nicholas Kay of the UK, little was said of what Mahiga would go next. 

  He had been Tanzania's Permanent Representative to the UN; some assumed he would go back to his country's foreign service.

   But it has emerged that Mahiga was given a little known Under Secretary General position, called "Under-Secretary-General, Mediator-in-Residence, DPA’s Mediator Debriefing and Lessons Learned Program."

   Inner City Press asked several well-placed UN officials who had, until asked, no idea that Mahiga had stayed with the UN, much was at the USG level. "Incredible," said one source who requested anonymity to keep his own UN position.

Mahiga shakes with Ban: (well) before "secret" USG post, by UN Photo

   The affable Mahiga was panned by Somalis inside the country and in the diaspora, for example during this Inner City Press reporting trip to Minneapolis in 2010.  More recently, Mahiga was the (only) source for US Voice of America story about Somalia, here.

   But do departing UN envoys have a right to stay on in little known USG positions? As another source asked, Is Alan Doss still getting paid somewhere by the UN?

  This comes in a UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon which, even as it evades responsibility for cholera in Haiti, talks a lot of accountability and even transparency. How many other "secret" USGs are there? We'll have more on this.

   When UN Secretary General performed the annual ritual signing of the Compacts with his Under Secretaries General on February 13 amid the snow, three USGs were not present either in person or on video: Angela Kane, Joan Clos of HABITAT, and Jeffrey Feltman. 

  Given the recently leaked audio of US official Victoria Nuland recounting how Feltman "got" Ban to sent Robert Serry to Ukraine, it seems worth asking with all due respect: where is he?

  Those present posed for a group photograph, tweeted hereby Inner City Press, and then came up one by one to sign their Compacts and shake hands with Ban and his deputy, Jan Eliasson. For the first signer, former Egyptian Permanent Representative and now Special Adviser on Africa Maged Abdelaziz, Ban didn't stand up, so the handshake was repeated at the end.

  Ban, introduced by his chief of staff Susana Malcorra, made much of transparency, of making all this available through the press to the public. But a quick review of Ban's "financial disclosure" web site finds, for example, that Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous has refused to make any public financial disclosure, stating that "in accordance with General Assembly Resolution A/RES/60/238, I have chosen to maintain the confidentiality of the information disclosed in my financial disclosure statement."

  Ladsous also refuses to answer Press questions, most recently on what the UN position is on Ugandan troops remaining in South Sudan, and before that about the mass rapes in Minova by the UN's partners in the Congolese Army. Video compilation here; UK coverage here.

  Ban's Children and Armed Conflict envoy Leila Zerrougui was there; by contrast, her Office made the inconvenient report that the Free Syrian Army recruits and uses child soldiers, and she has offered the Press an interview about it. Also there, on screen from Geneva, was Navi "Half Term"Pillay who had the honesty to report on January 20 that the French decision to first disarm the ex Seleka in Central African Republic put Muslim communities at risk.

  The UN should be open, and questions as with Feltman about a former diplomat's connection with his or her country cannot be off limits or considered "insinuation."

  Amazingly, though, when Ban this week did a question and answer session with 15 mostly Gulf and Western correspondents, afterward no tape or transcript was provided, despite a formal request from the new Free UN Coalition for Access, which is focused on opening up the UN to the press and public. And it was confirmed that none of the 15 even asked about Feltman, Ukraine and the Nuland leak. How not?

  Carman Lapointe of the Office of Oversight Services was there, even though the Secretariat says it can't speak for her of OIOIS, even refusing yet to say if OIOS is appealing the UN Dispute Tribunal decision which recounts that Michael Dudley of OIOS investigations acknowledged altering evidence after Inner City Press uncovered the distribution of Valium by UN Medical Service personnel with no New York State licensed. Is there immunity for that? 

 Has the UN received and accepted process of the legal papers for bringing cholera to Haiti? This was asked at the February 13 noon briefing. It will be a litmus test for accountability, and for transparency. Watch this site.

   

After UN Moves to Censor, Ban Ki-moon's Outgoing Spokesperson Calls Press Input Into UN Selection Process or Even Criteria "Not A Serious Question"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 20 -- Yesterday UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced as his new spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, who currently oversees the UN's News and Media Division and, among other things, the accreditation of journalists to enter and cover the UN.

  Today Inner City Press asked outgoing spokesperson Nesirky if there had been a formal recruitment to replace him, and if journalists would have any input into at least the criteria for selecting a new chief of UN News and Accreditation.

  Tellingly, Nesirky called the request for any journalists' input into the criteria to choose the head of division which ostensibly "liaises" with them as "not a serious question." Video here (at Minute 1:30) and embedded below.

  This stands in contrast, for example, to even the US Federal Reserve Board, which in selecting a new head of its Division of Consumer and Community Affairs is formally seeking input from the constituencies that Division deals with. 

 So today's UN is more closed in on itself that the Fed, a financial regulator.

  Inner City Press asked what it wrote about yesterday: the issues raised by the head of media accreditation, in charge of choosing who can come in and ask questions, becoming the spokesperson who then faces and one hopes answers the questions.

  Beyond yesterday's initial report, the reason for the questions is that while he was atop Media Accreditation, not only did Dujarric receive and withhold (and, it seems, solicit and now censor) anti-Press complaints -- he also several times told Inner City Press how to cover and write about Ban Ki-moon and his head of peacekeeping Herve Ladsous, to the point of demanding an "urgent" explanation by Inner City Press of a single tweet mentioning World War Two, Germany and Dujarric's native France.

  The issue of censorship was and is raised, when an individual in charge of granting or denying accreditation to the UN tells the journalist how to cover the UN and some of its officials. We will have more on all this, including a claim Dujarric made that a meeting had been "off the record" when not only did Inner City Press say "this is on the record," but theother side (which Dujarric favored and favors) acknowledged the meeting would be written about -- Dujarric turned this into his own complaint letter.

  For now, while Nesirky said the idea that journalists should have input into the selection process and criteria for selecting the UN official who interfaces with and accredits (or doesn't) the media is "not a serious question," the Free UN Coalition for Access, formed after some of the stealth complaints and the censorship issues sketched above considers it a serious question and will pursue it. Watch this site.

Footnote: on the response that no recruitment process is needed, Ban can simply directly appoint both the spokesperson and the deputy spokesperson, it seems that previous Deputy Spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey went through a formal recruitment process. Some also question the "intra-P3" switch in nationality of UN spokesperson from the UK to France. We'll have more on this as well.