For Reform at US Mission to the UN, Obama Nominates Isobel Coleman from CFR

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 12 -- More than nine months after Joseph Torsella left as the US Mission to the UN's Ambassador on Management and Reform, and his first proposed successor withdrew, on September 12 the Obama administration announced a new nominee:  Isobel Coleman.

   She has been at the Council on Foreign Relations since 2002; before that she was at McKinsey, and founded NursingHands, Inc. Of her most recent book, her website says, "Through case studies on Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa, Thailand, and Ukraine,Pathways to Freedom explores the structural factors and policy choices that shaped eight important transitions—some successful, others less so."

  It was published by CFR in May, 2013. Particularly on Ukraine, and on Thailand in light of this year's coup, might there be updates?

   Management and Reform has historically been an important position at the US Mission and remains so today, given for example the need for a Freedom of Information Act for the UN. But will this nomination proceed?

   Back in November, 2013 Inner City Press reported thatTorsella would leave by the end of the year, then on November 21 that the Obama administration nominated to replace Torsella the lawyer Leslie Berger Kiernan.  

  On January 30, without explanation, her nomination was withdrawn, notified to the press by email after 6:25 pm:

WITHDRAWALS SENT TO THE SENATE:

Leslie Berger Kiernan, of Maryland, to be Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform, with the rank of Ambassador, which was sent to the Senate on January 6, 2014.

  We noted that Leslie Berger Kiernan authored a legal treatise chapter on "Political Patronage and the Revolving Door," processes too prevalent in the UN.

 Back on November 15 the US Mission's Ambassador Samantha Power announced that Torsella would be leaving by the end of 2013.

  Inner City Press immediately tweeted it, along with the suggestion of 21 audit salute, since Torsella focused on the issue of releasing UN audits, pushing forward from where things were under his predecessor at the US Mission, Mark Wallace.

(Wallace went, notably, to United Against a Nuclear Iran which appears dis-united on the issue of new sanctions, with president saying no but spokesperson saying members say yes.)

  Torsella pushed for Fifth (Budget) Committeeproceedings to be on UN Television. The Group of 77 responded that other committees like the Second on development and Fourth which included decolonization and work on the rights of Palestinians should also be filmed. 

  Both have happened -- improvements in technology are also involved -- and it's all to the good.

   The G77 meeting at which Bolivia became as Inner City Press first reported the successor to Fiji was not initially televised; when Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access complained, the UN official in charge said it was belatedly on, check before asking.

   But it was UN staff which also complained, and this automatic defending of the UN is one of the things wrong, in the bigger picture for example on the UN bringing cholera to Haiti. 

  Where does or would Isobel Coleman stand on it? And a newly arising issues, on which Inner City Press hasreported: should the US State Department continue supporting the UN's bid for immunity for allegedly bringing cholera to Haiti? 

  We'll have more on that. For now, this on less reported parts of Torsella's legacy:

Torsella to his credit wasn't just about the money. The issue of lack of accountability in Sri Lanka got delegated to him, in part because military figure Shavendra Silva was cynically put on Ban's Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations.

  (Click here for longer form reporting on Sri Lanka andlast weekend's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.)

  In classic UN form, Ban stayed away telling Inner City Press it was a decision of the member states. Without saying more, Inner City Press can report Torsella worked on this.

    

For Reform Ambassador at US Mission to the UN, Obama Nominates Leslie Berger Kiernan, Lawyer Who Repped Rangel: WH Asked

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 21, updated -- Last Friday we reported that the US Mission to the UN's ambassador for reform Joe Torsella will leave by the end of the year.

   Today the Obama administration nominated to replace Torsella the lawyer Leslie Berger Kiernan. The administration's summary is that she has been with the Office of the White House Counsel since 2011 -- and from 1988 to 2011 with the firm Zuckerman Spaeder.

  There, her highest profile client at least from public records was Congressman Charles Rangel. This seems noteworthy, given the nomination for the US Mission position trying to root out UN corruption. But a lawyer is not his or her client; Inner City Press has sought comment from the US Mission.

Update 6:10 pm: The Mission responds that it does not answer nominee questions; the questions have been sent to the White House.

  In the interim we note that Leslie Berger Kiernan authored a legal treatise chapter on "Political Patronage and the Revolving Door," processes too prevalent in the UN.

Background: On November 15 the US Mission's Ambassador Samantha Power announced that Torsella will be leaving by the end of 2013.

