| In UN
Corrupted By Guterres OIOS Blind To Dollar
A Year Scams of Bokova and Others
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
UN GATE, Feb 13 –
How corrupt has the UN become
under Antonio Guterres? Well,
its supposed investigative
arm, the Office of Internal
Oversight Services, claims it
didn't tell Guterres that his
close ally Fabrizio
Hochschild, even while twice
promoted, was subject of a
sexual harassment
investigation.
In fact,
leaked audio published
by Inner City Press shows
OIOS' Ben Swanson did tell
Guterres - and then dropped
the investigation. Likewise,
OIOS never acting on
information provided to it
about those who ordered UN DSS
"Security" official Roland E.
Dobbins to stalk, rough up and
oust Inner City Press, here.
Now, this:
David Kanja of OIOS,
petitioned in detail about
improprieties of Irina Bokova
who still holds a
"dollar a year" position with
UNESCO, has stonewalled and
said OIOS has no jurisdiction,
see below. Guterres has untold
dollar a year hangs-on, most
recently Mike Bloomberg. So
these can misuse the UN's
tattered name, with impunity?
Under Guterres, yes. We hope
to have more on this case:
From: OIOS
Hotline Date: Thu, Feb 11,
2021 at 8:46 AM Subject: Re:
Allegation Report and Request
for Investigation Irina Bokova
and Kalin Mitev
Thank you for your additional
email dated 07 February 2021
to the Investigations
Division, Office of Internal
Oversight Services
(ID/OIOS).
Your report has been carefully
reviewed. Unfortunately, the
subject of your complaint
falls outside the mandate of
ID/OIOS, which deals with
misconduct matters involving
UN staff and resources. As
such, we are unable to assist
in your
query. Thank
you and best
regards.
Investigations
Division/OIOS
Sent: Sunday, February 7, 2021
4:21 PM To: OIOS Hotline
Subject: Re: Allegation Report
and Request for Investigation
Irina Bokova and Kalin
Mitev
Dear Mr.
Kanja, Thank you
for acknowledging receipt of
my letter below. I appreciate
your swift response and
request for further
clarifications. I hope the
below responses sufficiently
address your
questions. Details
of the identity or source from
where you “received multiple
reports of misconduct and
wrongdoings.” The people
that brought these allegations
to my attention prefer to
remain unknown. Hence, I am
not at liberty to share the
names of the individuals who
brought these serious
allegations to my attention.
It is my understanding that
Information received from
anonymous sources can be
assessed by the OIOS and may
lead to an investigation.
There human rights activists
have been disbursing their
outcry on social media by
using #DontBeBokova
#IrinaBokova #UNFraud to
independently verify the
anonymous reports that include
sufficient detail to
corroborate the reported
information.
Details of how
Ms. Irina Bokova and her
husband Mr. Kalin Mitev are
“currently affiliated with
UNESCO” or any UN body.
According to the information
that is circulating on social
media and articles of various
news and investigative
reporting agencies, Ms. Bokova
has been appointed as an
Advisor to the current
Director-General of UNESCO and
is employed in that role on a
$1 Consultancy contract. I
assume this should not be
difficult for your Office to
verify and get confirmation
from UNESCO or the common UN
HR Management database. The
fact that she is employed at
any capacity – remunerated or
non-remunerated, makes her
case under the mandate of OIOS
for further perusal. In this
connection, it would also be
important to examine whether
Ms. Bokova’s recruitment to
that role has undergone the
existing recruitment process
and whether other candidates
have been considered for that
role, particularly other
female non-European
candidates.
Specific details identifying
the misconduct implicating a
UN staff member and each of
your allegations.
Please refer to my letter and
the cited online materials
that provide excessive
information that your office
needs to launch an
investigation. Hypothetically
and while not enjoying such a
mandate, if my association
were to conduct a full
investigation, we would not
resort to the specific UN body
that is mandated to conduct
such an investigation. My role
and that of the concerned
public is to direct our
concerns to the very body that
is mandated and supported by
the public and their
governments to receive the
information and carry out
verification, fact-checking,
investigation, and reporting.
Any alleged misconduct and/or
wrongdoing of an
Under-Secretary-General of any
of the United Nations Agency
or Program should be reported
to the OIOS, situated within
the Secretariat of the United
Nations. At this point, I have
taken the required steps to
describe and channel these
serious accusations on behalf
of the public and have shared
the references with the right
body for further review and
investigation. For
transparency and
accountability purposes these
allegations are being shared
with the relevant offices and
authorities of UNESCO donors
that have the responsibility
to their constituents and the
mandate to investigate and
report.
On Wed, Feb 3,
2021 at 6:35 AM OIOS
Hotline Thank you
for your report to the
Investigations Division,
Office of Internal Oversight
Services (ID/OIOS) dated 30
January
2021.
ID/OIOS, deals with misconduct
matters involving UN staff and
resources. I
respectfully request some more
information as it is not clear
to me if this this matter
falls inside the mandate of
ID/OIOS, and I would like to
be able to assess the
information adequately so that
I can process it
appropriately. If
you could please provide to
us, by 10 February 2021,
additional information
including the
following: Details
of the identity or source from
where you “received multiple
reports of misconduct and
wrongdoings” Details of
how Ms. Irina Bokova and her
husband Mr. Kalin Mitev are
“currently affiliated with
UNESCO” or any UN body
Specific details identifying
the misconduct implicating a
UN staff member and each of
your allegations
Specific details of how Ms.
Irina Bokova is involved with
this specific misconduct
Any supporting
documentation. In
your response, be sure to
mention that you are following
up on a request for additional
information. Please note that
if we do not receive a
response by the indicated date
above, a final decision on the
matter will be based on
available
information.
