United States pressures Ban Ki-moon to froze pension of those who stole from UN (Guido Bertucci reference?)

During the November 23 debate of the Fifth Committee of the 63rd Un GA, U.S. Representative Michael Scanlon suggested that the pensions of UN officials who stole from the organization should be frozen or "attached." He said : 

Mr. Chairman,

It is disappointing that despite the UN's efforts to recruit and employ staff with the highest level of competence, efficiency, and integrity, and I highlight integrity, too many incidents of misconduct and criminal behavior continue to occur. My delegation takes note of the Secretary-General's report (A/63/202) on actions taken during the year ending June 30, 2008 in cases of proven misconduct and/or criminal behavior in accordance with the established procedures and regulations. We further note the number of cases of fraud, theft, and misappropriation listed in the report and the financial losses incurred by the United Nations as a result.

Given the significant resources contributed by Member States to fund the Organization's mandates, we urge the General Assembly to consider providing for additional actions to recover UN funds that are stolen from the Organization by staff members. Accordingly, we should consider the possibility of trying to access other assets owned by staff members convicted of stealing money from the Organization or withholding or garnishing their pensions. We recognize that such action might also affect other organizations that participate in the pension plan and that it would be necessary to seek broader agreement to any such measures. (Click here for the text of statement from USUN website)

While he did not say it, some assumed he was referring to recently retired Guido Bertucci, who despite being responsible for a range of irregularities including the discredited Thessaloniki Center in Greece all left with his entire pension. Greece's Interior Minister, off camera at the Security Council stakeout to talk recently about an upcoming migration conference in Greece told Inner City Press that the corruption at the Thessaloniki Center was for the UN itself to address. But when will it?

(portions of the above are quotes from InnercityPress - click here for their article)

Views of the staff representatives of UN Secretariat's HR processes and administration

Appointment to senior positions

26. The appointment of senior officials, to the D-1 level and above, is critical to the Organization’s performance. Senior officials perform critically important functions. They are responsible for implementing all the work programmes of the United Nations, for effectively using its budget, and for ensuring the quality, direction and morale of its staff. They are required to have a broad range of competencies and to exercise effective leadership in a cross-cultural environment. In few areas do the Secretary-General’s responsibilities have a greater impact on the effectiveness and performance of the Organization than in that of making these senior appointments (see A/51/950 and Corr.1, para. 230). In making the appointment of senior officials, the Secretary-General has to balance the professional, managerial and leadership qualities required to ensure high standards of performance.

27. Although the appointments of senior staff are of such critical importance, the absence of transparent recruitment and promotion procedures for Assistant Secretary-General positions and above enables the appointment of officials who, in some cases, have had little or no prior leadership or managerial experience in working in a complex multicultural environment. Yet, it is to them that the authority has been delegated to select and promote staff.

28. The Secretary-General has reported that, in making senior-level appointments, he consults with an informal group of independent advisers who are familiar with the United Nations system (see A/53/676, action 20), even as he benefits from consultations with Member States on such appointments (see A/52/584, para. 37).2 Political influences have percolated down even to the appointments to D-2 level positions, which are overseen by the Senior Review Group, in part because members of the Senior Review Group are Assistant Secretaries-General and Under- Secretaries-General whose own appointments are tainted by political interests.

29. Political considerations in respect of the appointment of senior officials bear upon the competence of United Nations staff and their level of professionalism. Such appointees are less likely to be vigorously vetted to determine their capability to perform the duties of the post. They are also likely to introduce a vicarious authority that contravenes the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations; moreover, such appointees are likely to eschew accountability. Because senior leaders owe their appointment to political influences, they have had to be sensitive to initiatives or objections that individual Member States cannot introduce within the organs of the Organization.

30. Where the competence of such senior appointees is found wanting, the workload has to be carried by their subordinates, usually long-term serving staff in the General Service and related categories. In one department, staff members have been denied leave, as they are needed to perform both their own functions and those of their superiors. Yet, the junior staff cannot stave off such abuse of authority, for their career prospects are firmly determined by their supervisors. Trapped in this predicament, some junior staff members have opted to resign.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram appointed to UN task force

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 16 Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz has been appointed to a high-level task force established by the United Nations to examine the possible reform of the global financial system, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in the wake of the current economic turmoil.

Dr Zeti has been holding the post of Bank Negara governor since 2000and is the only woman in Asia and among very few in the world to be a top central banker.

United Nations General Assembly President, Miguel D”Escoto, who announced the full composition of a high-level task force he is setting up, said Joseph Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001
and is a former chief economist at the World Bank, will chair the panel known as the Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System.

