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At UN, Questions of Skanska's
Involvement in NJ Bribery Case and Cut-Back of Tours
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
July 30 -- While publicizing an
initiative to raise the temperature by five degrees this August inside
UN
headquarters, the UN's Michael Adlerstein was asked for his reaction to
the
UN's
contractor, Skanska, being part of a bribery guilty plea on a New
Jersey
job they were fired from, and why public tours of the
Security Council will
end later this week. "I'm cautious that that's accurate information,"
Adlerstein said, arguing reflexively that general contractors are only
responsible for "their people" and not "one of their hundreds of
subsidiaries." Video here,
at Minute 22:55.
But
Skanska's own senior vice president for communications, Tom Crane,
reportedly
confirmed that the "United States Attorney's office has notified
Skanska
USA -- the construction contracting company initially hired to oversee
the
construction of the metal-draped science library designed by Frank
Gehry --
that an employee of the company is suspected of receiving 'unauthorized
payments.'" As Inner City Press cited to Adlerstein, this was reported
in
New Jersey's Daily Princeton, here,
citing the Times of Trenton.
So does
Adlerstein's Capital Master Plan office monitor Skanska? Apparently
Skanska
does not disclose such material information to the UN.
On the
abrupt discontinuance of public tours of the UN's Conference Building,
including the Security Council, Adlerstein was vague on what work the
City of
New York asked to be done. He mentioned sprinklers, which have not been
installed. The municipal officials
involved in the meeting emerged with the adjective "contemptuous."
But at least at Wednesday's press conference, Adlerstein was on his
best
behavior. UN COOL, one wag quipped.
Adlerstein at UN COOL press conference, oversight of Skanska not shown
At
Wednesday's noon briefing, spokesperson Michele Montas announced the
new prices
with the truncated tours, which are barely a dollar cheaper than the
previously
full tours. One journalist asked: so the Security Council, along with
ECOSOC
and the Trusteeship Council, are worth only a dollar? The experiment in
less
air conditioning in the UN smacks of Jimmy Carter in the 1970s -- by no
means
the worst reference. One Japanese journalists notes the "Cool Biz"
program in his country, in which he said government officials ended up
dressing
like yakuza gangsters, "in suit coats but no ties." We'll see.
Footnote:
a personnel matter which Adlerstein
may be asked about is the shift from Facilities Management to the CMP
of one
Joan McDonald. An event marking her transfer was cancelled due to a
fire drill
and building evacuation last Friday. But why the transfer, one year
before
retirement? Adlerstein, it emerges, is in charge of both the CMP and
Facilities
Management. Whether this helps the UN in its negotiations with the City
of New
York is open to question.
Watch this site.
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
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
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[at] innercitypress.com
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Other,
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in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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