At UN, Food Workers Face Layoff Four Days Before Christmas, Amid UN Corruption Scandals, Inner City Press Has Seen CulinArt Memo

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 7 -- At the UN amid glitz and corruption scandals, and just before Christmas, the food workers of the Delegates Dining Room faced "temporary layoff" into February.

  The letter to the workers to be temporarily laid off, which they provided to Inner City Press, says "Due to the closure of the Delegates Dining Room, you will be placed on temporary lay off... starting Monday, December 21, 2015."  That is, four days before Christmas. Thanks, UN.

The UN's caterer, CulinArt, publicized its service to Pope Francis -- while at the UN telling its food workers to for that day not eat in the cafeteria and mix with delegates, as Inner City Press reported. We'll have more on this.

  Amid a UN scandal of Macau businessman Ng Lap Seng having bought the UN through former President of the General Assembly John Ashe and South South News honcho Frank Lorenzo, there is some talk of reforming the ways in which campaigning to replace Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General can be done. 

 But campaigning for Security Council seats remains entirely unreformed.

 With the collusion of the UN Correspondents Association, which after taking money from Lorenzo's South South News gave Ng a photo op with Ban at Cipriani, the Italy Mission which is running against Sweden and the Netherlands for a Council seat not only handed out free food on December for in the clubhouse the UN gives to UNCA: it posted its Security Council campaign banner inside UNCA, facing out. Photo here.

  Italy's “in” was that not only is one Giampaolo Pioli, without any term limits, still head of UNCA: he now has his former protege, now with ANSA, as a Vice President. 

 This is the same Pioli who not only tried to get the investigative Press thrown out for reporting on his favor to the Sri Lankan ambassador who rented one of Pioli's apartments but also made campaign contributions in a race he was ostensibly covering for his media in Italy, Quotiadiano Nazionale.

   Should journalists give money to politicians they are “covering”? Should a group of correspondents given a room by the UN use it for their country's campaign for a Security Council seat? This is today's UN, and its UN Corruption Association.

  They say there's no free lunch. In today's UN there is Italian food given to scribes to promote a week of for-pay lunches, consonant with Italy's run for a Security Council seat against Sweden and the Netherlands.

  The hosts, the UN Corruption Association UNCA -- now selling seats with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for $6000, see below -- just anointed two Italian journalists among its top five officials, including hold-over president Giampaolo Pioli who has tried to censor and eject the investigative Press, here.

 Absurdly, Pioli's derivative invitation to those who pay UNCA money calls it an “exclusive aperitivo.” Pioli's tenure is marked not only with censorship but also bread and circuses, and events having little to do with the UN, such as the launch of a kid's book by a hedge fund executive. (This on top of screening war crimes denial films for the Sri Lankan ambassador, to whom Pioli rented one of his Manhattan apartments, here.)

  But why would Italy, or separately the three chefs Sonia Balacchi, Filippo La Mantia and Michele Biagiola, think it benefits them to go behind closed doors with a group that has engaged in censorship, and is now selling access to Ban Ki-moon?  Such an event could easily be held in the mission, the UN's Ex-Press Bar, or any number of other locations. It's a (bad) choice, or as some say, an Italian thing. We'll have more on this.

  With the UN embroiled in scandals including the indictments of former President of the General Assembly and Macau businessman Ng Lap Seng and Frank Lorenzo and their South South News, one would expect the UN press corps, even the entity the UN itself chooses to set aside first questions for, to be pursuing rather than be involved in the scandals.

  But with the UN Correspondents Association, this year more than ever, that is not the case. UNCA's just completed"elections" had no competition at all for the officer seats, now doled out to AFP, France 24, the US Broadcasting Board of Governors and ANSA fromholdover president Giampaolo Pioli's native Italy.

  This UNCA "leadership" represents Italy and France, and old media -- tellingly, those new media which chose to run (Inner City Press quit UNCA after its censorship bid) for lesser UNCA seats were not selected. Also tellingly, the UN Spokesperson's office promoted the scam election, using its loudspeaker to try to get out the vote (for candidates who had no opponents.)

