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By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive CJR PFT

UNITED NATIONS GATE, January 2 – The corruption in the UN system under UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres ranges from impunity for sexual abuse and harassment to double-dipping of benefits, to massive over-spending on travel by Guterres himself, by Erik Solheim whose resigntion for it Guterres has accepted and others at UNEP and, as Inner City Press is detailing in an ongoing series of articles based on leaked documents, in the UN Development Program and its Office of South South Cooperation. We focused on 19 September 2018 on the Deputy Administrator of UNDP,  Tegegnework Gettu, whose travel waste we previously reported on and his threat to staff that they better be careful. Inner City Press was thrown out of the UN without due process - reiterated in a Kafka-esque denial on 2 January 2019 - and Guterres spokesman has refused to answer Inner City Press' questions about travel waste, of his boss Guterres and about UNDP in particular. And now Gettu is gone - he left UNDP on 31 December 2018, with nary a farewell message to staff, many of whom had complained repeatedly to Inner City Press about him. One exclusively shared with Inner City Press, "The Administrator [Achim Steiner] had invited all UNDP HQ Staff to Gettu’s Farewell party with a reminder but only a few people attended the party at on 7 December 2018.  Except for one Ethiopian lady who works in the Executive Office, all his compatriot didn’t attend his party.  On 31 December 2018, the Administrator sent the Gettu’s Farewell message and everyone was expecting his final good-bye message but he didn’t send anything and left the organization quietly.  Late in the afternoon, the UNDP Bulletin communicated Gettu’s personal email to all staff.  It is a shame he didn’t even have the courage to say good-bye... The next question is to the Administrator, how is he going to clean Gettu’s messes: corruption, injustice, nepotism recruitment and retaliation on those who stand for their right.   
From: UNDP Bulletin 
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2018 5:26 PM
 Subject: Mr. Tegegnework Gettu
Dear Colleagues,     I am sharing with you Mr. Gettu’s email address, in case you would like to contact him... All the best for 2019.  From: Achim Steiner 

Sent: Monday, December 31, 2018 9:55 AM Subject: FW: Farewell to our Associate Administrator - Tegegnework Gettu       
Dear UNDP Colleagues,   Today is not only the last day of the year 2018.  It is also the day when our Associate Administrator and my dear colleague and friend ‘Teg’, will ‘turn off the lights in his office’ one last time, before stepping into the elevator on the 21st floor of our DC1 Building and bring to closure the last chapter of his decades long journey with UNDP and the United Nations.   I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation - and I believe I do so also on behalf of my predecessors - to Mr. Gettu for a ‘life of exceptional service’ to development, UNDP and the United Nations.   Many of you will have - over the years - worked with him, met him, learned from him, agreed or disagreed with him. Like me, I expect you will have realised quickly that Mr. Gettu brought to his many assignments not only professional rigour but also exceptional commitment to the organisation and countries he served.   Many colleagues in UNDP learned from him - be it in terms of his passion for what we do, the lack of tolerance he had for ‘shoddy work’, his willingness to serve the organisation wherever it needed him most - including a few years in the UN Secretariat as USG for DGCAM - and the highest standards he applied to himself (... anyone whoever gave him an interesting book would know that within a few days he would be ready to discuss a heavily annotated and underlined version of it)!   As we say ‘goodbye’ to Mr. Gettu - our Associate Administrator - I want to add my personal thank you for the 18 months we worked together as a team in the Executive Office. From the day I was appointed by the Secretary-General to lead UNDP through its next chapter, I was fortunate to have Teg’s wisdom, knowledge and experience to draw on, as I learnt to ‘understand UNDP and its crew’. Sometimes leadership is as much about “listening and learning” as it is about “leading and deciding”. I could not have asked for a better ‘companion’ and remain grateful for this time that we - together - led UNDP through a period of intense transformation and change.   As he leaves us to return to Ethiopia I would like to - on behalf of all of us in UNDP and the UN family - wish him, his wife and family, all the best for the new year and for what lies ahead as they return home.   With my best wishes,   Achim Steiner."

