As
UN Won't Tell Press
Who's on 38th
Floor, Sources Cite “Lusophone
Fund” at UNOPS
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS,
March 20 – How transparent, or
opaque, is today's UN? Inner
City Press has asked the UN's
top two spokesmen simple
factual questions: who works
on the 38th floor? Who pays
them? But the two, both holdovers
from the Ban Ki-moon
administration, have refused
to answer, most recently for
four days this: "This is a
Press request for a list of
who is working in the
Executive Office of the
Secretary General; within
that, who is paid by the UN
general budget, who is paid by
or through any other
UN-affiliated fund including
but not limited to UNOPS and
who funds that, and who is
paid by / seconded from a
country." The question about
UNOPS grows from a number of
sources having exclusively
told Inner City Press that
Secretary General Antonio Guterres,
a former prime minister of
Portugal, has been using a "Lusophone
fund" in the UN Office of
Project Services, UNOPS, to
pay several of those working
for him on the 38th floor. Why
not just answer?
On March
20, as Inner City Press
pointed out the seeming hypocrisy
not only of the UN preaching
media freedom while having
evicted and still restricting
Inner City Press but also of
an all-male UN team meeting
with the DR Congo, it was told
Yes, UNOPS is involved, citing
to General Assembly documents
saying that some working in
the UN do not have to be
categories, or disclosed, as
staff. But isn't this opacity
simply inviting budget cuts?
We'll have more on this.
***
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
Past
(and future?) UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA
For now: Box 20047,
Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in
the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-2017 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
for
|
,
