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In Corrupt UN of Guterres Member States Belatedly Want Accountability at UNESCO

By Matthew Russell Lee & sources, Exclusive

UN GATE, Nov 6UNESCO, like the whole UN system under Antonio Guterres is falling apart in corruption and fraud. In recent years, Inner City Press has revealed the alarming situation of the Paris-based UN agency, headed by Frenchwoman Audrey Azoulay since 2017.

  Since the beginning of her mandate, following a totally unexpected election, the French DG and her team have treated the organization as if it were her private store or her family property.  Until recently, however, very little reaction from member states to rectify this situation has been generated, although it has occurred in other UN agencies.

Yet, the exposure and the revelations of Inner City Press finally resulted in open and official criticism expressed by a number of member states at the last 215th session of the Executive Board, held from 5 to 19 October 2022.   

 As in other UN agencies, the Executive Board of UNESCO is finally waking up to the issue of accountability. That is why, under the instructions of Azoulay's Cabinet, the IOS director has done everything to slow down the procedure discussed by member states in the ExB Special committee under item 21 of the Board's agenda (Document 2015 EX/21 available here) on the "UNESCO procedure of investigation of allegations against the Director-General".  

  It is a leap forward and even today it is easy to predict that DG Azoulay will end her mandate badly after having mismanaged it. Several signals confirm this new state of mind of the member states.

For example, the usual supporters of the French DG and of her corrupt mismanagement have fallen on deaf ears this time. The legitimate demands of the staff unions and some honorable member states to remedy this state of affairs did not meet with the usual opposition of Azoulay's lackeys.

On the contrary, a resolution was even adopted on the personal financial responsibility of managers who generate financial liabilities for the organization through their decisions. Another first for the corrupt administration of DG Azoulay.    

The governance vacuum appears to be over. "This session of the executive board signaled the beginning of the end-of-term period for the Azoulay administration," said a senior official working in the organization. "This is unprecedented, as normally open criticism from member states usually comes only a few months before the incumbent DG leaves office. In the case of DG Azoulay, her lame duck period will last at least two more years. This is very unusual, but it reflects the irritation of influential ambassadors," adds our source. 

The following is a transcript of the memorable speech of the Turkish Ambassador, H.E. Ms. Gülnur Aybet, delivered at the opening session of the Executive Board last month.


She requested Audrey Azoulay to “improve the communication between the DG and the permanent delegations” and emphasized the “importance of speed and timing” since the DG office is very slow and not responding and that this is becoming the “emerging norm” and that ambassadors find it “extremely difficult to schedule an appointment directly with the DG herself”.

  The Ambassador also said that the problems of “timing and level of response” of DG cabinet are “appearing across” the board and this obstruction seems to be “systematic and structural”  While underscoring the need for DG Azoulay to address these issues, Ms Gülnur Aybet also did a “timely and gentle reminder that intergovernmental organizations like UNESCO are made up of member states and the Secretariat is accountable to member states”.

At last, the word accountability was thrown in the face of Audrey Azoulay who, despite her stony face, seemed incandescent with rage in front of the applause that followed this muscular intervention. 

Servilely, the Chair of the Executive Board, Serbian Tamara Rastovac Siamashvili tried desperately to stop the applause that was outrageously discourteous for Azoulay and sounded like the beginning of the end of her time in office.

Some have wondered why Tamara Rastovac Siamashvili was so obsequious in frantically trying to overprotect the DG in that particular case, when criticism of this magnitude was emerging publicly for the first time. We have the answer for you. Just before the board session, Azoulay promised Tamara Rastovac Siamashvili to appoint fellow Serbian Uros Mijuskovic to the very strategic position of Secretary of the Appeals Board. 

As the UNESCO human resources office (HRM) leaked this information to Inner City Press, this is one of the most controversial recruitments in many years. Reportedly, the Serbian who is now number one on the short list has a triple nationality, contrary to Dutch laws that require the abandonment of all other nationalities once Dutch nationality is to be obtained. Strange for a lawyer to ignore that much the laws.

 Moreover, sources in The Hague indicate that Tamara knows the Serbian candidate well from her years in The Hague working in the office of the legal adviser to the Organization for Prohibition of the Chemical Weapons. Both are specialists in legal affairs and he was clearly favorably advantaged and preferred by Tamara Rastovac Siamashvili who pushed for him but deliberately failed to do the same push for other Serbian candidates who had obtained the support of the capital Belgrade for their candidacies.

 So, another intimate friend of those in power to get a cushy job at UNESCO, where family and mistresses’ businesses are the most prosperous branch of the organization.

  See here about the Chilean ADG for culture, Ernesto Ottone and his latest Spanish mistress Sara Garcia De Ugarte, as well as about Nicolas Kassianides, the Director of Azoulay’s Cabinet and his official mistress, Lily Neyestani.   Evidence provided by HRM on the controversial recruitment of Serbian Uros Mijuskovic includes the fact that a non-staff member was invited to sit on a UNESCO recruitment panel.

The Office of Legal Affairs then refused to sit on this panel despite the insistence of the panel's chairman, British con man Nicholas Jeffreys, who still holds the position of ADG for the administration after all the documented misdeeds.

The panel was thus composed of Nicholas Jeffreys, Amita Vohra from the Cabinet, Annick Grisar from HRM and the President of the Appeals board who got this position after an election by the member states. There is no precedent in the history of UNESCO where the elected President of the Appeals board is an official member of a recruitment panel.

However, all this is done for a specific purpose by Nicholas Jeffreys, as our source pointed out: "the goal of the administration is to weaken the President of the Appeals board by involving him in an illegal recruitment procedure and then to easily manipulate him when decisions regarding staff contestation cases will have to be made by him. He has become easy prey for the administration and the staff will pay the price", our source added. 

The illegal recruitment panel interviewed seven candidates and shortlisted four, with Tamara Rastovac Siamashvili's Serbian mate being the number one. "By this deed, Tamara is imperiling the position and function of the Chair of the Executive Board and, as a result, is demeaning the Board itself," said a diplomat off the record.

 While this explains Tamara Rastovac Siamashvili's totally blind obedience to Azoulay and her tacit support for her administration's transgressions, the secret deal is now exposed and interested member states may wish to question the above facts.

This could destroy the comfort zone of those who work in the shadows for their personal interests instead of defending to their best the electoral mandates given to the Chair of the Executive Board and to the DG.  

  Even for ambassadors who usually turn a blind eye to the political disorder and diplomatic malfeasance of Azoulay's administration, this may prove to be far too much. This open influence peddling between the DG and the Chair of the Executive Board takes the existing corrupt practices to another level. It escapes any form of control and goes against established rules and governance practices.  This is where UNESCO stands today, a UN Agency propitious to the flourishing of corruption, embezzlement, abuse of power and nepotism. 

This is also an example of Antonio Guterres' overwhelmingly corrupt UN system. We will have more on that. Watch this site.

***

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