  Gettu's help to scam elections by Ethiopia's prior prime minister have been reported - in exchange, sources day, for support to make Gettu a high UN official. This is Guterres' UN. Travel expenses by UNDP in 2017 amounted to nearly $27 million, and by August 2018
came in at a staggering $26 million four months short of year end. Gettu's tab is $159,640.41. Look in his leaked list at his inflated airfare to Switzerland, leaked travel budget document downloadable on Patreon here, with Air Ticket the first column and "Allowance" the second :
TEGEGNEWORK GEITU, Associate Administrator $ 159,640.41
Nigeria $ 11,197.00 $ 280.00
Norway $ 5,116.00 $ 784.00
Afghanistan $ 16,260.00 $ 162.00
Switzerland $ 22,136.21 $ 368.00
Japan $ 5,405.00 $ 574.00
China $ 3,459.00 $ 460.00
Afghanistan $ 20,489.00 $ 162.00
China, Qatar $ 16,697.00 $ 2,178.00
Kenya $ 4,473.00 $ 1,050.00
Malaysia $ 11,084.00 $ 216.00
China - Ethiopia $ 16,645.02 $ 1,545.57
Djibouti $ 6,916.00 $ 466.35
Eritrea $ 1,273.26 $ 430.00
China $ 9,398.00 $ 416.00