  Inner City Press immediately tweeted it, along with the suggestion of 21 audit salute, since Torsella focused on the issue of releasing UN audits, pushing forward from where things were under his predecessor at the US Mission, Mark Wallace.

(Wallace went, notably, to United Against a Nuclear Iran which appears dis-united on the issue of new sanctions, with president saying no but spokesperson saying members say yes.)

  Torsella pushed for Fifth (Budget) Committee proceedings to be on UN Television. The Group of 77 responded that other committees like the Second on development and Fourth which included decolonization and work on the rights of Palestinians should also be filmed. 

  Both have happened -- improvements in technology are also involved -- and it's all to the good.

   Two weeks ago the G77 meeting at which Bolivia became as Inner City Press first reported the successor to Fiji was not initially televised; when Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access complained, the UN official in charge said it was belatedly on, check before asking.

   But it was UN staff which also complained, and this automatic defending of the UN is one of the things wrong, in the bigger picture for example on the UN bringing cholera to Haiti. Where does Torsella stand on that, before he leaves?

  Where does or would Leslie Berger Kiernan stand on it? And a newly arising issues, which Inner City Press reported on yesterday: should the US State Department support a UN bid for immunity for allegedly bringing cholera to Haiti? 

  We'll have more on that. For now, this on less reported parts of Torsella's legacy:

Torsella to his credit wasn't just about the money. The issue of lack of accountability in Sri Lanka got delegated to him, in part because military figure Shavendra Silva was cynically put on Ban's Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations.

  (Click here for longer form reporting on Sri Lanka and lastweekend's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.)

  In classic UN form, Ban stayed away telling Inner City Press it was a decision of the member states. Without saying more, Inner City Press can report Torsella worked on this. One reason more can't be said is that the US Mission so often puts things off the record, sometimes after the fact. 

  Even the farewell for Ambassador Susan Rice was said to be off the record. Inner City Press complied, but scribes more obsequious to the US uploaded selfies of themselves with Rice, and left them up, while attacking investigative journalism and free press at the UN. 

 This too is an issue in the purview of Torsella and whoever his successor will be. The US should do more on this -- with spying undermining privacy, claims of freedom of the press are one of the definitely US values. Let that be pushed at thelawless UN, not only in 2014 but by Torsella before he leaves. 

  Torsella said the US is opposed to "clean slates," without competition, in UN system elections. But in the recent elections for the Human Rights Council, there was no competition to France and the UK in the Western Europe and Other Group, of which the US is a member. There's more work to be done at and on the UN -- much more. 

  Here's one, in the spirit of reform and transparency: cost cutting proposals in the UN system, largely supported by the US Mission, would involve Americans losing their jobs to off-shoring. Is this the US being selfless? Or just hoping no one puts the contradiction together? 

  Click here for Inner City Press' exclusive coverage of UNDP's job off-shoring plans, including Accenture report.

  American Tony Lake at UNICEF is also doing it - but he can say he is an international civil servant. The US State Department and Mission - isn't their job to advance American (and Americans') interests at and in the UN? Watch this site.

   

At UN, Ban on Mobility Means Post for Khare, Musical Chairs, Orr for Nambiar?

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, May 25 -- Earlier in his five year term as UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon announced a policy of mobility under which no official should serve in the same position for more than five years.

On May 25, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky for an update on the policy, specifically with regard to Ban's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar, political chief Lynn Pascoe, top peacekeeper Alain Le Roy, and his (and Kofi Annan's) adviser Robert Orr.

Nesirky answered that the policy is being considered by the General Assembly. While this may be true of wider human resources policy, Ban's implementation of his own stated ideals in his own cabinet does not require outside approval.

While Inner City Press is informed of impending changes with regard to the above-named officials, what is most striking is what sources say about Bob Orr trying to replace Nambiar as Ban's chief of staff, despite his already long service in the Executive Office of the Secretary General.

As noted, Nambiar has refused to take any questions from the press, despite a formal request from the UN correspondents' association.

There's said by UN sources to be another Frenchman in line to eventually replace Le Roy, and another American for Pascoe -- unless the UK gets its wish to “get DPA back” and thereby releases Valerie Amos from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Meanwhile, the spirit of mobility is being violated, in the name of “Change Management.” With Edmond Mulet returning from Haiti to reclaim “his” post as Deputy chief of DPKO, the current holder of this post Atul Khare must leave.

