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By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, PFTracker
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UN GATE, Dec 21 – The UN has been so corrupted and dominated under UNSG Antonio Guterres that his chief of staff Luiza Viotti has been allowed to pick an over the hill Brazilian and give him Guinea Bissau, see below. Now this, sent to banned Inner City Press from Beirut:

Dear Mr Lee, greetings from Beirut,  This message is a distress call by the staff of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, who do not know how to bring attention to their unbearable situation. Therefore, we decided to contact your media, as we are aware of your sharp articles based on investigative reporting about the UN.

In Beirut, the staff of the UN regional economic commission known as ESCWA is under high pressure from different sides. Firstly the situation in the country deteriorated since the last summer. The banks refuse to pay people from their own accounts – whether “current money” (salaries) or savings. The UN staff may get from their banks often only as little as 200 or 300 max 500 USD per week, and this is not enough to maintain the family life. It does not matter how much or how little are the UN staff members paid – they cannot access their money anyway. Now Roal Dashti, ESCWA’s Executive Secretary, and her close circle blame on the staff that they did not open accounts at UNFCU and did not transfer salaries there. However, it takes time, because there is no UNFCU representative in Beirut, and it takes also time to receive the debit and credit cards after opening the account. There is no point of sending salaries to UNFCU, if the staff members cannot access their account. Even if staff will get their accounts and cards set, it will be still be challenging to access their money. In the meantime Lebanese banks have stolen thousands of dollars from the UN staff, and the UN does not care about it.     The other pressure is from the security situation. Since 17 October 2019, when the Lebanese revolution has started the movement of staff is restricted. The roadblocks do not allow a free movement, staff members have to go home and stay there, shop only in the nearest shop. There is very little that the UN does for the staff. Every day, the Security Information and Operations Centre known as SIOC sends the same e-mail about the most typical location of roadblocks and suggests that “working from home is under discretion of the head of agency”. Rola Dashti, the Executive Secretary of ESCWA, surely does not want her staff to work from home, she fears that they would be less productive, and her only interest is to shine in the eyes of her New York hierarchy (Amina Mohammed, also corrupt, remember rosewood and the selling out of Press).   

 This is not all, the Rola Dashti, the Executive Secretary of ESCWA decided to pursue her reform that is not at all in line with the applicable UN principles, regulations and rules. She claims that she discussed the reform in New York, but if she did so with Amina J. Mohammed, that is not a guarantee that the reform pattern is lawful. From the programmatic side, Dashti decided to disregard the work program approved by member states and by the General Assembly, and to run ESCWA as a set of ad-hoc short-time project without any longer-term vision and strategy. All good relations built between the member states and the staff of ESCWA are gone, as delivery on agreed priorities cannot be guaranteed. Dashti believes that she and few around her have ability to judge any project, she denies that ESCWA staff has professional and technical knowledge, and that individual staff members are better placed to make a proper assessment of needs of countries in the region in a specific technical area. Staff members are frustrated, as they see the results of their hard work gone ashtray.     That is not all, Dashti’s reform includes a flat organizations, when performance management will be handled by some strange application of IT, and a there will not be any individual performance evaluation. So once you get in a lousy team, you will be fired, regardless of your personal efforts. The directors and chiefs will not manage any staff and any work program, they will become “coordinators”. All this will create a pool of slaves who have to do anything what they are actually asked, not long and medium term planning, no ownership of the work, no build up of expertise. ESCWA will be converted to a starting up NGO style of organization. This is not what the Fifth Committee approved for ESCWA, this is not what has the General Assembly decided, this is in contrary with the rules and regulations applicable to the human resources management (e.g. performance management). The only escape for ESCWA staff will be to resign from the UN and look for a job elsewhere, and that is very probably the real goal of the reform – to close ESCWA. Why to close it? To make way to a baby of Guterres - Mohammed child – Development Coordination Office with its useless and redundant resident coordination. They put this new system in place, and now they look for job for their people. This is how the UN took a downhill descent, when incompetent people came to its lead. 