-The task force will suggest steps that member states can take to secure a more stable global economic order,” he said in a statement issued by the UN News Service.

Many economies are either into recession or are slipping into recession as a result of the financial crisis brought on by the sub prime credit crisis in the United States.

Others in the panel include another Malaysian, Jomo Kwame Sundaram, the current Assistant Secretary-General for’ Economic Development and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), who at one time was lecturer with Univesiti Malaya and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and Jos� Antonio Ocampo of Colombia, who is a former Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.

Also in the panel are Jean-Paul Fitoussi, Professor of Economics at the Institute d”Etudes Politiques de Paris in France, Avinash Persaud of Barbados, who is Chairman of Intelligence Capital Limited and Yaga Venugopal Reddy, former governor of India”s Reserve Bank.

Japan”s Eisuke Sakakibara who once was dubbed -Mr Yen-, and is currently Professor at Waseda University in Tokyo is also in the panel, along with Chukwuma Soludo, the Governor of Nigeria”s Central Bank and China”s Yu Yongding, the Director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics.

When Mr D”Escoto announced the formation of the panel last month, he said that -there is growing recognition that the current turmoil in the financial system cannot be solved through piecemeal responses at the national and regional levels but requires a coordinated effort at the global level.- Bernama

Bernard Kliksberg's Beautiful Life !

Today we will discuss the story of another corrupt case in DESA (Department Economic and Social Affairs) of the United Nations. 

His name is Bernard Kligsberg. A so-called leading Argentinean economist, who has made his career in "advising" multiple International institutions at same time. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as you do it in the private sector. But if you work for the UN and you sign the contracts - you have to bide by them and dedicate full time to your work for the respective UN unit who hires you. 

His career at UN-DESA and his personal relation to Guido Bertucci is extremely important because while employed for years as indefinite CONSULTANT at DPADM located at DC-2 - 17 floor, this gentleman was also employed as full time personal advisor to Rebeca Grynspan, Assistant Secretary General of United Nations for Latin America Bureau of UNDP - DC-1, making an astonishing US$429,341 Thousand Dollars a year, respectively from:

1. Full Time Employee of UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA/DPADM);
2. Full Time Employee of UN Development Programme (UNDP/RBLAC);
3. Full Time Employee of InterAmerican Development Bank in Washington DC (BID);
4. Consultant of UN Development Programme Office in Argentina;

All the above is TAX-FREE, and since this well-known economist is in US with a G4 Visa - thanks to Bertucci and Furio De Tomassi, why not make some extra money aside working for various private and/or semi-private banks in Washington DC. 

Here are all the payment Mr. Kilksberg made at UNDP - at the same very period he was under contract and being paid from Bertucci/De Tomassi with full support of Catherine Pelluso and under "extremely vigilant eyes" of Marie Oveissi.

Another important element of Mr. Kliksberg's career is that while he was employed as CONSULTANT of DPADM/DESA he was also for the past 7 years member of the Committee of Experts in Public Administration, the body who was supposed to exercise oversight functions over DPADM/Bertucci. 

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL for Mr. Kliksberg - isn't it?

Payments from UNDP Office in ARGENTINA

Payments made by UNDP HQs - Latin America Bureau (RBLAC)


Payments made by UNDP for Travel - While DESA paid for his travel as well

We really wonder at this point if Mr. Sha Zukang or anyother manager of UN-DESA would take any actions to really remove once and for all the corruption which eating-up DESA/DPADM and TCMS like a cancer.

Sha Zukang: UN Members don't honor commitments

BEIJING: The Chinese government rejected suggestions that it could use $1.9tn of foreign exchange reserves to pay for cleaner forms of energy to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions rather than asking developed countries to pay for and provide much of it. 

Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of China's main economic planning body, told reporters the government is already spending huge amounts to try to cut emissions, but the country is still developing and needs funds and expertise from richer nations. 

Xie said, "China is still developing and we need money in many respects, but despite this we are very willing to invest in efforts to tackle climate change." 

Xie pointed out that China has already budgeted about $440bn as part of its efforts to reduce energy consumption and pollution in the coming years. 

A system needs to be introduced that encourages developed countries to pass on technology, but also protects companies' patents and intellectual copyright, he added. 

Xie's comments come at the end of an international conference in Beijing on various mechanisms to get developed countries to honour their commitments to give poorer nations technology -- such as fuel cells, nuclear energy and wind and wave power -- to combat global warming. 