But Khare is not of retirement age, and his native India wants to keep a high post, particularly if Nambiar's to leave.

So what does Ban do? Inner City Press twice asked Ban's spokesman Nesirky without getting an answer. Now multiple sources tell Inner City Press that Ban's solution is to create a new post for Khare, called Assistant Secretary General for Change Management, which will report to Deputy S-G Migiro. As one source said, “this is how you make sure nothing changes.”

From the UN's noon briefing transcript of May 23:

Inner City Press: Just factually, I wanted to know, I think Mr. [Edmond] Mulet is coming back from Haiti, from his time in Haiti at the end of this month. And some had said he is going to become the Deputy in DPKO [Department of Peacekeeping Operations]. Is that true, and what happens to Mr. [Atul] Khare, does he remain with DPKO or does he--

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Yeah, you asked that question by e-mail on Friday, and when we have an answer we’ll let you know, okay?

Watch this site.

At UN, Some Call Management Reform an Oxymoron, G to P Barriers and Breakaway UNDP, Ban Soldiers On

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1mgmtreform040808.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 8 -- "Get the Secretariat out of the information Stone Age and into a modern one," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon intoned Tuesday to a chamber full of Ambassadors and the his most senior officials. The topic was Management Reform, and what was called a debate consisted of the serial reading-out of speeches, many of them at cross purposes. The Group of 77 and China spoke of the need to make UN procurement more diverse -- that is, to stop favoring European and American companies with the largest contracts. The European Union, who spoke immediately after, did not even mention procurement as a reform issue. If you're getting the contracts, why would you complain?

Ban spoke of equality, saying he has "proposals to introduce one UN contract under one set of Staff Rules." The trend however in the UN system in the past year, in which the UN Development Program was allowed to exempt itself from the UN's Ethics system and its ostensible whistleblower protections, has gone in the opposite direction. And Ban does not, it seem, propose to abolish the wall between so-called General Service and Professional staff, a divide that few get promoted over, thereby wasting the talents of many UN workers. Some say that Kofi Annan, who as a long-time UN staffer understood the G to P wall, should have been the one to break it down, but didn't. Will Ban come to understand and do it, as a reverse Nixon goes to China?

In fact, on the same day of this debate, the Secretariat's problems with the Staff Union became again apparent. To the new four-member internal justice advisory body, Ban appointed two consummate management insiders, the current and past directors of the General Legal Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs, OLA. In terms of reform and transparency, the current head of OLA did not include in his public financial disclosure the fact that he was receiving at least $10,000 a month of his government, Switzerland, to pay for his housing. There have been no repercussions for this, but Ban's speech said that "accountability is not just a management word, it means taking responsibility."

Ban said that in the new system for the administration of justice, "if it is found that an improper decision has been made, the individual manager should be held accountable." Does this mean for example that UNDP's Kemal Dervis or Ad Melkert would be held accountable for Ban's Ethics Office's finding that UNDP committed prima facie retaliation against a whistleblower? Will there be accountability for the managers who left UNHCR workers in Algiers, at the time of the deadly December 11 bombing, outside of the coverage of the UN's Malicious Acts Insurance Policy?

Ban complained that "the way it stands now, some of my Special Representatives in the field earn less and serve under less favorable conditions that those coming from within the system, in particular from a Fund or Program" -- like the UN Development Program.

At Tuesday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson, "Can we get more information on what he meant, in terms of what Special Representatives of the Secretary-General are paid and who in UNDP or any program he’s comparing it to? Are all Special Representatives of the Secretary-General paid the same amount?"

The spokesperson responded, "we can get that information for you from the Management Office. I don’t have it with me now." But by the end of the day, a single unrelated link about "conditions of service" had been provided. Ah, responsiveness and transparency. But how much do the SRSGs get paid? And what about accountability for the SRSG now accused of having accepted favors and even land from Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe? Click here for that, and watch this space.

Footnote: at the highest levels, the problems even the internal justice advisory panel picks were known. Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar wrote to the staff union, urging them, as the Department of Management's Alicia Barcena previously did, to buckle under to the Staff-Management Coordination Committee. The Staff Union insists that not the vehicle to be making these appointments. Ms. Barcena, who was on the Management Reform podium all day and nothing but polite in the hallway outside, is still widely said to be leaving; one of her rumored replacements, Joachim Ruecker, is reported to have told his interviewers that "we don't work at the UN for money." Tell that to Nicolas Michel...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1mgmtreform040808.html