We'll have more on this. On September 18, as elsewhere in the UN system corrupted by Guterres the head of UN Environment Erik Solheim blames his travel waste on his own administrative (Inner City Press exclusively pubished Solheim's internal email here), we focus on the head of UNDP, Achim Steiner. Since being given the top job at UNDP by Guterres in exchange for allowing Guterres' power grab of the UN Resident Coordinator system from UNDP, one of the dubious reform for support of which by UN Budget Committee char Tommo Monthe of Cameroon Guterres helped cover up Cameroon's slaughter of Anglophones, Steiner's international travel has cost nearly $10,000 or more for airfare per trip, with one trip to Myanmar
- Japan - United Kingdom costing around $28,000 for airfare only. Leaked travel budget document downloadable on Patreon here, with Air Ticket the first column and "Allowance" the second :
UNDP MANAGEMENT Air Ticket Allowance
ACHIM STEINER, Administrator $ 353,732.24
Switzerland $ 1,024.00 $ -
New York $ 9,345.00 $ -
New York $ 8,612.00 $ 151.68
Italy $ 10,205.00 $ 320.00
Myanmar - Japan - United Kingdom $ 28,453.45 $ 1,239.04
Sweden - Norway $ 7,409.00 $ 736.00
Germany $ 10,039.00 $ 324.00
United Kingdom $ 6,576.00 $ 439.75
San Francisco $ 3,758.00 $ 411.24
Washington DC $ 408.00 $ 1,029.68
Washington DC $ 612.00 $ 893.06
Sweden $ 9,887.00 $ 214.00
Egypt $ 7,345.00 $ 207.00
Germany - Qatar $ 11,991.00 $ 2,592.06
Switzerland - India - China - France $ 31,443.70 $ 1,969.64
Switzerland - Ethiopia - Somalia $ 19,652.30 $ 6,976.69
UAE - Kuwait - Lebanon - Germany - Belgium $ 19,985.00 $ 3,143.32
Washington DC $ 1,380.00 $ 545.57
Zimbabwe - Argentina $ 16,523.00 $ 1,284.38
Boston $ 523.62 $ 385.00
Turkey - France $ 11,515.30 $ 708.59
United Kingdom $ 6,877.00 $ -
Sweden $ 5,779.00 $ 838.00
Washington DC $ 915.00 $ 1,099.70
Belgium - United Kingdom $ 7,974.00 $ 4,521.88
Norway - Russia $ 9,617.00 $ 938.03
Switzerland - France - Germany $ 13,829.00 $ 2,382.77
France $ 13,350.00 $ 841.35
Vietnam $ 6,830.00 $ 402.67
Argentina - United Kingdom $ 17,915.00 $ 764.77
Angola - Namibia $ 8,616.00 $ -
Germany $ 6,098.00 $ 322.00
Panama $ 3,037.00 $ 526.00." All for a total of $ 353,732.24.... Note that Guterres' son has business links, undisclosed and unanswered on, in Angola and Namibia. We'll have more on this. We started September 17 with UNOSSC because after exposing how it was used by convicted UN briber Ng Lap Seng, a corrupt censorship order by Guterres and his Global Communicator Alison Smale resulted last week in Inner City Press remaining banned from a press conference by OSSC director Jorge Chediek, who was then invited by the resident correspondents present to say that te Office's corruption has been "fabricated." Video here. This is the UN of Guterres, who has taken 15 publicly funded junkets to Lisbon on which his spokesman Stephane Dujarric has refused to answer or disclose the costs. And this is Chediek's spending on travel, exclusive leaked document here. Chediak has undertaken 27 trips, costing nearly $145,000. The issue of Mr. Chediek' s travel has been raised previously by Inner City Press. In a 10 April 2017 article, Inner City Press wrote that the director "devotes his time to useless travel promoting books already 'launched' in New York and to pitching the conference that would give him his ASG post." In the lead up to BAPA+40, a majorinternational conference to be paid for and hosted by the bankrupt Argentine government, he seems to be doing just that, including bragging about this meeting with Guterres' Global Censor Alison Smale who has not provided any due process, nor made the UN's minimal public financial disclosure. In a recent example of the excessive travels undertaken by the staff of this questionable Office, a conference in China saw a total of four staff from New York, all Chinese nationals, accompany Mr. Chediek. Despite this undeniable waste, and in the context of
considerable strain on UNDP' s core funding, the Office for South-South Cooperation has
managed to escape all budgetary cuts. The Office continues to receive $3.5 million and a
similar amount for staff salaries annually as core funding from UNDP for the 2018 -
2021 period. More on Chediek's travel, in a series to be carried out down the line at UNDP, with Air Ticket the first column and "Allowance" the second :
JORGE CHEDIEK, UN Office for South-South Cooperation $ 144,298.82
Benin $ 5,390.00  $ 509.04
Switzerland $ 2,450.00 $ 1,272.00
Thailand $ 3,140.00 $ 975.53
Turkey - Kazakhstan $ 4,500.00 $ 1,091.24
Kenya $ 4,740.00 $ 1,210.72
China $ 5,270.00 $ 673.40
Brazil $ 5,950.00 $ 505.76
Argentina $ 3,520.00 $ 1,230.00
China - India $ 9,045.10 $ 1,420.90
Argentina $ 4,053.00 $ 1,168.32
France $ 2,424.50 $ 1,313.68
Germany $ 2,315.00 $ 1,030.00
Brazil $ 2,672.10 $ 815.50
Turkey $ 2,722.00 $ 363.00
Bangladesh - Hong Kong $ 7,800.00 $ 1,771.48
Hawaii $ 2,848.00 $ 337.80
Egypt - France $ 3,976.90 $ 2,283.00
Brazil $ 2,747.60 $ 822.17
Argentina $ 5,053.70 $ 909.52
Portugal - Spain $ 3,832.01 $ 1,698.16
Cuba $ 342.70 $ 848.94
South Africa $ 7,424.50 $ 710.39
China $ 5,429.00 $ 1,307.21
France - Norway $ 1,912.71 $ 1,603.60
Thailand $ 6,326.00 $ 1,262.83
Egypt $ 5,650.00 $ 983.92
India $ 3,882.21 $ 763.68
  Yes, a total of over $144,000. But there's worse at UNDP - watch this site. Since Guterres had Inner City Press roughed up on and banned since July 3, it cannot ask about this at the UN noon briefing as it has in the past, back to the time of Kofi Annan. But it has asked Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who Guterres' Communicator Alison Smale said would answered - but didn't: "August 27-3: Please state the Secretariat's and DSG / Development System's knowledge of dual citizen staff getting US Tax reimbursement and also Home Leave and Education grant entitlements using their national/original passport - and what is being done about it." No answer at all, 23 hours after the briefing in which Dujarric claimed the ban is for being in a parking lot making some diplomats and UN officials uncomfortable. (Isn't that a journalist's job?) On August 28, Dujarric wrote to Inner City Press regarding the question, "I WILL HAVE A COMMENT LATER ON THIS ISSUE." But now two days later, nothing. Instead, from within UNDP, an all-staff email referencing Inner City Press' story, leaked to Inner City Press: "From: UNDP Bulletin
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2018 5:06:13 PM (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
To: All Staff UNDP Global
Subject: Update on Staff Benefits
Dear Colleagues,
You may have seen a press article published this week which alleges that a number of UNDP staff are improperly receiving benefits related to their expatriate status as internationally recruited staff.
Given our duty of care to staff and to the organization, I would like to take this opportunity to inform you regarding the situation.
Firstly, it is important to recognize that UNDP is a rules-based organization. For the benefit of its stakeholders, its staff, and the people it serves, UNDP recognizes it is of the utmost importance that administrative rules are applied consistently and fairly. In recognition of that principle, and as standard procedure, UNDP regularly screens for compliance with administrative rules.
Secondly, as part of that screening, UNDP had already commissioned an independent review by the UN Secretariat’s Office of Human Resources Management to ensure the fair and consistent application of rules related to eligibility for UNDP headquarters staff who are internationally recruited and receive related entitlements and benefits.
Thirdly, I would like to emphasize that there is no evidence nor any suggestion that any member of UNDP staff has acted inappropriately or dishonestly. OHR, on behalf of UNDP, will continue to ensure that rules and procedures are applied properly and correctly, in this, as in all other cases.
With my best regards,
Michele Candotti
Chief of Staff & Director of the Executive Office."
  But as whistleblowers point out, "Of course they have to say that because so many high level staff are also taking home leave benefits they don't have right to. Many of us hope you won't let this story go. You must press Steiner and the high level ppl listed in that chart you posted to respond to your questions and ask the top man at HR David Bearfield to explain how these ppl take home leave when Staff Rule 4.5 (d) says they can't. This is wrong." So is Guterres' outrageous targeting, roughing up and banning of Inner City Press to try to cover up his UN's corruption.