 The ringmaster, Giampaolo Pioli, came through the UN Security Council stakeout not to ask any question or even listen to answers on South Sudan or Syria; he glad handed his unopposed slate and then headed to the UN bar. He has arranged more Italian toasting, seeingly part of Italy's actually-opposed campaign for a Security Council seat (more on this in future dispatches).

  It's become the UN's Censorship Alliance - having tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN - and the UN Corruption Association, selling photo ops and seats with Ban Ki-moon.  Call them Ban Ki-moon shots.

  While calling for an audit of sale of UN access under John Ashe, should Ban openly allow access to him to be sold? He appears intent on doing so, or operating by inertia, on automatic pilot. Inner City Press now learns that Ban's twice delayed report on the cover up of peacekeepers' rapes in the Central African Republic will be pushed further back, after the sell-out, buried. We'll have more on this.

 UNCA's awards, such as they gave to South South Newsfor money, include awards and payments to entities who've served on their own Board.

  In 2011 under then (and now) president Giampaolo Pioli, UNCA took money from the South South News of now-indicted Ng Lap Seng, then gave South South News an UNCA award and gave Ng Lap Seng a photo op with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

  Now in November 2015, Pioli has solicited $6000 from UN Ambassadors for seats at the “VIP” table at the UNCA “Ball” on Wall Street: to sit with Ban Ki-moon. Here is UNCA's pitch:

"Dear Ambassador,

The United Nations Correspondents Association is honored to invite you to participate and contribute to the 20th annual UNCA Awards event with guest of honor U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, recipient of the 2015 Global Advocate of the Year Award for climate change.  Exclusive raffle prizes include business class airline tickets around the world with hotel accommodations and a grand prize FIAT 500X car. As your esteemed presence will ensure the success of this event, we are pleased to send you the below opportunities to attend the gala dinner:

Mission Table Special Price / $6000 (half-table) 5 seats at VIP table at the gala event
                                      
Special Ambassador Contribution / $2,000 -1 VIP ticket for Ambassador with premium seating to dinner + 1 complimentary VIP ticket for spouse or guest -Special acknowledgement of the Ambassador and the Mission in the UNCA Awards Journal of the evening -Additional tickets for UN Diplomats of the Mission can be purchased at the special price of $750 each

Giampaolo Pioli, UNCA President
Please make all checks payable to 'UNCA Awards Committee'
Contributions to the UNCA Awards Committee are tax deductible.
The UNCA Awards Committee is a 501-c(3)"

 This is precisely the type of sale of access involved in the indictments of Ng, Sheri Yan and Frank Lorenzo.

  While others are announcing audits and freezing such contacts, UNCA under Pioli is bulling forward, charging ever more money, getting ever further from journalistic purposes.

  On November 20, Pioli's UNCA circulated a list of candidates with no competition for any of the six officer positions. It also pre-announced its awards, including to Reuters (on its Board) and others. We'll have more on this.

    For the three running unopposed for five president slots, two were already on the UNCA board during the relevant time period; the other is Pioli's former protege at Quotidiano Nazionale. It's an Italian thing.

   Running for Treasurer? It's Agence France Presse, whose previous correspondent tried to use a position on the UNCA board to censor Press coverage of Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row atop UN Peacekeeping.

  Reuters is in the mix, too, and another which joined Pioli in trying to censor coverage of Pioli unilaterally approving a Sri Lankan government war crimes denial film for a “UN” screening, after Pioli rented one of his apartments to Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the UN. This is UN. But amid the new scandals at the UN, this is something new: watch this site.



Footnote: Inner City Press after Pioli's and others censorship bid, and attempt to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN (uncovered along with documents still to be published by a Freedom of Information Act request, here, and questioned by the New York Civil Liberties Union), quit the UNCA board and co-founded, with another who'd quit UNCA as corrupt, the Free UN Coalition for Access.

 FUNCA does not seek any automatic first questions, butopposes the UN setting aside first questions for an entity which, as now shown, is enmeshed in the very UN scandals that must be asked about. Watch this site.

UN Lags on Labor Rights, Culinart Food Workers Laid-Off in January, Staff Union Broken, Censors Return

By Matthew Russell Lee, Scoop

UNITED NATIONS, December 31 -- With the UN of Ban Ki-moon having effectively broken its own Staff Union, now food service workers inside the UN face "lay-off status" for at least one month. Click here to view document obtained by Inner City Press.