Sha Zukang, UN under secretary general for economic and social affairs, strongly criticised developed countries for failing to keep previous promises given to poor countries. 

"The transfer of technology is not good enough, to put it mildly. Commitments are repeated hundreds of thousands of times, but these commitments are not honoured," he said. 

China had admitted last month that the level of emissions it produces is now in level with the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases -- the United States.

Financial crisis is not an excuse: Sha Zukang

By Zhang Tingting
China.org.cn staff reporter

"Clean technologies have proven their worth again and again..." said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his message to the Conference.

"So far no country has tried to use the current financial crisis as a pretext to impair their efforts in addressing problems concerning the Millennium Development Goals, the food crisis, or climate change. That is very encouraging," said Sha Zukang, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, in Beijing on Saturday.

Mr. Sha made the observation at a press conference held after the wrap-up of the Beijing High-level Conference on Climate Change: Technology Development and Technology Transfer, which took place on Nov. 7-8.

Mr. Sha also emphasized that the financial turmoil which has swept many countries should not be used either by developed or by developing countries as an excuse to cut the financial commitment earmarked for conducting climate-related activities and for other objectives involving sustainable global development.

The two-day conference concluded on Saturday with the approval of a statement and summary. 67 countries provided over 700 participants from ministerial-level leadership and related international organizations, enterprises, academies, and NGOs, who gathered to discuss the status of clean technologies and the barriers to technology-transfer, as well as mechanisms to overcome them.

"Of particular value at the Conference was that experts, policy-makers and other stakeholders engaged together on critical issues, free from the constraints of the negotiating table," said Mr. Sha Zukang at the Conference's closing ceremony, adding that "we saw areas where real differences persist, but also areas of common interest and possible convergence."

Also referring to the relationship between financial crisis and the cause of climate change, Xie Zhenhua, Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission of China, said at the press conference that "as a far-reaching concern, addressing climate change does not conflict with coping with the current financial crisis while the challenge imposed by the financial crisis might be transformed into an opportunity through rebuilding economic structures to advance the cause of addressing climate change."

The meeting was held in the run-up to the next Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Poznan, Poland in Dec. 2008, and Mr. Xie said that he was confident that the Conference would contribute positively to the forthcoming climate change negotiations in Poznan.

The next conference on climate change and technology transfer, sharing similar functions and objectives to the one that has just concluded in Beijing, will be hosted by the Government of India, prior to the 15th Session of the Conference of the Parties to UNFCCC to be held in 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

(China.org.cn November 9, 2008)

Mismanagement and Waste Erode UN-DESA's best intentions

While the UN-DESA was trying to implement its core mandates and assist members tates in many development areas, millions vanished from its headquarters in New York and/or peripheral project centers . The CASH was diverted in form of illegal hiring of shadow consultants and institutions.

The cases of Catherine Gazzoli, Adriana Alberti, Barbara Ubaldi, Elia Armstrong, Jose Manuel Sucre, Claudio Aponte or Bernard Kligsberg or even the mismanagement of Associate Experts Programmes - epitomizes only few of the uncomfortable truths about the Guido Bertucci's and Furio De Tomassi's operations inside DESA. 

The system of awarding contracts in DESA, including the role of Catherine Peluso and Patrizio Civili - a blatant lapse in office rules and regulations - reflected the mismanagement and waste that are all too typical of the sprawling collection of regional offices, councils and projects that UN-DESA has become.

If you ask around in DESA, many staffers and officials serving here would describe, with exasperation, anger and regret, a department grown rife with what a longtime DPADM staffer called "appalling inefficiencies and backbiting and corruption" - tenacious cancers that have debilitated DESA as well as entire UN, demoralized its own staff and severely undercut its support in the member states. 

DESA of today, and specially DPADM lavished money on conferences and round-tables that produce little but talk, or justified for managers to find a short-way visiting their home countries paid by UN. Millions of words are printed in turgid reports. The defense of the status quo perpetuates unneeded projects, while fraud has tarnished the luster of even some of the more successful projects/products. 

As a member state's representative of fifth committee said: " this bureaucracy was designed in hell - and Ban Ki-moon and Sha Zukang better change it now".

Change is always a problem in UN and specifically inside DESA - were many managers don't want changes because many of them have vested interests in the existing system.

Latest OIOS reports have shown that the failings of the UN-DESA, which have undermined its credibility with both government and private citizens, can be traced in part to micromanagement by member states and their puppets inside DESA.

