Misuse of Vacant Posts in UN Pension Fund and Geneva, Staff Union Complains of Justice Delay

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

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explain the strange situation these days at the UN Pension Fund, where Executive Officer Peter Goddard has effectively been replaced by Ms.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.

Ms. Barcena: what is happened with human resources and administration of justice?

            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 complain 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.

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Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

  Because a number of Inner City Press' UN sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to conclude this installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals of the UN agencies and many of their staff. Keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we apologize for any phone tag, but please continue trying, and keep the information flowing.

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