  Aramark had the contract for the UN cafeteria, Vienna Cafe, Delegates Dining Room and Lounge; it was extended through December 31 while being put out to bid.

   Then food workers in the UN exclusively told Inner City Press that Aramark has lost the contract and Culinart, a smaller firm, had been awarded it. (Inner City Press first reported this on October 28, here.) 

  The food workers told Inner City Press there have been no communications to them about their future employment after December 31.

Now on that day Inner City Press has obtained and is exclusively publishing this communication from Michael Pitkewicz of Culinart to the company's UN employees:

"The United Nations has informed us that the Delegates Dining Room will be closed from December 31, 2014 to January 30, 2015. During that time you will be on lay-off status. The Management Team will contact you to advise when you should report back to work."

  Happy holidays. 

  Meanwhile inside the UN, Ban has effectively broken the UN Staff Union. 

  Late October saw the submission to management of a Joint Statement by the former and current members of the Arbitration Committee, which restated the facts of their proceedings regarding the December 2013 Union elections and their subsequent rulings. But no response from Ban's UN, in the run up to his controlled "Global Town Hall" staff meeting in early January.

 Upstairs things have taken a turn toward the surreal, or toward the “sweatshop,” sources tell Inner City Press.

  When the 38 story UN Secretariat building was renovated, many floors were left with the “open plan” in which staff members no longer had walls or privacy. Instead there are so-called “focus booths” the size of closets in which one could make a phone call.

(On the press floor, the UN said it would maintain UN landline telephones in the booths, as requested by Inner City Press and now the Free UN Coalition for Access, to allow direct dialing of UN Peacekeeping missions like the one in Mali where nine peacekeepers from Niger were killed in November. 

  But there are no phones, the old UN Correspondents Association never followed through, maintaining a large mostly unused room while media left without offices have been given the focus booths -- while on December 30 offering self-congratulation, here, before the return of the Censor in Chief. We'll have more on this.)

  But upstairs it is crazier. Now the proposal is for “hot desks.” As described to Inner City Press by staff members, it involves a “first come, first served” system for desk space. If a staff member is not among the earliest, he or she might be left with no desk to work from.

  He or she is also an issue raised. As one staff member put it, she as a woman does not necessarily want to be dealt out at random each day with “male staff members I don't want to be next to” a mere two feet away.

“Why not just let us work from home, if this is how little they value us?” another staffer asked, demanding to know if Ban Ki-moon and “his insiders” will also work on hot desks.

  Inner City Press has, of course, sought up the Ban Administration's defense of the "hot desks," and offers these links: http://undocs.org/A/RES/68/247B andhttp://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2013/gaab4088.doc.htm

 We'll have more on this.

Footnote: on the controversy of the new head of investments of the UN Pension Fund, the old union raised the issue but says it has been rebuffed, despite the Maryland litigation Inner City Press reported on last month. Retaliation continues, and still the UN has no Freedom of Information Act applying to it. The Free UN Coalition for Access will continue to press on this issue and others. Watch this site.

   

UN Rights Chief Zeid Faces Staff Protests, Lack of Transparency in NY, Leaks About Western Sahara

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 21 -- Protesting layoffs and lack of transparency, staff at the UN Office of the High Commission for Human Rights are petitioning new High Commissioner Prince Zeid for due process and accountability. Inner City Press has obtained the petition and is exclusively putting it online here.

In it, the OHCHR staff call for “transparent and comprehensive information on prospective cuts and restructuring, detailing their impact on savings and OHCHR’s overall financial situation... tangible accountability measures by attributing responsibility for the present crisis and taking the requisite action to prevent another financial crisis of this magnitude in the future and a meaningful dialogue and truly consultative decision-making on ongoing financial including putting decisions on hold.”

The staff complain to Zeid that “the lack of transparency, consultation and information on who, where or how, not to mention why, some of us are affected is deplorable and unacceptable.”

The lack of transparency in the current OHCHR extends from Geneva to New York, where the Office anonymously spun its Ukraine report to hand-picked scribes then refused when asked to explain the basis. 

 Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access asked at the November 20 UN noon briefing that the New York representative of Prince Zeid hold a press availability about the report, including incongruities in report on labor issues such as the cut-off of pensions, click here for that.

  On accountability, the staff complain that the “senior management level evidently bears much more responsibility. Yet, it is other individuals at lower levels who are paying the price for this mismanagement.”

Also on accountability at the OHCHR, as Inner City Press has twice reported, document leaks from inside the UN have identified improper service of Morocco, on the question of Western Sahara, by a current staffer at the OHCHR, Anders Kompass, and by another who has recently left.

 Prince Zeid has yet to publicly address this scandal, though Inner City Press understands that no only is their an investigation by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services, but also inquiry from member states such as Sweden. Inquiry on them was not permitted at Zeid's one press availability this week in New York. Zeid should address this scandal - and his Office's staff. Watch this site.

   

UNDP's Liley, After Layoffs & Partying, Abruptly Exits, Scandals and Analogies

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 18, more here -- Layoffs at the UN Development Program have been a subject of Inner City Press' reporting since May, and now more documents and comparisons are emerging, including UNDP's head of Human Resources Michael Liley now leaving after barely two years on the job, amid questions.

  Because "human resources" officials partying in the midst of layoffs, like fiddling while Rome burned, seems inappropriate to some, Inner City Press on June 4 published this:

Subject: Please join us for an OHR NY End-of-Week Get Together
From: Michael Liley
Sent: Tuesday, June 3, 2014 5:30:29 PM
To: OHR New York; Mads Svendsen; Alesandra Roccasalvo; Carlos Arboleda; Hannes Finkenbrink; Eugene Pak; Lisa Lange; Robert Nadelson; Teresa Posse; Fabrizio Mastrogirolamo; Thomas ELFTMANN; Savita Shivaji; Seth Levine

Please join us for an OHR NY End-of-Week Get Together

Dear all, You are warmly invited to put your work aside for one afternoon as OHR NY gets together to socialize at a team-building event this Friday. There will be music and activities, with food and drink provided – we only ask that you bring yourselves (and your sense of fun)!

I look forward to seeing everyone there!

Michael C. Liley
Director, Office of Human Resources, BoM, UNDP

   Now amid reports of investigations the worm has turned, and Liley has unceremoniously left, sending this out on Friday, October 17 after 4 pm:

Dear OHR Colleagues, It is with mixed emotions that I am writing to you – to let you know that I have decided to leave and return to private sector after 2 exciting years at UNDP. This was not an easy decision to make... In my final message to all of you I want to talk about the team – the Office of Human Resources (OHR).

Before the end of the year the colleagues in NY will see another visible sign – the refurbishment of the 18th floor! With Liz’ arrival we have added the experience of a senior HR executive to the team and Vee’s move to OHR brings the field perspective to SAS. Rekha’s new role as Chief of Directorate has served us well during the turbulent times of the Structural Change – her leadership made a big difference. Ali has a strong focus on making our offices the best and most productive place to work they can be. And soon Diego will round up this team with more strong HR leadership experience. All of these leaders have taken their roles in the past 24 months – a lot of change. And Henrietta continues to provide leadership to the field group and now coordinates our crucial HR efforts on Ebola.

Unfortunately I won’t get a chance to say farewell to each of you individually – all the best for you, personally and professionally. Warm regards, Michael

   Throughout this year there have been rumblings about “Helen Clark's cut backs” at UNDP.

   In late May the rumbling spiked, with the UNDP staff union holding a meeting in the UN's basement on May 29 to discuss the loss of up to 30% of UNDP's jobs in New York.

  So on May 31 when Helen Clark re-tweeted praise of her visit to Belarus from her representative in the country, Sri Lankan national Sanaka Samarasinha, Inner City Press replied: "What about the UNDP layoffs?"

   The response came not from Helen Clark -- who rarely if ever holds question and answer press availabilities at the UN in New York -- but from Samarasinha, that the UNDP layoffs "must always be transparent & being fit for purpose. We strive toward that end."

  Inner City Press thanked Samarasinha, adding it will try to make the proposed layoffs transparent.  And we continue and will continue to do that.

Footnotes: The fiddling while Rome burns analogies are everywhere. Also in late May, for example, the UN evicted the News Agency of Nigeria from its workspace on the third floor of the UN Secretariat building. 