One thing we have learned so far on Bertucci operation is that they used hiring of consultants and contractors to derail funds. Among the many tricks used is the hiring also of so called "retirees" - who preferred to be hired as consultants in additions to obtaining their normal pensions and serve in CORE functions such are: - human resources or finance. 

Critics of DESA's operations contend that true reforms should include pruning DESA of its obsolete appendages. Technical Cooperation Management Support Unit, for example is a shameful duplication of resources and roles with those already embedded inside DM/Secretariat. TCMS also has played the role of fire-wall towards any internal audits or investigations. 

Fake UN-DESA representative attends federal government business and distributes awards in the name of UN

unbelievable story this of Claudio Aponte. As per the website of the Government of the State of Colima in Mexico, Claudio Aponte - is presented as the Representative of the United Nations and DESA in Mexico. While meeting is also attended by Guido Bertucci.

The website tells about one of the many visits of Guido Bertucci in Mexico, in which he and the "Representative of UN in Mexico" - Mr. Aponte, meet among others the Governor of Colima and invite him to attend official meetings of United Nations both in Mexico and abroad.


Click here to see the webpage of the State of Colima (or click in the picture)


But Claudio Aponte is not a UN Representative and he has never been one for that matter. During the tenure of Guido Bertucci as Director of DESA/DPADM he has received 68 short-term consultancy contracts for a total value of more than $373,000.


But wait this guy was a member of the CEPA in 2001/2/3/4/5/6/7 and 2008 (Committee of Expert in Public Administration) as Representative of Mexico. Click here to see UNPAN webpage in which Claudio Aponte this time represents Mexico at the UN meeting.

We would like to know from Mr. Sha Zukang, how can a person be at the same time:

- United Nations and DESA Representative in Mexico; and
- Mexico Representative at the United Nations Committee of Expert in Public Administration;

Isn't this a conflict of interest? How can Mr. Furio De Tomassi and Marie Oveissi issue 68 short-term contracts (SSAs) to a person who attends - as it appears in UNPAN - represents the Government of Mexico in CEPA?

How can Furio De Tomassi and Marie Oveissi allow that this individual attend official meetings and represent the United Nations and Department of Economic and Social Affairs in various important federal government activities in Mexico?

Who gave this guy the clearance to represent the UN/DESA in Mexico ? Is Sha Zukang aware of this ? DId Sha Zukang approve Aponte as representative of DESA in Mexico?

We call on OIOS and Procurement Task Force of the United Nations to immediately investigate the process of procurement of services and contracting of Claudio Aponte, as well as his deliverable during the past years.

UNDP steals Fraser-Moleketi from CEPA and moves fast to ensure leadership in Public Administration

November 12, 2008, 11:15

While "mafia style" games inside DESA's cupola continue for months to decide on a "quality" replacement of Guido Bertucci and Adil Khan, another big player in the field of Democratic Governance and tough competitor of DESA worldwide - UNDP - has appointed the former South African Minister for Public Service and Administration and member of DESA/CEPA - Ms. Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi into the top post with the United Nations Development Programme.

Fraser-Moleketi has been appointed as the UNDP's new Director for Democratic Governance practice. In this capacity, she will head the UNDP's efforts to help countries strengthen their electoral and legislative systems and improve access to justice and public administration and e-governance.

This appointment shows that UNDP is quite serious to ensure that quality and experienced staffers join its programme.

While DESA management and Executive Office rejected the application of Fraser-Moleketi for the post of Guido Bertucci, stressing the "importance" of "experience", this long-standing and courageous member of CEPA (Committee of Experts in Public Administrations) is instead offered the highest job at UNDP - at the very Department which is a strong opponent of DESA's capacities in the field of Public Administration (DPADM).

What a shame !

Italian Restaurant goes bankrupt while UN member states are offered pre-cooked chinese food

at its 60th anniversary of the UN's Public Administration and Development Programme, and on the 12ve anniversary of the GA Resolution 50/225 on public administration and development which recognized that the mandate of DPADM and DESA on public administration should ensure that:

... efficient, effective and transparent public administration, at
both the national and international levels, has pivotal role to play in the
implementation of the key objectives of the United Nations Millennium
Declaration, and in that context stressing the need to strengthen national
public-sector administrative and managerial capacity-building, in particular in
developing countries and countries with economies in transition....

while the same resolution appointed CEPA (Committee of Experts in Public Administration) to oversee and direct the work of DESA/DPADM in achieving the UN's goal in this field.

