Misuse of Vacant Posts in UN Pension Fund and in Geneva, Job Trading, Staff Union Complains of Justice Delays

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/dfs4unjspf022008.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 20 -- Even when the UN appears to take abuse by supervisors seriously, it bends the rules to accommodate the abuser. How else to explain the strange situation these days at the UN Pension Fund, where Executive Officer Peter Goddard has effectively been replaced by Ms. Sevil Alirzayeva. But following exposure of staffer Mathew George's complaint of abuse by Goddard, the Department of Management under Alicia Barcena was forced to put on hold Goddard's ill-fated venture to join the UN's Chad peacekeeping mission. Ms. Alirzayeva had already traded in from peacekeeping, leading to musical chairs.

For now, Goddard has been accommodated by shifting him to an empty post, that of Senior Legal Officer. A recruitment announcement for the position has been published on the UN's Galaxy system, with a due date of April 12. In the interim Goddard has been stashed in the job. It is similar, insiders say, to the way former head of the Office of Human Resources Management Jan Beagle was parked in the empty Assistant Secretary General for UNCTAD position in Geneva. The Group of 77, in December's budget, specifically protested this (mis) use of posts. But it continues, right here in New York, in the Pension Fund on Second Avenue.

On the case of Peter Goddard, DM's Alicia Barcena faced a formal complaint from the UN Staff Union. More recently, the Staff Union has had to complaint about Ms. Barcena, to the Secretary General and his Deputy. In a February 13 letter to Mr. Ban, Staff Union president Stephen Kisambira "noted with grave concern the compact of the Under Secretary General for Management with the Secretary-General wherein it is indicated that the Internal Justice Council will be established by 1 May instead of 1 March, as mandated by General Assembly resolution 62/228." In Ms. Barcena's compact, ostensibly a document taken very seriously, either there is a two month typographical error, or a conscious disregard of the General Assembly's timeline. We will endeavor to determine which it was.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/dfs4unjspf022008.html

UN Juggles Jobs and Spoils, from NY to Geneva, Accountability Director Said Chosen in Back Room, from Senior Investigators to UN Pension Fund

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un2geneva012208.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 22 -- With Ban Ki-moon in Geneva to meet with staff, in New York on Tuesday the merger and elimination of the Office of the Special Advisor on Africa post was announced. Since the African Group and the Group of 77 had opposed this consolidation, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson about this post and another, the Assistant Secretary General slot of the UN Conference on Trade and Development which was given to embattled former human resources chief Jan Beagle, as part of her shift to Geneva. The spokesperson said she was not familiar with these "administrative details" and, as to the UNCTAD post, that she didn't understand what difference it made, anyway. Video here, from Minute 12:18.

Well, the budget resolution passed by the General Assembly on December 21 says, in Section 12 entitled Trade and Development, that the Assembly "takes note with serious concern of the decision of the Secretary-General to temporarily lend the post of Assistant Secretary General form this program to the UN Office at Geneva."

As so it seems time for a special Geneva edition. Inner City Press' sources noted the departure from the Palais de Nations of the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund. Just like in New York, they say, the Pension Fund is trying to create distance between itself and the Secretariat, to justify salaries for senior officials based on those paid by other pension funds, not other UN bodies. The chief of the Pension Fund's office in Geneva, Belgian D-1 Renata Joanna B. de Leers-Hubert, is said to have tailored for a specific candidate a P-5 vacancy announcement to replace Caroline Lepeu, by requiring the applicant to speak both French and English and a third language (the notice suggests Arabic). The applicant is urged to have profession certification in Employee Benefits or Pension Administration. Meanwhile a simultaneous P-5 vacancy announcement at the Pension Fund in New York, to replace Norah Fitzgerald, has none of these requirements. Click here for Inner City Press' most recent Pension Fund story, the suspended trade of Peter Goddard to the Chad peacekeeping mission.

Sometimes the tailoring and creation of jobs for particular people is even more explicit. We have today examples in Geneva and New York. In the Geneva branch of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, sources tell Inner City Press of the hiring by Inga Britt-Ahlenius of a 61-year old individual, Anders Hjertstrand. There's a history here, and on a delayed basis a response. There are formal vacancies accumulating in the OIOS, a multiplication of people with "acting" in front of their titles, spoils to be distributed to some later victors.

Ironies of UN Accountability: Director Selected in Back Room

In New York, the newly created D-2 "Director of Accountability" post has a convoluted explanation, according to Department of Management (DM) insiders. DM's Alicia Barcena, it is said, is committed to promoting her deputy Simona Petrova up to the D-2 level. [Click here for story, here for another with Ms. Petrova response.]