   Inner City Press reported on it and at the June 4 noon briefing on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access asked spokeman Stephane Dujarric about it, anddue process (also applicable at UNDP). The old UN Correspondents Association, on the other hand, did nothing for the News Agency of Nigeria, nor for the correspondent to whom French Ambassador Gerard Araud said "You are not a journalist, you are an agent, nor since then when USG Ladsous blocked the Press' camera at the General Assembly stakeout, Vine here.

  Instead, UNCA big wigs partied on June 7 in a Hamptons home that UNCA's just-previous president tried to rent out for $90,000 a month, after renting an apartment to Sri Lanka's Ambassador, see here. In a reference to Sri Lanka's Bloodbath on the Beach, this was called "Blowhards on the Beach." And parallel to or despite these finances, the successor has urged new media at the UN to pay $90 in exchange for a letter to get office space inside the UN. We've seen the repercussions of such behavior, at least in OHR, within UNDP. What about on the east side of First Avenue? Watch this site.

   

On Climate Refugees, Vanuatu Tells Inner City Press It's Sensitive, No UNDP View, More Debt in Caribbean Than Pacific; Of UNDP Layoffs

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 28 -- The UN says it is doing its all for Small Island Developing States, that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will convene a meeting of the UN's Chief Executives Board on Samoa in early September. 

  But will climate change refugees be on the agenda? Apparently not.

 On August 28, Inner City Press asked the Permanent Representative of Vanuatu, as well as his co-panelist from the UN Development Program, for their positions on environmental refugees.  UNDP apparently has no position; Vanuatu's Odo Tevi called it sensitive and said there is no solution in sight.

  Inner City Press is informed the concept is not in the outcome document for the Samoa meeting. At this Third International Conference on SIDS there, one of the topics is “debt sustainability.” But what is the UN system doing about that?

    On this, UNDP's Deputy Director for the Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, Nicholas Rosellini, said debt is a bigger problem in the Caribbean than in the Pacific. Vanuatu's Odo Tevi said that given "new models" coming up, it would be good to be cautious. We don't hear enough from Vanuatu, so Odo Tevi's comments were appreciated.

  Because UNDP has declined to directly answer questions about the layoffs planned under Administrator Helen Clark, despite extensive complaints from staff unions, to endeavor to understand the specifics of the cuts Inner City Press asked Rosellini how UNDP's research would be impacted.

  Rosellini said UNDP has three centers in the Pacific, and cited one in Suva which will continue as-is. The same was previously said about UNDP's Human Development Report arm. So where are the cuts?

  Recently UNDP refused to answer simple Inner City Press questions about irregularities in programs it adminsters in Afghanistan, then only answered after two weeks, following Inner City Press questions at a half dozen UN noon briefings. With this type of stonewalling, with no end in sight, the questions must continue.

 By contrast, even the International Monetary Fund answers questions -- for example, Inner City Press' question on ebola on August 28, here. The IMF is sending Min Zhu to Samoa: we'll have more on this.

 On Gaza, Inner City Press on July 24 asked the International Monetary Fund for its estimate of the economic impact of the conflict in both Gaza and Israel, including specifically with the FAA and now Delta and other airlines' decisions on access to Ben Gurion Airport.

  IMF Deputy Spokesperson William Murray read out Inner City Press' Gaza question (and others from Inner City Press on Ukraine and Liberia) at the IMF's embargoed briefing on July 24. On Gaza, the IMF's Murray answered Inner City Press:

“With the conflict ongoing, it is too soon to make an accurate assessment of the impact, which will depend on the conflict's duration. Post-conflict reconstruction poses risk to Palestinian Authority finances absent additional donor financing. The Palestinian Authority does not have fiscal room to take on this additional burden.”

  On Israel, after noting that he saw news of renewed access to Ben Gurion Airport, Murray answered Inner City Press:

“As for Israel, Israel financial market have remained stable, with shekel steadily appreciating, the Tel Aviv 100 has been little changed in past two weeks. The cost of the conflict of past two weeks, point two percent of GDP... The impact on economic activity, tourism and SMEs in southern Israel has already been felt. A further deceleration of GDP growth could be likely in 3d quarter. Once conflict ends we expect growth in Israel to rebound relative quickly.”