Today we at DPADM (soon to change) became testimony to a real travesty of our own system. Under Secretary General, thru Ms. Haiyan Qian is attempting to reverse cource from the OFFICIAL MANDATE - resolutes from our lawmakers (UN Member States) and instead......he want the whole Division to change into a big database on e-government and e-projects.

All the above seems to be built in order to justify the appointment of Haiyan Qian into the leadership of the Division. And since she has no background nor any substantial experience in Public Administration, the only way to catapult her there is ......change the scope of the division and its mandate.

From now on - Branches will have to change their programme, shut down their projects, and retool their job description into (e-) ......Yes everything will have to start with an (e-) :

Lets see how it will look :

- e-public administration;
- e-local governance;
- e-transparency;
- e-ethics;
- e-post conflict rehabilitation;

eeeeeeeeeeeee- WHAT ?

Mr. Sha - If you don't like the current structure and performance of the Division (who does) why you don't call for an urgent meeting of CEPA? Consult with them and than propose to ECOSOC a formal re-arrangement and re-alignment of the Division's work.

• Do you know Mr. Sha that currently in the UN there is an Office of IT FOR DEVELOPMENT within UN Secretariat (41 staff)?
• Do you know Mr. Sha that UN Agencies like UNDP, with direct on-the-ground presence in more than 160 countries - and thus better equipped - spend in the range of $200 Million in IT FOR DEVELOPMENT and have already committed themselves into e-Governance in partnership with private and non-profit sector (381 Staff) ?
• Do you know that UN as a whole (specialized and non-specialized agencies) spend $800 Million USD a year in the same areas of e-Governance where you are trying to lead DPADM?

This overlap instead of supporting UN goals will destroy them. Instead of lifting people from poverty and making their governments more accountable, will increase the gap (read UN/OIOS report on IT for Development).

Finding a job for Haiyan Qian should not be an impediment for real change. Haiyan Qian might not have experience in substantive policy advise and real on-the-ground formulation within the mandated areas of our Division, but Haiyan has shown tremendous leadership in turning UNPAN into a fantastic outreach tool for the Division, Department as well as United Nations as whole in the area of Public Administration. UNPAN has become a real focal point for many governments, NGOs and political actors out there, whom have been using its info, databases and more importantly the fantastic on-line training tool (introduced recently).

Her operational, coordination and IT skills should and can be useful to our Division. Frankly - compared to Bertucci, she can do a much better job. But all this should not come at the expense of our main Mandate, the one that UN Member States expect us to deliver for.

At this moment Mr. Sha - we need a leader who knows how to take tough decisions and translate and implement to-the-letter the constitution of the United Nations (in-form of individual mandates). If you have a problem with the constitution/mandate, go back to the parliament (General Assembly/ECOSOC/CEPA) they are the real constituency with whom you should deal and find appropriate grounds deciding on what will be our future work.

We are UN employee and work for the UN Member States to achieve their goals - not for ourselves.

Bertucci's new pick

For those that think that Bertucci is gone....hold your breath....you might know nothing of Italian heritage. He could be many things...... but gone. 

In our story of 2nd of October 2008, we told you about Bertucci's attempts to impose his own candidate for the post of Chief of Socio Economic Governance Branch. 

Well it took quite some time (30 days or so) but our sources say that in 23rd floor, on the table of Sha Zukang, an envelope with the proposed names of the incoming Chief of SEGB is awaiting final transmission to OHRM for processing.

Sources familiar with the EO office say that in the last month, Catherine Pelluso and Furio De Tomassi have worked hard to push the "right buttons" that the preferred candidate of Bertucci takes the reigns of Adil Khan. 

Sources quote Catherine Pelluso as saying: " this guy will bring fresh prospective and a wealth of knowledge from UNDP".....

Will have to wait and see who is this "fresh looking guy" and how fresh and original his ideas are. But most importantly what he will represent in this era of CHANGE. 

Afraid of retaliation sources can only indicate his initials: J.R.

TCMS and EO ignores UN HR rules and moves to hire Ubaldi despite no competitive selection process

Catherine Pelluso and Furio De Tomassi's determination to continue employment of Barbara Ubaldi is unshaken. 

The corrupt cast of Italian Mafia at DESA sees no obstruction of basic rules of Human resources and since yesterday is moving full speed to process the "re-classification" of Ubaldi's position and re-hire her.

• But do they know what Human Resources Rules and Regulations are?
  
• Do they know that an incumbent who is not 100/200 Series cannot be re-classified? 
  
• Do they know that a person that has been in short-term contracts for more than 11 months (Ubaldi has been for 38 months in short term contract) should go into at least 3 months break-in-service?
  
