At UN, Ban Ki-moon's Compacts Only on Intranet, No Public Financial Disclosure from Ladsous

By Matthew Russell Lee

  UNITED NATIONS, February 15, updated – Thirty eight stories above Manhattan, more than a dozen UN officials signed “compacts” for their work on Friday morning. Photos here.

  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told them it was an agreement not only with the UN but with the world's people.

  But the documents will not be published on the UN's external website, only the UN's in-house intranet. Why? [UN response below.]

  What is published on the UN's external site are the supposed “public financial disclosure” forms of the senior UN officials. But many of them have filed a form saying only “I have chosen to maintain the confidentiality of the information disclosed in my financial disclosure statement.”

   Seated across from Ban Ki-moon at Friday's ceremony was his chief of peacekeeping Herve Ladsous -- who refused to make public financial disclosure, click here to view.

  After the signing Ban Ki-moon genially came over to Inner City Press, which asked about the public financial disclosures. Ban said the next round will be filed in March. Will Ladsous disclose then?

  Several officials appeared by video; to Yuri Fedotov, Ban joked, “two compacts, one salary.” Then he signed for other officials. Navi Pillay and Valerie Amos (who also declined public financial disclosure) were listed as “on official mission.”

 

The ombudsperson was “on annual leave;” Jeffrey Feltman, not yet listed on the public financial disclosure page, was said to have a “private appointment.” Will he disclose in March?

  Ban's chief of staff Susana Malcorra said there had been no ceremony last year due to changes among the senior officials. But there are imminent changes this year as well.

  Patricia O'Brien of the Office of Legal Affairs, for example, signed a compact even though she has been named Ireland's Ambassador to the UN in Geneva. Who will Ban's next chief lawyer be? And will they not only make public financial disclosure, but hold press conferences, as Patricia O'Brien refused to do?

  After the ceremony, Inner City Press headed to the North Lawn Building for an “Arria 

formula” meeting on climate change. (Click here for Feb 11 Inner City Press story.)

  Despite the morning's call for transparency, there was no notice of this meeting in the UN Journal or even the sign in front of Conference Room 2. A range of diplomats asked Inner City Press, “Where is it?”

  A small island state's Permanent Representative left in disgust, telling Inner City Press, “They are not even letting us speak, and we sponsored it. They are downgrading it, it's not even in the Journal.”

  Germany's Deputy Permanent Representative Miguel Berger was more emphatic, telling Inner City Press of the secrecy, “This should not be.”

  Berger is chairperson of the Fifth (Budget) Committee. There he could raise not only this excessive secrecy, but also some oversight of those refusing to make public financial disclosure but still seeking big money for their Department's budget -- like Ladsous and DPKO. Watch this site.

Update of 3:30 pm -- Inner City Press at Friday's noon briefing asked why the compacts will only be on the i-Seek intranet and not the UN's external website. This came back:

 

The Senior Managers Compacts and end of year performance assessments together form unique management tools at the disposal of the Secretary-General and Senior Managers themselves. Their publication on iSeek is an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability for public sector institutions. These tools are work in progress; the Secretariat continues to improve and fine-tune them each year. The Secretariat will use lessons learned from this experience to determine the pros and cons and whether and how to publish them externally in the future.

  While appreciating the response, we ask: What was that again, about the compacts being agreements not just with the UN but the public at large? Watch this site.

As UN Chiefs Sign Contracts, Only Some Can See Them, Transparency Still Lacking

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ban1compacts021209.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 12 -- In a quirky but strangely endearing ceremony on Thursday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon signed compacts with two dozen of his senior staff members, taking a photo shaking hands with each and then a group photo like in elementary school. In his prepared remarks, Ban said that "the compacts you have signed will all be published on our intranet site, iSeek. This means we are not only talking about transparency, we are practicing it." But this web site is not available to the public or even member states that UN ostensibly serves.

Under Ban's predecessor Kofi Annan, there was talk of a freedom of information policy for the UN system. It was entrusted to then-Department of Management chief Alicia Barcena. It was never implemented. Thursday Barcena was back, on a brief visit to New York from her new posting with ECLAC in Santiago, Chile. Her successor Angela Kane held a thick binder. Inner City Press asked Ms. Kane, "So you're the master of ceremonies?"

"My department organized this," she answered. "Write nicely about our Organization."

In that spirit, we'll note that the UN's envoy on children and armed conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, chatted about Gaza and the Congo with top humanitarian John Holmes. Deputy chief of staff Kim Won-soo, who didn't sign a Compact, moved to sit next to American Department of Political Affairs chief Lynn Pascoe; one surmised that Sri Lanka was discussed.

Mister Disarmament, Sergio Duarte, came over to wait to speak with Mr. Kim. Vijay Nambiar, the chief of staff last seen strolling 42nd Street at 10 p.m. Wednesday night, help organize the final picture. Why aren't you signing a compact, he was asked. Because I am staff, he answered, this is for line managers. Nambiar has been mentioned to perhaps move laterally to the top post at the UN Development Program, the short list for which Team Ban is also keeping secret, unlike Kofi Annan's list. The UNDP post is described as third-highest in the UN system. The list should be released.

Nor did the UN's Number Two, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, sign a compact, though at the ceremony's end, after first they appeared lost, the compact were entrusted into her custody. Then, after photographer's instructions moved the group back behind the desk -- "the Secretary General said to say something when something's broken," the UN photographer said, and this is broken" -- the group snap shot was taken.

Public Information chief Kiyo Akasaka and Mr. Ban bowed to each other after the signing. Four tall men, Messrs Costa, Diarra and Kubis, and to a lesser degree Shaaban Shaaban, towered over Mr. Ban. Mr. Sha was said to be on official travel, and did not appear by TV like Achim Steiner with his name tag, or the trio from Geneva. In from the field were Noeleen Heyzer, Abdoulie Janneh and Anna Tibaijuka, still famous for her critique of Operation Take-Out-the-Trash in Zimbabwe, carried about by Robert Mugabe's security forces. Missing from the UN's Compact ceremony was acting security chief David Veness, or any replacement.

Inga-Britt Ahlenius, last seen chatting at a party for Iran, was the first to sign her Compact. To the surprise of some, technology chief and Assistant Secretary General Choi Soon-hong signed a Compact. The other Under-Secretaries General were encourage to sign contract with their ASGs. Alain Le Roy, then, should draft one with his deputy Edmond Mullet, known to have participated in Ban's meeting later on Thursday with Sudan's Ambassador. That meeting broke up to allow a private tete a tete. One hopes Ban didn't read from notes. Click here for Inner City Press' Sudan coverage of later in the day.

Later in the hallway -- Inner City Press has been told, "this is not a press conference, just a photo op" -- the UN's top lawyer Patricia O'Brien committed to take a look at seeming abuses of the UN's logo and name by corporations. We hope to have more on this, and on the USGs who have still not followed Ban's urging to make at least some minimal public financial disclosure.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ban1compacts021209.html