A tale of two economies, you might call it.  Watch this site.

   

Exclusive: UNDP's Afghanistan Funding Irregularities Shown by Leaks to Inner City Press, LOTFA Echo

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, August 5 – Following up on Inner City Press exclusive publication of UN Development Program audits of its Law and Order Trust Fund Afghanistan, including double payments and other irregularities, whistleblowers have exclusively provided Inner City Press with more damning documents. 

    For now Inner City Press is exclusively publishing this one, linking it to the LOTFA scandal: an official "was again advised that it may be illegal for salaried police officials to take cash payments to augment their salaries" but the adviser was told it was "no longer my priority under LOTFA and that I was no longer to address these issues with DPII or DSS."

  This and the other documents indicate that little was fixed, that UNDP goes after whistleblowers, and does not follow up even when for example it is involved in visa fraud. 

   Inner City Press has asked no fewer than four spokespeople at UNDP, including the personal spokesperson for UNDP Administrator (and UNSG candidate) Helen Clark for their response: 

This is an Inner City Press Press request on deadline for UNDP's comment / response to the following narrative provided to us by UNDP whistleblowers:

UNDP purchased $100,000 in fuel for a special police unit and it was discovered that some or all of the fuel was stolen by the police. The project manager - chief technical adviser for the project refused to purchase another allocation of fuel due to this reported corruption. Refusing to purchase this additional fuel caused problems between the project manager - chief technical adviser and the chief of UN security in Afghanistan.

This followed with reports that several vehicles purchased by this same UNDP project and given to this same special police unit were not being used for the unit but had instead been given as political gifts or other reasons to other offices of the Afghan government. After giving these vehicles to higher ranking officials the Colonel of this special police unit was promoted to General.

The project manager - chief technical adviser reported this and nothing happened. As part of the review which discovered this the corruption of payments made by the UN security office in Afghanistan to the special police unit was also discovered and reported.

 This is also a request for UNDP response / comment on another issue, of visa overstay, also on deadline:

UNDP's staff from Afghanistan have not returned to their duty station after being granted visas to attend/participate in the recent UN Games in the USA. UNDP supported the official/G4 visas for all of these Afghan nationals and now they have remained behind in the USA... How can the organization justify sending a dozen people half-way around the world to compete in 'UN Games'? How many of them were given business class tickets since the travel exceeds the 9 hour standard? Is this a proper use of public monies? How can an office so critical to the development of Afghanistan in this time of change see it as beneficial for a dozen of their staff to go on a paid junket to the USA?

[Names redacted in this format / for now]

This is on deadline. This is also a request for UNDP's response to the staff survey and the critique(s) of the restructuring / layoffs. 

  More than four hours and one UNDP press conference latter, no answers from UNDP. When they arrive, we plan to have more. Watch this site.

   

On MDGs Report, ICP Asks UN of Aid Shifting Away from Poorest, UNDP Layoffs

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 7 -- When the UN released its “Millennium Development Goals Report 2014” on July 7, it said that “aid is shifting away from the poorest countries.” 

  Inner City Press asked the report's author Keiko Osaki-Tomita and the shift, and asked Shantanu Mukherjee, MDG team leader at the United Nations Development Program about UNDP's layoffs impact on the Goals and their assessment.

  Keiko Osaki-Tomita said the shift was identified by the OECD, adding that multilateral institutions, presumably including the World Bank, are moving toward “soft loans.” Mukherjee said that some “poorest countries” have graduated to lower middle income status, citing Ghana and Tanzania.

  On the layoffs or “re-structuring” of UNDP, Mukherjee politely said that UNDP's senior leadership is better positioned to answer. Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access, which has been asking about these layoffs after being told by UNDP staff about them, agree -- so where is senior UNDP leadership? Click here for a view from New Zealand, citing Inner City Press.

  The UN set aside the first question in the MDGs press conference for the UN Correspondents Association, whose head Pam Falk tried to ask follow-ups though it is unclear if any of the answers will be reported. Meanwhile other journalists were left to the end of the press conference when questions were taken in bunches. FUNCA is opposed to such set-asides at the UN, along with the bare minimum expectations now published here. Watch this site.