Here they are, with names unredacted as no responses at all to questions asked in three days ago to Guterres' Team, including on WOGC, connected to imprisoned UN briber Ng Lap Seng's Carlos Garcia, dealing in Kiribati with the UN, separate exclusive here, now this: "Dear Matthew, While UNDP and all UN agencies are suffering from the budget problem, some dishonest UNDP staff are taking two entitlements using their two passports interchangeably against the UNDP benefits entitlement rules.  As a US Citizen, they get US Tax reimbursement; they also get Home Leave and Education grant entitlements using their national/original passport.  It is sad to see UNDP’s senior staff participated in this fraud, as you can see from below Atlas record these staffs grade is from P4 – D2.  Predominantly, Ana Patricia ALVAREZ, and  Shazma Nathwani, the  HR Advisors also participated in this scam.   Some of the staff got more than $100,000 with this ongoing problem, e.g. Shazma Nathwani, $168,000. HR Staff have identified this issue early this year and reported to the HR Director and BMS Director but no action taken.  All UNDP staff in HQ knows this problem but had no other choice fear of retaliation, because of these people close relationship with UNDP senior management including their network.  We need your help...

ATLAS Record - List of Staffs with inappropriate  multiple benefits
No     Name     Title     Current Location     Level     Country-Place of Home Leave      Nationality Types     Douale payments made
1      ALVAREZ, Ana Patricia     HR Business Partner Central Bureaus, HQ/BMS/OHR     UNDP - New York     P-5     Honduras     Honduras- official     Home Leave and Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
2      ASSAF, Dena     Deputy Director, HQ/UNDOCO     UNDP - New York     D-2     Palestine     Palestine - official     Home Leave
                                    USA - Tax      
3      BRANT Heather     Chief of Section, HQ/Evaluation Office     UNDP - New York     P-5     Switzerland     Switzerland - official     Home Leave and Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
4      ALAIN Noudehou     Chief of Staff & Director, Executive Office, CO/SS     South Sudan     D-2     Benin     Benin - official     Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
5      ORUC  Yesim     Deputy  Director, HQ/BERA/LO/Washington     Washington     P-5     Tureky     Turkey - official     Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
6      REIMOV, Ajmiyaz     Programme Analyst (Research), HQ/BPPS     UNDP - New York     P-2     Uzbekistan     Uzbekistan - official     Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
7      RUSSELL, Andrew     UN Development Coordinator, HQ/BMS/OHR     UNDP - New York     D-1     Canada     Canada - official     Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
8      SERENYI Peter     Policy Specialist, HQ/UNDOCO     UNDP - New York     P-4     Hungary     Hungary - official     Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
9     SHAMASH-LADD Hamutal Esther     Legal Specialist     UNDP - New York     P-4     Israel     Israel - official     Home Leave
                                    USA - Tax      
10      UNGUREANU Carla     Human Resources Analyst, HQ/BMS/OHR     UNDP - New York     P-2     Peru     Peru - official     Home Leave
                                    USA - Tax      
11      JUHKAM Robert     Team Leader, HQ/BERA     UNDP - New York     P-5     Estonia     Estonia - official     Home Leave and Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
12      KINSLEY Sharon     Deputy Chief of Staff & Deputy Director     UNDP - New York     D-1     UK     UK - official     Home Leave and Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
13      LINOU Natalia     Policy Specialist, HQ/BPPS     UNDP - New York     P-4     Greece     Greece - official     Home Leave and Education Grant
                                    USA - Tax      
14      NATHWANI Shazma     Human Resources Specialist, HQ/BMS/OHR     UNDP - New York     P-4     Australia     Australia - Official     Home Leave
                                    USA - Tax     A
Regards,

UNDP Staffers

We'll have more on this.

***

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