In
Sudan, UNFCU Cites UN Sanctions Restrictions
But Email to
Staff Shows That Was a
Ruse
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive follow
up, photos
UNITED NATIONS,
December 22 – In
Sudan the UN
back on
February 5,
2016 moved to
give more U.S.
dollars to the
Bank of
Khartoum, from
its own staff
members'
salaries.
Inner City Press previously
exclusively exposed this
outrage, and a UN
"reconsideration" ensured. Now
UN staff salaries in Sudan are
paid in dollars, but those who
went on strike are being
retaliated against. The UN
Federal Credit Union is
pitching VISA debit cards to
staff. From Sudan we have this
update: "Another exchange rate
scam. [UNAMID official] Marta
Ruedas who found herself has
no other option than
supporting salary payments to
be paid in US dollars, after
the staff strike, was under UN
Peacekeeping fire due to her
decision. UNFCU as well proved
that it is just internal UN
department and not a bank that
respect its members rights and
privacy, replied to some local
staff from other agencies in
Sudan clearly stating that
what happened to their
accounts was “UNDP Sudan
decision," photos here,
despite its previous
communication with UN Staff
Federation in Sudan claiming
the US sanction as the reason
of Staff Dollars being taken
and given to bank of
Khartoum." That letter
attached here
on Patreon. Inner City Press
exclusively reported a UN memo
that salaries may be paid in
local currency or dollars. See here.
From
an Inner City
Press source,
exhibits will be
added going
forward or
contact
editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
On Sudan, UN Was Silent on April
PNG, Gave Staff's Dollars to Khartoumand
as mentioned earlier, the government of
Sudan threw out the UNDP CD, Yvonne Helle,
based on her decision to close out the UNDPTOKTENProject
without any consultation with the Sudan
Government, overstepping the Host Country
Agreement “as exclusively reported by a
government source”.
To avoid
being questioned by the Sudan government,
UNDP officers or“Al-Zatari’s
helpers”decided to
lie on their communication with Sudan
government!They
have sent fake information about the team
they were bringing to conduct the Country
office restructure “or Job fair, as they
name it”or simply
their retaliation against the Staff
leaders, who were behind the
famousUN Staff Strike.
Those
officers who represents the UN in Sudan
were able to simply sign and send Note
Verbale and visa letters saying those team
members are “coming to Sudan to conduct
training course for UNDP Human Resources
and Finance Staff Members”!Really what
type of Managers UN is Sending to Sudan!
Alzatari, who couldn’t
forgot the hard Slap he got from
innercitypress and UN staff leaders, used his
“personal helpers” from UNDP Sudan officers
who are:
-Vakhtang
Svanidze – UNDP Deputy Country Director
(Operation) “the signer of the fake Note
Verbale – the restructure engineer and -
leader ofretaliation”
-Naeem
Ahmad – Alzatari’s sincere and great helper
who led the dirty part of UNDP Sudan
restructure exercise – HR Manager and later
assigned the Operation manager in charge to
lead the process.
-3
local staff, 2 Analysts form Finance and IT
departments, andthe
heart of the dirty parts at all times,
an HR associate “this lady joined UNDP on
September 2002 and continued to work and even
converted to permanent staff while she don’t
even has a secondary school certificate, but
when the restructure exercise comes, she
simply buy a fake certificate backdated to
2013, a source from the Sudan Ministry of
Education informed me that “they never issued
a handwritten Secondary School certificate
even in the past when old type writers being
in use”, but that was not an issue for her as
she is always the responsible person of staff
files !!!Her
fake certificate attached.
It is important to
note that this restructure process announced
in December 2015, and finalized on February
2017, it took 14 months to finish, thelocal
staff were put on pressure and stress for 14
months under aggressive environment !
Naeem and Muna (the
local HR Associate) invited their close
friends to be part of restructure team (Ane
Katrine Havsteen – Muna’s close friend, and
Moon Gurung – Naeem’s friend from Nepal office
while he worked as HR manager, and later
promoted her to HR manager position).
Naeem
made everything possible to keep it a messy
process to let his plan pass as intended, you
may notice how messy the interview results
sheet and not a professional at all.
Selva
Ramachandran (Country Director) and Vakhtang
made a new organigram in a way that help to
fire unwanted staff leaders. Apart of this,
they found the right chance for settlement of
their old fighting with senior local program
officers, therefore, three senior officers
were kicked out and their unit completely
closed (HIV and MDG Unit), we believe that’s
the real reason for lies they sent to Sudan
government as firing those officers and
closing a big unit and its huge projects will
definitely raise many questions by government
since this clearly breaking the agreement with
the Country.
Naeem, Muna and the
other two officers (IT and Finance officers)
uncovered the technical interview questions
and passed it to the “desired staff”, (some
questions were actually created by them); it
was noted by many UNDP staff members that
technical questions were known to some of
their colleagues!!!
