At UN, As Pollard Flips to DGACM, Gettu Calls Female Critic “Emotional," Sources Complain to Inner City Press

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 -- In the UN's ongoing game of musical chairs, 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 here for 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.

   

UN Confirms Inner City Press' April Report ofAmeerah Haq to Leave, Ladsous Redux

By Matthew Russell Lee, Follow Up to Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 15 -- On April 14, Inner City Press exclusively reported that the head of the UN Department of Field Service Ameerah Haq would leave her Peacekeeping job in October, citing well-placed sources, here.

  Inner City Press went to that day's UN noon briefing and asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric:

Inner City Press: on the Department of Field Service, I heard that the Under-Secretary-General Ameerah Haq has informed the Secretary-General that she will leave in October and that a recruitment process involving Ms. [Catherine] Pollard and Jane Holl Lute has begun. Are you aware of that? Can you confirm that?

Spokesman Dujarric: No.

  Well, on July 15 Dujarric's deputy Farhan Haq read out a statement that, yes, Haq is leaving. When asked about her successor (on which Inner City Press reported on April 14, below), Haq said since he just read out the statement, he just came to know it. That is telling.

   Inner City Press on April 14 reported: among the candidates to take over the position, ostensibly co-equal with Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row atop the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, include American Jane Holl Lute and the current head of the UN Office of Human Resources Management, Catherine Pollard.

  Given that the top contributors of peacekeeping troops to the UN are from South Asia -- India, Pakistan, Nepal and Ameerah Haq's native Bangladesh -- it would look strange to have DFS headed by an American while DPKO remains owned by France. Several UN sources muses this would be a perfect time for Ladsous to leave. "Better him than Haq," as one source put it.

  But the alternate theory has Secretary General Ban Ki-moon throwing geographical and ideological balance to the wind in UN Peacekeeping. In this theory, the US would have to give up the Department of Safety & Security -- "he's only an Acting USG," the proponent pointed out -- so as to not have too too many American Under Secretaries General. 

  The shame would be, Kevin Kennedy is one of the better and more accessible USGs, by contrast to Ladsous whorefuses Press questions about rapes and UN Peacekeeping from the Congo to Mali, and about the Hutu FDLR, click here for last week's video.

 Now as of July 15, Kennedy IS out from DSS, and Lute has an interim position reviewing drones for, who else, Ladsous. Pollard said she will be the poster child of Ban's "mobility" policy.

  It was back in October 2013 that Inner City Press reported that Ladsous was trying to get Haq out, to assert more control. On October 7, 2013 Inner City Press reported, "While an earlier Ban Ki-moon reform involved splitting Peacekeeping into two separate components, DPKO and DFS, now Ladsous wants to dominate both of them, by pushing Haq out of DFS and installing a person of his own choosing. More on that in a future story." 

   There will be more. Watch this site.

   

UN Wants FDR Off-Ramp Closed Or Will Empty Its Library and Cafeteria, Pays Aramark's Costs

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 7 -- The United Nations is urging New York City to close the 42nd Sreet FDR Drive off-ramp, or it will vacate its Dag Hammarskjold Library and its annex including the cafeteria by the end of this year.

  Closing the off-ramp would obviously inconvenience driving New Yorkers. (At the same time, the UN is trying to takeover the Robert Moses Park just south of 42nd Street, as Inner City Press has previously covered, here.)

  But the UN says that there is not enough "off-set" from the ramp to the UN buildings, apparently referring to a car or truck bomb. The UN is installing bollards along First Avenue from 42nd to 48th Street for that purpose. It is constructing a new screening building on between 42nd and 43rd Street, with an eye toward eliminating the turnstiles currently in the UN lobby.

  The cafeteria is run by Aramark, right now with the UN covering all of the company's net operating costs. While still UNclear with whom, a new contract is set to be signed by the end of the year, according to the UN's (British) head of the Office of Central Support Services Stephen Cutts.

  At a meeting on February 7, Cutts said that Aramark "will re-open" the Delegates Dining Room on February 3. He was quickly reminded that has already happened -- that is, that February 3rd came before the date of his three minute speech on February 7 -- and he said, "I'm out of date."

  Michael Adlerstein of the Capital Master Plan said that the North Lawn Building will be demolished by the end of 2015, and that this year's General Debate will be in the historical GA hall (on which there are still no windows).

  Catherine Pollard of the Office of Human Resources Management was there; as Inner City Press reported, she is competing to take over the Under Secretary General post at UNOPS in Copenhagen. The head of the UN's "UMOJA" system said that this will be expanded to all special political mission then to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and all Nairobi-related offices.

  Few questions were taken at this "Town Hall" meeting, about which a number of Department of Management staff complained to Inner City Press afterwards, offering exclusive audio to demonstrate what they were talking about. Does it make sense to leave the Library and cafeteria empty? Who made that determination? That is something we will be trying to determine. Watch this site.

  

Exclusive: As UN Moves to Layoff Security Despite New Libya Plan & to Close Aramark Dining Room, of Labor Pains, Union Elections and UMOJA

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, December 2 -- Even at the UN it's the holiday season, but that hasn't stopped officials at the world body from announcing and imposing layoffs.

  Monday morning as Inner City Press entered to cover the first day of France's Security Council presidency, click here for that, it was informed that the UN had chosen this day to send letters to Security personnel, technically hired for the Capital Master Plan renovation, that they stand to be laid off.

  The timing is more than a little strange, coming soon after the Security Council approved a plan by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to send 200 security personnel to Libya, to protect the UN mission there. Inner City Press was the first to report on the approval and will have more on this.

  For now we note this: a UN Security person working in New York on a G4 visa, if they took the post to protect the UN Mission in Libya, their family would have to leave the US in thirty days. This is also the UN's hammer over whisteblowers.

  Meanwhile, inside the UN itself, for weeks those working in the Delegates' Dining Room have been asking why their place of work, run by the contractor Aramark, will close on December and not re-open. Aramark had been reducing services, cutting the hours of the staff cafeteria for example, with the UN saying nothing.

  When Inner City Press has asked about the enforced layoffs by Aramark of workers in the UN, the UN has shifted from saying it cares about the principles preached by the International Labor Organization to saying this is entirely up to the contractor -- a defense used then rejected by apparel makers like Levis, the Gap and Nikes. But not the UN.

  On November 29, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's top two spokespeople:

"Please confirm or deny that Aramark will cease mid-day service (and cut back on workers) in the Delegates Dining Room from December 20 on, and explain the UN's role in reduction of service and employment by Aramark, and when their contract with the UN will expire."

  So far no answer, including to other questions including these two, on labor relations and UMOJA/ waste at the UN:

"With the UN Staff Union election upcoming and dispute ranging from term limits to how voters are grouped and accredited, please describe the role of the UN and OHRM, including in light of a statement by ASG Pollard that 'OHRM had been in contact with Mr. Auda, Chairman of the Polling Officers, continually between 7 October when the second list of staff (as vetted by EOs was transmitted to him) and 28 October, 2013; and

"With regard to UMOJA, please respond to the (whistleblowers') critique that the project now uses 'Nova to assign expenses retroactively, for many years; it costs in fact much more than $200,000 $ only to capture the data."

Watch this site.