• Do they know what competitive selection process means in the HR language?
  
• Do they know what vacancy announcement process means in HR language?
  

We call in Mr. Sha Zukang to stop this MAFIA now !! The Italian Bertucci-Civili clan is ruining DESA and our good reputation by retaining this useless individuals who only knows to enter the system from the window and never from the door like everyone else should.

We also call on Ms. Ahlenius (OIOS) to investigate immediately the TCMS and advise Ban Ki-Moon to take away from DESA all pseudo-Human Resource facilities and assign those duties to the Department of Management - OHRM.

US demands new contracts and post-retirement benefits for United Nations employees

in a series of secret meetings between the United States Mission to the UN (USUN) and Secretary general Ban Ki-Moon's management and human resources officials, the USUN has outlined a radical reduction both in the type of UN employment contracts, and in the benefits the remaining contracts would offer. the above proposal will also affect G4 visa status as well as post-retirement possibility of acquiring US Green Card/legal residence status.

The proposed documents which have been discussed with Ban's team, have been reportedly collected again at the end of each meeting, in order to prevent leaks. 

Well informed sources say that USUN has begun lobbying the European Union and other regional groups to try to find support for the above proposal.

From Ban's Team - Ms. Angela Kane (USG- DM) has attended the meetings and she seem to be quite positive towards the US proposal. While the current ASG-HR - Ms. Catherine Pollard seem less supportive of the US plan.

On the other hand both administration and the USUN seem to have left the UN Staff Union out of the picture, and the unionists claim that they "were not consulted" on the US plan to change contract modalities and benefits.

18 staff in DESA have been awarded UN ID's beyond their contract expiration date

The scandals, corruption and mismanagement of TCMS (Technical Cooperation and Management Service) at DESA, is growing by the day. 

We learned from sources inside TCMS that at lest 18 staffers hold valid UN ID, even-though they do not posses any-longer UN contracts nor are in payroll. These staffers continue to hang around in the department making use of office space and other UN property and communication facilities. It seems that someone have promised them that they will be granted extensions and/or future positions. Some of them have not had a break in service in years.

In this regard we contacted DSS (Department of Security Services):

To: DSShelp@un.org

Cc: investigationsoios@un.org

Subject: URGENT- Reporting a potential security risk for the United Nations at NY - HQs

To whom it may concern

as staff members of UNDESA, we feel obliged to report that at least 18 staffers at our Headquarters offices (DC2+DC1), have been awarded UN IDs beyond their contract expiration date from the TCMS (Technical Cooperation Management Services). Staffers without contracts continue to hang around without any official duty, and thus becoming an risk element and legal exposure for our organization.

We feel that DSS and HRM should investigate this matter ASAP.

Regards,

An Italian with illegal UN ID hanging around without contract

Her name is Barabara Ubaldi. She worked as Outreach, Organization, Follow-up Coordination of Events in the Knowledge Management Branch of DPADM/DESA. Her contract expired on September 2008. 

We would really like to know how can Ms. Ubaldi :

1. Held a valid UN ID when her contract has already expired?

2. Occupy an office with a cost of $893 a month, not including telephone and internet usage, which run approximately an additional $203 a month, without having a contract?

3. Continue to use UN.ORG email account and use FAX and official communication lines of the UN with the outworld?

4. Reimburse UN/DESA for personal calls and use of technology when she is no longer on payroll?

We call on Mr. Sha Zukang and other USGs to immediately investigate the status of the contract of Ms. Ubaldi and take necessary appropriate actions to protect the name and legal status of the United Nations and our Department. 

European Union smashes DESA and demands full accountability of its expenditures

Finally members states are wakening up and becoming more and more sensitive to how the United Nations and its agencies are investing and spending taxpayers money around the world.

In a recent meeting, France's representative speaking on behalf of the European Union, said:

"....Development related sections account for $744 million in the regular budget for 2009. This is nearly 50% of the front line resources in the Budget. Given the challenges we face in meeting the goals we have set ourselves in the field of development, it is important that these resources are utilized in the most efficient and effective manner possible. We therefore look forward to a detailed debate on the roles and responsibilities of all Secretariat department and the UN system entities involved int he delivery of the mandates of development - related activities and the use of the existing ressources in DESA and the regional Commissions, with a view to ensuring that the Organization has the optimal structures in place to able to deliver as a whole in the best and most efficient manner, through fully exploiting synergies and without overlapping functions."

(click in the pic)

(Click in the pic)