As
Maurice
Strong Returns
as Senior
Advisor, UN
Stonewalls
on Annan Team,
Doss
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 7 -- Why
is the UN so
resistant to
answering
simple
questions
about who it
hires and
pays? Since
February 24,
Inner City
Press has been
asking the two
top spokesman
of Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon about
the financing
of the mission
of envoy to
Syria Kofi
Annan.
On
March 7 Inner
City Press
asked again,
in writing and
then at the
day's noon
briefing about
"how Kofi
Annan's work
as joint envoy
is funded,
will Lamine
Cisse and any
other staff,
including the
deputy envoy,
be
paid with UN
funds, and how
and how much."
Even
with the
question asked
five hours in
advance, in
writing,
Deputy
Spokesman
Eduardo del
Buey told
Inner City
Press at noon
that these
"administrative
details" are
"still being
worked on."
But Annan is
already
traveling to
Cairo, and
then Syria. Is
his
Foundation's
senior staffer
Alan
Doss, who left
the UN amid a
nepotism
scandal
exclusively
reported
by Inner City
Press, now be
getting paid
by the UN? [Click here for
the Doss story.]
Also
hours before
Wednesday's UN
noon briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
del Buey and
lead spokesman
Martin Nesirky
this question:
"Please
confirm
or deny that
Maurice Strong
has been given
a role for the
UN
on Rio + 20,
that his
travel costs
in this regard
are paid by
the UN,
if so how much
has been spent
and,
separately, if
any age rules
apply
in this case."
Neither
even
acknowledged
receipt of the
question. At
the noon
briefing,
attempting to
be diplomatic,
Inner City
Press asked
del Buey if he
had an answer
on "the
individual"
asked about in
connection
with Rio + 20.
Del Buey said
it was being
"looked into."
It shouldn't
be that
difficult.
Maurice
Strong's
website
describes him
as "Senior
Advisor to the
2012
Rio+20 Summit."
He gave a speech
in India,
and another in
New
York in
October 2011,
on the web
site of the UN
Environment
Program
where he is
described as
"a Canadian
entrepreneur
and a former
under-secretary
general of
the United
Nations.
Strong had his
start
as an
entrepreneur
in the Alberta
oil patch and
was president
of
Power
Corporation of
Canada."
In
fact, Strong
left the UN --
until this
seeming return
-- amid
scandal: a
large
check for
$988,885
written to
himself, the
Oil for Food
investigation,
and the
undisclosed
hiring of his
step-daughter
Kristina Mayo,
not unlike
Alan Doss. A
senior UN
official whom
Inner City
Press asked
about Strong
on
Wednesday
morning said,
increduously,
"he's back?
He's a crook!"
Be
that as it
may,
the UN should
at least be
able to answer
what Strong's
"Senior
Advisor to the
2012 Rio+20
Summit" status
means, how
much the UN
pays, and how
any of this is
appropriate.
Watch this
site.
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