UN
Budget Cuts
Lead Staff to
Invite Ban Nov
27, He'll Be
In Vienna (But
Back?)
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 26 --
Budget cutting
proposed by UN
Security
General Ban
Ki-moon,
including
"outsourcing
and
off-shoring,"
has given rise
to a staff
emergency
meeting
scheduled to
November 27,
to which Ban
himself has
been invited.
Inner
City Press has
obtained and
puts online
the
invitation
letter, here,
and the flier
for the
meeting, here.
Back
in October,
Inner City
Press covered
the proposed
budget cuts,
also
exclusively.
On
November 23,
Inner City
Press asked
Ban's three
top spokesmen,
"What
is the
Secretariat's
response to
the 44th Staff
Council's
November 14
letter to the
Secretary
General
raising
concerns about
staff welfare
and working
conditions and
inviting the
SG and senior
managers to
attend their
Emergency
General
Meeting on
November 27?"
A
day later on
November 24,
Ban's
Spokesperson's
Office told
Inner City
Press:
"The
Under-Secretary-General
for Management
has replied to
the letter on
behalf of the
Secretary-General.
The letter
makes clear
the
Secretary-General
plans a town
hall meeting
with staff in
early
January.
Before that,
the Chef
de Cabinet
plans to meet
staff unions
in the
Secretariat on
27 November
and to
hold a global
town hall
meeting with
staff on 3
December. The
Secretary-General
is traveling
on 27
November."
We
note that on
November 23,
Ban's office
told
correspondents
that Ban
would
"attend
the
inauguration
ceremony of
the King
Abdullah Bin
Abdulaziz
International
Center for
Interreligious
and
Intercultural
Dialogue.
He will be
back in New
York on
Tuesday, 27
November."
Watch
this site.
Footnote:
At
least Ban's
spokespeople
provided an
answer to the
question. By
contrast,
Ban's chief of
Peacekeeping Herve
Ladsous openly
refuses to
answer Press
questions.
His spokesman
Kieran
Dwyer on
November 23
purported to
respond to
simple DRC
questions
which Ban's
office
forwarded to
him by saying
"I am looking
into this."
Sixty
hours
later,
those
questions have
not
been answered,
including
questions
about threats
and injury to
UN staff in
the DRC,
occasioned
by inaction by
peacekeepers
under Ladsous'
command.
, 