But there's another who wanted this post: Nancy Hurtz-Soyka, an American D-1 previously head of the Ethics Office. Ms. Hurtz-Soyka has her supporters, who are said to have lobbied the 38th floor. Presto! A new D-2 post is being created, Director of Accountability, "depending on the availability of funds." This last is to get around the inconvenience of seeking General Assembly approval for this new D-2 position. Ah, accountability...

Within the General Assembly, there was grumbling about the African Group having asked the wider Group of 77 for support in its aborted defense of the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa. What caused the subsequent change in position? There's talk of post offers directly to Ambassadors. Time will tell.

The UN preaches the rule of law, but in New York as in Geneva, to the victor go the spoils.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2geneva012208.html

At the UN, Alleged Abuser of Staff Seeks Transfer from Pension Fund to Chad Peacekeeping Mission

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/dfs2unjspf010908.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 9 -- At the UN, when a supervisor is repeatedly accused of abusive behavior toward the staff he supervises, the answer seems to be to arrange a transfer to another unit of the UN system and to another country, most often in Africa. This is the case of Peter Goddard, whose rocky tenure as Executive Officer of the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund, which culminated earlier this month in a formal Staff Union complaint to the UN Department of Management, is now slated to end or be interrupted on January 15. After that, Goddard is slated to ship out to Chad, with the UN peacekeeping mission there. In exchange for taking on this problem, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) has reportedly arranged to shift a person with a temporary and expiring contract, Sevil Alirzayeva, into Goddard's position. "These type of swaps are done all the time at the UN," a DPKO source tells Inner City Press, "particularly by the Department of Field Support."

Documents obtained by Inner City Press show that as far back as June 2007, the Staff Union complained of Peter Goddard's "humiliation" and "intimidation" of budget officer Mathew Biju George, and expressly of "discrimination." As raised in writing to Pension Fund CEO Bernard Cocheme, Goddard's behavior escalated until, on December 17, 2007, he jabbed his finger in Mathew George's face, ordering him first out of his office, then blocking his only exit through the door. Inner City Press has previously reported on Goddard's treatment of at least two other Pension Fund staff members, one of whom he told he would have escorted out of the building by security guards after twenty year's service to the UN.

Since Bernard Cocheme did nothing to stop or even investigate Goddard's intimidation, the complaint was raised on January 3, 2008 to the Staff Union and to Alicia Barcena, Under Secretary General for Management, chief investigator Inga-Britt Ahlenius and Ban Ki-moon's chef de cabinet Vijay Nambiar. An investigation by Ms. Ahlenius' office was requested, the Staff Union representative writing that "Mr. Goddard is in the point of going on mission assignment... With due regard to several past similar complaints involving Mr. Peter Goddard's abuses of staff, I would appreciate it if Mr. Goddard's mission detail is delayed." Ms. Barcena has said she will not stop it. Ms. Ahlenius claims she has not heard of the request.

The referenced assignment is to the MINURCAT mission in Chad and the Central African Republic, an operation meant to support the UN's stalled deployment of peacekeepers to Sudan's Darfur region. Several sources, including in DPKO, expressed concern that an individual with live cases of abuse would be sent by the UN on such a politically sensitive mission. These sources assert that DPKO, or more precisely the Department of Field Support which handles staffing matters, arranged to shift an Uzbek national with a temporary and expiring contract, Sevil Dursunovna Alirzayeva, into Goddard's position. Inner City Press' phone message to Ms. Alirzayeva voicemail on Wednesday afternoon was not returned as of deadline. Ms. Alirzayeva is listed as having an "appointment limited to service with specific Secretariat entities." The shift to the UN Pension Fund benefits her and DPKO, in exchange for which, Chad is presented with the complaint-plagued Peter Goddard. Ms. Alirzayeva has less experience than required by the vacancy announcement, but the appointment has escaped review by UN Controller Warren Sach due to the exemption of the Pension Fund from UN staff rules under a ruling of the Office of Human Resources Management's then-chief Jan Beagle.

Insiders say the deal was arranged between DFS including Jane Holl Lute and the Pension Fund's chief of operations Dulcie Bull, who as previously reported was named as a person as to whom Cocheme should take action, in Ms. Ahlenius' investigative report on the Pension Fund. Click here for more on that story. Mr. Goddard handled the financial aspects of the contract-steering detailed in Ms. Ahlenius' report. "What goes around, comes around," the well-placed source mused about the deal. "The one who will lose are in Chad."

Goddard is not only the target, but also the originator, of complaints. He too wrote to Alicia Barcena and to the UN Ethics Office, accusing the Staff Union of tape recording him and attaching a letter which argues, in light of previous reporting on the Pension Fund, that "resorting to the press is unethical." But if Pension Fund senior management does nothing, and now Secretariat officials are on the brink of passing the problem over to Chad, the press may take on the aspect of the last resort. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/dfs2unjspf010908.html