In additional to the
questions leakage, their friends “Ane and
Moon” worked hard on ratings part, on some
noted cases, they delayed finalization of
interview reports until panel members left the
country, later on they asked them to send
their electronic signatures by email to put on
final reports, up to now we don’t know the
actual number of forged reports.
The UN Resident
Coordinator and UNDP representative Marta
Ruedas, whopromised her
staff and assured them a fair and
transparent process,signed 13 notes to
file to justify override of the final
resultsand choosing different
staff instead of the “Fully recommended
candidate”, in two cases this carried two and
three steps jump on their grades. Their
decision was to keep the most obedient staff.
Actually, this group
of corrupted UN officers was extremely
impudent and do not feel shame while adding to
their report a column labeled“Selection Decision”
before the “Fully recommended candidate”column
to put the wanted names!
To clear any doubts,
and allow Naeem to take lead of the process
“as he was not a trusted person for staff of
all UN agencies”, he was rewarded a new post
(Human Resources Specialist, RBAS based in
Amman) 3 days only prior to interviews, he
then joined as an external member since the RC
agreed with the staff to bring externals for
interviews.
Naeem then sent the
cases to his new office in Amman to obtain CRP
approval, and avoided involving the HQ office
in NY.
I am attaching a
snapshot showing one example of “unwanted”
procurement Analyst, the first “Confidential
status report” showed his grade as 60% (pass)
but their comment was “possibly second round”
as he is not the desired staff (refer to
emails attached), later on the second report
they changed his rating to 46%,he was the only
candidate applied for this post. He applied on
the second round and kicked out again.!!!
The reason behind this
counterfeiting was to avoid the “order of
retention policy” which is part ofUNDP Recruitment and Selection
Frameworkas
most of the staff leaders were either holding
“Permanent contract” or “Fixed Term Contract”,
and according to this policy long serving
staff will be retain in their current position
if obtained the basic passing marks (UNDP
Sudan chosen 60% as passing threshold)." Marta
Ruedas who justified this restructure by $ 1
Million shortage in funding, paid % 550,000 to
bring the interview panel members.
Back to the old story
of Alzatari, bank of Khartoum and exchange
rate,
we exclusively got information about the cause
of the foot note which
was added to the new Salary scale to pay local
staff in local
currency. Naeem, who was trusted by local
staff to be the chair of
their Local Staff salary survey committee
(LSSC) miss-leaded the UN
controller when they consulted him, he told
them that “due to the
limited access to convertible currency by
local banks” he prefer that
local staff to be paid in local currency at
the official exchange
rate”, still supporting bank of Khartoum!!!
Another exchange rate scam
(Attachments 8 & 9). Marta Ruedas who
found herself has no other
option than supporting salary payments to be
paid in USD, after the
staff strike, was under DPKO fire due to her
decision. UNFCU as well proved that it is just
internal UN department and not a bank that
respect its members rights and privacy,
replied to some local staff from other
agencies in Sudan clearly stating that what
happened to their accounts was “UNDP Sudan
decision” despite its previous communication
with UN Staff Federation in Sudan claiming the
US sanction as the reason of Staff Dollars
being taken and given to bank of Khartoum...
While the UN's
World Intellectual Property
Organization helps North Korea
with a patent application for
social cyanide (FOX here),
Inner City Press on May 16
began to ask US Ambassador to
the UN Nikki Haley about it (video here, more to follow). In
a more lenthy exchange with
May's President of the UN
Security Council, Uruguay's
Elbio Rosselli, Inner City
Press asked about UN WIPO's
(non) compliance with UN
sanctions, working on a patent
for North Korea's production
of sodium cyanide. Periscope
video here.
Ambassador Rosselli said
he had not heard of the issue.
(Here's
from WIPO's own website.) At
noon, Inner City Press had
asked the UN about that and
its reporting that the UN
Federal Credit Union,
regulated by the US National
Credit Union Administration,
openly solicits the business
of both North Korean employees
of the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea's mission to
the UN and the members of the
UN Association of the USA
(UNA-USA), amid questions of
immunity and a previous UNFCU
settlement for sanctions
violations. UN
briefing video here,
from Min 10:20.
While a
statement from Ambassador
Haley about WIPO, and one
hopes UNFCU, may be
forthcoming, here
is this afternoon's video:
UN
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric
dodged on whether Secretary
General Antonio Guterres would
this time talk to WIPO chief
Francis Gurry, as he did not
as Gurry deployed criminal
defamation law against the
press; he also wouldn't answer
on UNFCU. UN transcript:
Inner City Press: I want
to ask you something. I
have a couple questions about
North Korea. One is, I'm
sure you've seen the Fox story
about WIPO [World Intellectual
Property Organization] doing a
patent application for North
Korea for the production of
sodium cyanide, which is
banned to be trans… to be
brought into the
country. And I know
before you'd said… it wasn't
clear to me if the
Secretary-General had
communicated with WIPO about
their use of criminal
defamation against
journalists. But, is
this something that concerns
him? And I also… I also
want to ask you about the UN
Federal Credit Union (UNFCU)
openly soliciting deposits
from… from the Mission of
North Korea, as well as the
employees of the Mission
despite having previously
settled sanctions charges for
just… for such activity on
another sanctioned
country. Do you think
that this is consistent with
this whole idea of tightening
up…?