   

As UNDP Moves on Layoff Plans, Focuses on Spin, Helen Clark for UN Secretary General?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 24, more here -- Layoffs at the UN Development Program have been a subject of Inner City Press' reporting since last month.

  Inner City Press' inquiries have continued and re-doubled after Ban's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq, at noon on June 16, refused again to confirm the UN's receipt of a protest letter about the UNDP cut-backs from three UN system-wide unions, UN video here from Minute 30:06.

  Now sources in UNDP have provided Inner City Press with more documents, including for now one showing UNDP's focuses on spin rather than responding to protests of the layoffs:

Subject: [rr-net] Statement for external parties on the UNDP Structural Change
From: Michael O'Neill @ UNDP
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2014 18:10
To: rr-net@groups.undp.org
Cc: Heather Simpson; Margaret Thomas; Fadzai Gwaradzimba; Alberto Lizzi; Dheepa Pandian

Dear colleagues,

Following the roll-out of the Structural Change, you may find it useful to have a short statement for use with external parties including development partners, media and others.

The statement, available on the global UNDP website at this link, UNDP changing to become more effective and efficient, is attributable to UNDP. It is available in English, French and Spanish.

You can also reach it via the For the Record section in the News Centre.

For further information regarding external queries on the Structural Change, please consult the Intranet site and be in touch with Alberto Lizzi and Dheepa Pandian.

Best wishes,

Michael O’Neill
Assistant Secretary-General & Assistant Administrator
Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy
United Nations Development Programme

  This UNDP "For the Record" spin site was for a time run by Ban Ki-moon's lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric, whom Inner City Press has asked about Haq's stonewalling. So could Ban leave and Dujarric remain in place?

  

 Contrary to what appears to some to be Dujarric's (non) communications advice, to Clark when she held few UN press conference to Ban today, for example dodging on the Haiti cholera case, it might be time for Helen Clark to directly address the layoffs, herself, not through proxy or much less spin.

  In the Trusteeship Council Chamber on June 16, Helen Clark and her proposed layoffs were derided as unacceptable, and as related to her ambition to replace Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General. Maybe New Zealand has given its blessing, and UNDP Jordan Ryan does not respond to questions - but how can dissing the UN staff unions lead to running the organization? 

  For now, perhaps, the stonewalling and spin are working: some write of Helen Clark's candidacy to replace Ban without even mentioning the layoffs, widely discussed and derided in the UN.

  On June 16 when Inner City Press asked, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq reiterated his denial of receipt from June 13 (Inner City Press suggested Haq ask the UN Office of Human Resources Management).  From the June 13 UN transcript:

Inner City Press: I know I had asked you last week about this letter from three UN system unions to the Secretary-General about the layoffs or cutbacks planned at UNDP [United Nations Development Programme]. And I wanted to know, you had said at that time, you couldn’t confirm receipt of the letter at that time, but can you now confirm it?

Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq: I’ve been checking, and I still don’t have any confirmation of those letters. At this stage, like I said, the matter is in the hands of the UN Development Programme.

  On June 10, staff from UNDP as well as Ban’s Secretariat got together in the Overlook Bar on 44th Street, a block and a half west of the UN compound and UNDP’s tower. There's been talk not only of Helen Clark’s plan to run for SG based on cost-cutting, but similar promotion ambitions by the author of the May 21 member, Jens Wandel, and the current head of UNDP Human Resources, Michael Liley, whose tone-deaf drinks invitation amid the layoffs is reproduced below.

  Another event is upcoming, with the head of the Office of Staff Legal Affairs. For now, we note who's involved in this"Future United Nations Development System" (yes, FUNDS) program: UN insider contractor PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Dalberg Research, which Inner City Press have covered here. We'll have more on this.

Background: Three UN system staff unions have written to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, about and with a cc to UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, full text here.

  On June 6 Inner City Press asked Ban's Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq about Ban's reaction to the unions' request that he intervene to put the layoffs on hold. Haq told Inner City Press to ask UNDP. When Pressed, Haq wouldn't confirm UN receipt of the letter, or even say that he would check. Video here.

So here's the letter, now published by Inner City Press.

Watch this site.