Please be assured that under
the protection of
confidentiality to those who
make reports or suggestions to
ID/OIOS, as provided in our
mandate in ST/SGB/273 (7
September 1994), we will not
disclose that you reported the
information unless we obtain
your consent to do
so. Best
regards,
Investigations
Division/OIOS
From:
Sent: Saturday, January
30, 2021 11:14 PM To: OIOS
Hotline oioshotline [at]
un.org
Subject:
Allegation Report and Request
for Investigation Irina Bokova
and Kalin Mitev
Dear Mr. David
Kanja,
I have received multiple
reports of misconduct and
wrongdoings, allegedly
perpetrated by the former
(2009-2017) UNESCO Director
General Irina Bokova and her
husband Kalin Mitev, currently
affiliated with UNESCO under
uncommon and questionable
conditions, mandate and
privileges.
The
reports have resulted in an
outrage among the affected
persons, communities, human
rights & anti-corruption
activists groups and watchdogs
as well as investigative
reporters.
I am
concerned about the
allegations and the ability of
the UN system and its agencies
in investigation, reporting
and transparent execution of
punitive, restorative and
preventive
measures.
Below are the list of issues
that has generated the outrage
and the
mistrust: 1.
During Irina Bokova’s tenure
at UNESCO, her husband Kalin
Mitrev received at a minimum
€425,000 in Bulgarian and
Swiss accounts from Hilux,
Polux and Metastar, the core
companies that power the
Azerbaijani Laundromat[1].
Mitrev told OCCRP
that the payments were for
consultancy work from May 2011
to April 2014 with Avuar-Co
LLC, a Baku-based company,
which “was working with the
Ministry of Emergency
Situations of Azerbaijan on a
major government program for
the mitigation and prevention
of the disastrous floods in
the Kura-Aras river basin.” He
told he did not know why he
was paid via Metastar, Hilux
and Polux but referred
reporters to a representative
of Avuar-Co., who wrote in an
email that the above-mentioned
three offshore companies had
debts to his company and that
he used these debts to pay
Mitrev for his services.
Later, the mentioned
representative of Avuar-Co.
denied any knowledge of the
flood project and said he did
not send the
emails.
2. Bokova
has reportedly maintained a
very close, friendly
relationship with the Aliyevs.
She was a regular guest in
Baku and in 2010, and bestowed
a UNESCO honor, the Mozart
medal, on Mehriban Aliyeva,
Azerbaijan’s first lady and
the First Vice President. The
Aliyevs have been generous in
return, and in July 2013,
UNESCO announced that
Azerbaijan would donate US$ 5
million to the organization,
as part of a cooperation
agreement signed by Bokova in
the presence of
Aliyeva.
3. On 22 October
2013, UNESCO hosted a photo
exhibition called “Azerbaijan
– Land of Tolerance” at its
Paris headquarters at the
request of a foundation
chaired by Aliyeva. Three days
later, the bank records show
Mitrev was paid €20,000. The
following month, Bokova joined
Aliyeva at the same
exhibition’s opening at the
Azerbaijani Cultural Center in
Paris. In the context of
Bokova’s participation in the
exhibition and by doing so
‘endorsement’ of Azerbaijan as
land of tolerance, it is
noteworthy that Azerbaijan
over the course of years
committed the worst cultural
genocide of the 21st century,
with its erasure of the
Armenian cultural heritage in
Nakhichevan (89 Armenian
churches, 5,840
khachkars/cross-stones, and
22,000 tombstones), including
the destruction of tens of
thousands of UNESCO-protected
ancient stone carvings, i.e.
“khachkars” (source:
Monumental loss: Azerbaijan
and 'the worst cultural
genocide of the 21st century'
| Art and design | The
Guardian[2]).
Bokova, instead
of addressing the terrible
cultural genocide committed by
Azerbaijan, stayed silent
about such acts of vandalism
and engaged is a questionable
cooperation with Azerbaijan’s
President and the First
Lady. 4. According
to an investigation of an
OCCRP partner center, Irina
Bokova owns $4.7 million in
properties across London,
Paris and New York, despite an
estimated family income in
recent years of only $2.7
million. Bokova’s husband
Mitrev’s involvement in the
Azerbaijani Laundromat scheme
as a recipient raises a number
of questions regarding the
couple’s property wealth,
which is not proportionate to
their family income.
5. Among
UNESCO’s controversial
handouts during Ms. Bokova’s
reign are sending funds to
kleptocratic African
dictators, e.g. in 2010
announcing an international
prize in the name of
Equatorial Guinea’s brutal
dictator Teodoro Obiang
Nguema, who encourages rumors
that he eats the flesh of
their enemies. (source: Bokova
vs. Associated
Newsletters[3]).
6. UNESCO's
current Director General
Audrey Azoulay awarded her
predecessor Irina Bokova a
"dollar a year" UN system
consultancy, which comes with
extensive UN privileges.
Bokova "advised senior
management on various aspects
of UNESCO programs" and
"conducted missions to
organize meetings, conferences
and consultations" until the
end of November 2018. Knowing
the facts and allegations
listed above, this arrangement
consultancy gives Bokova
access to UN privileges,
staff, donors and networks and
ability to advise/influence
key decisions that like in the
past may unjustly and
deceptively serve to the
benefit of Irina Bokova and
Kalin Mitrev's friends,
clients and
acquaintances.
I request a
thorough and transparent
investigation, reporting, as
well as corrective and
restorative actions. If these
allegations are true, Mrs.
Bokova and Mr. Mitev should
not have access to Un system
and must be listed in the
appropriate lists preventing
their access to institutions
and businesses that have zero
tolerance for unethical
business conduct....
[1] Azerbaijani
Laundromat
[2] Monumental
Loss
[3] Bokova
vs. Associated Newsletters
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