Spokesman: I don't speak
for the Credit Union.
They're an independent
body. I would agree… I
would urge you to question
them. On the [Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea]
and the Fox News report,
obviously, I think what's
contained in the report is
disturbing and demands looking
into. The Panel of
Experts… the Security Council
Panel of Experts, as you know,
is an independent team
reporting to the
Council. And they have
the prerogative to look into
all alleged violations of DPRK
sanctions and report to the
Council
accordingly. I
think, as noted in the
article, the Panel's
coordinator said the Panel
will look into the
issue. And I think we'll
need… the Panel will do its
work and report back.
And if… we will obviously look
more directly into the issue,
as well from our end.
Inner City Press: Given
that there have been previous
allegation… previous
allegations and reported
retaliation at WIPO concerning
North… activities with North
Korea, do you think it's
something… do you or the
Secretary-General think it's
something that the CEB [Chief
Executives Board] or some kind
of system-wide… does it need
to be reiterated to the UN
agencies that these sanctions
are reported?
Spokesman: I think the
need… the absolute need to
respect the sanctions regime,
both whether it's from Member
States or within the UN, I
think, is clear and should be
clear to everyone.
UNFCU's
website lists
under “Missions to the UN in
New York eligible to join
UNFCU” that of “North Korea
(DPRK).” Now, after the latest
North Korean launch, US
Ambassador to the UN Nikki
Haley on May 14 told
ABC's This Week that the
screws will be tightened on
North Korea, to isolate them.
So, at the UN, what about the
(US regulated) UN Federal
Credit Union?
Inner City Press
asked UNFCU's Senior Manager
of Media Relations Elisabeth
Philippe questions including
“why some UN member states'
missions to the UN are
eligible to join UNFCU,
including the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea,
and others are not, why
members of UNA-USA became
eligible to join UNFCU, what
regulatory filings in any
UNFCU made for this change in
field of membership, and any
restrictions on the use of
these UNA-USA members' funds,
and what services UNFCU offers
to UN agencies and country
teams, in which countries, and
if there are any restrictions
or safeguards.”
On deeming
the North Korean mission and
all of its employees eligible,
UNFCU's Ms. Philippe told
Inner City Press, “The
employees of any mission to
the United Nations based in
New York are eligible to apply
for UNFCU membership. The
employees of all missions are
eligible to join once their
mission has submitted an
application and been
approved.” The website says
the mission itself can join
UNFCU. On May 10, Inner City
Press asked the chairman of
the UN Security Council's
North Korea Sanctions
Committee Sebastiano Cardi
about North Korea's embassy in
Berlin
renting out space as a hostel,
video
here. What safeguards
does UNFCU, with UNA-USA's
members in its field of
membership, have?
On UNFCU
expanding its field of
membership to including anyone
who joins UNA-USA, Ms.
Philippe told Inner City
Press, “UNA-USA is the largest
UN advocacy organization in
the United States. UNFCU is a
financial organization
providing retail banking for
the UN community. Members of
UNA-USA, who are US citizens
or permanent residents of the
US, are eligible to become
members of UNFCU. In December
2013, the National Credit
Union Administration (NCUA),
the US regulatory body which
oversees US federal credit
unions, approved the expansion
of UNFCU membership to include
UNA-USA based on a shared
mission and values in support
of the United Nations. UNA-USA
members who become members of
UNFCU are eligible for the
full suite of products and
services available to UNFCU’s
field of membership.”
But what
is in the “full suit of
products and services”
available from UNFCU? The US
Office of Financial Asset
Control or OFAC settled
charges against UNFCU for, in
connection with Mission
employees, violating
sanctions, see here. And Inner
City Press' third question,
about precisely what services
“UNFCU offers to UN agencies
and country teams” - including
for example in North Korea -
remained at publication time
unanswered. Now this: "As a
member-owned financial
institution that serves the UN
community globally, UNFCU
provides bank account services
to UN/agency staff, and
consultants subject to payroll
requirements of the various UN
agencies and subject to the
rules and regulations
governing all US Financial
Institutions. Accounts are
maintained in US dollars and
are protected by federal share
insurance through the National
Credit Union Administration.
UNFCU complies with US
regulations, including those
governing US economic
sanctions." But why then did
UNFCU settle charges of
sanctions violations? We'll
have more on this. Inner City
Press previously exclusively
reported for example
that "Sudanese nationals
working for the UN have had
part of their salaries paid
into UN Federal Credit Union
accounts, in U.S. dollars.
Then they were told that these
dollar accounts were frozen,
and could only be transferred
to the Bank of Khartoum."
Watch this site.
***
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