At
UN,
CMP Called
"Time Bomb,"
Takasu for
Management,
Pushback on
Khare
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 7 -- As
the UN dodges
questions
about its
finances
from Inner
City Press,
information
emerged
Wednesday
about large
undisclosed
cost overruns
in its nearly
$2 billion
Capital Master
Plan.
Meanwhile, the
Japanese
official vying
to take over
the
Department of
Management
from Angela
Kane may be
former
Permanent
Representative
Yukio Takasu,
Inner City
Press has
learned.
The
chief of CMP
Michael
Adlerstein
brags about
his value
engineering,
reducing the
CMP deficit
down to "two
digits... some
$80 million" -
but
only because
the associated
costs
including
fixtures
necessary to
move into the
building have
been swept
under the rug
until the very
end.
When
these costs
become known,
including the
fact that they
cannot be
"absorbed"
by the various
Un
departments,
"finance
ministries
will scream,"
a well placed
source told
Inner City
Press.
Meanwhile
there's
said to be
behind the
scenes
screaming not
only about
Inner City
Press' scoop
that Maurice
Strong, who
left the UN
amid Oil for
Food
and nepotism
scandals, is
back as a
"Senior
Adviser" on
Rio
+ 20, but
also about the
possibility
that Atul
Khare of India
may be
given the
Department of
Field Support
post being
vacated on
April 1
by Susana
Malcorra as
she becomes
Ban Ki-moon's
chief of
staff. From
elsewhere in
South Asia
come
complaints.
But
there is
apparently no
memory
at the UN.
Case in point:
Grid
Rroji, an
energetic UN
tour guide who
started work
for Albania's
government
while still
paid by the UN
until exposed
by Inner City
Press, is now
back
in the UN
system, at UN
Women.
It's like
Maurice Strong:
people
can just
return, it's a
very forgiving
(or forgetful)
organization,
even as it
preaches
"accountability"
around the
world....
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