   Let’s continue with the stress and pressure on ESCWA’s staff. The reform would not be complete, if people would not be taken out of their offices and cubicles and put in the open space desks – with hotdesks and lockers. It is to load more people on the floors at ESCWA – like what Guterres is doing in New York. Normally people get some upgrade in the job, but at ESCWA they are continuously downgraded and humiliated. Dashti just shows that she considers her staff as inferior people. She dared to get her close circle to nominate her for staff engagement for the UN SG Award – but she just humiliates and disempowers the staff. From the lowest general service level, to the directors level – everyone in one way or other – usually in multiple ways. But not only she will create a bad work environment, but she will spend money on that. Those are UN money on a building that belongs to a private company, the private company rents it to the Lebanese government for 8 millions dollars per year. These money flowing from the public fund to Hariri’s company Solidere are stolen from Lebanese people. If ESCWA and it leaders have some decency, they would find new premises, and stop this theft. So Dashti is going to invest into this unethically rented building, and she does not know how long will ESCWA stay there. Maybe it will have to leave as soon as the new government takes over – to preserve public interests and funds is one of the goals of the revolution.

     An still that is not all. With the deteriorated security situation and almost no well being, not access to money, Beirut is still classified the same way as years ago – category B, what is practically no real hardship. For political reasons this did not move, when the way in Syria started and Rima Khalaf, the Executive Secretary covered up the hardship. When staff members were asked to leave the building at 17:00 daily, Khalaf stopped the public address announcement and delayed the closure of lifts every time, when a high level official was visiting and stayed until the evening. But the staff members were threatened of being disciplined if they do not evacuate the building by 17:00 on time on normal working days. Rola Dashti stopped these announcements, when she became the Executive Secretary, she invested money into a bigger wall surrounding ESCWA. But Dashti does not really care about the hardship and security. She was asked on 20 December 2019 by staff members during a townhall meeting about changing the category of duty station from C to B, and the reply was that she is not going to talk to New York about it, because it could mean evacuation.

Simply Dashti is helping Guterres to save money that he spends on his games with the reform, on his travel from anywhere to anywhere via Lisbon and on calling the USGs every few weeks to New York (this team of high officials is Thomas Cook, not the UN leadership). Regular staff member are set to silence and pushed to work more and more. Changing a category of duty station from B to a more appropriate category, when roads are blocked, cars and buildings in the downtown Beirut are burned, the medicines supply in Lebanon is in a shortage, people do not get their own money, etc. etc. – is not desirable, is not wanted. It would not serve the present leaders of the UN, so why to bother with some folks who got employed at the UN under previous leaderships. What a difference to Kofi Annan, who always acknowledged the value of the UN staff. 

   It is not only about the category B, C or D and the corresponding hardship payment. Dashti ruled out any evacuation. But the situation is so vulnerable that the evacuation may become inevitable anyway. Does the current leadership need victims among the UN staff? Does it mean that the staff security is not a priority anymore? The staff rights are violated, they are not anymore considered as a valuable asset, they are treated as subhuman, and their security is of no interest to ESCWA’s leadership. It is not only about the ESCWA staff, but also about their families, everyone suffers from this new people (mis-)management approach. It is necessary to ring a bell on time, because we have the victims of this staff treatment." We'll have more on this.

   The corruption reaches in the the Security Council Affairs Division, as Inner City Press showed by exposing Rosemary DiCarlo's chief of staff's photographer husband getting the contract for the Council's website, before Guterres had Inner City Press banned.

 On 13 December 2019 from banned Inner City Press this exclusive, on the corruption in recruitment about the chef de cabinet Viotti’s friend. She recruited her friend José Viegas Filho from Brazil as SRSG Guinea-Bissau. He is not anymore there, but according to multiple locals he had dementia and could not engage with anyone. In Bissau during a meeting with international community, he didn’t know why he was there and they took him out and the Deputy SRSG proceeded with the meeting.

  Whistleblowers tell banned Inner City Press he was there because CdC Viotti was doing him a favor to flee corruption charges from Brazil, and because he was not well mentally, his wife took charge of his functions and attended meetings with him. In a meeting with the President of Guinea Bissau, it was clear that he was not well mentally. A EU representative asked if it was true that the SRSG was not mentally well. But the representative said that they learned that he would be leaving the mission. This is a horrible story of how corrupt is Guterres' cabinet.

   SCAD -- the Security Council Affairs Division -- is also corrupt in recruitment, as Inner City Press previously showed regarding the website. They posted a P4 position and other male staff knew they would take German Nils Schmieder who has been there only for a few months and bypass so many experienced colleagues. He was picked up from the roster few days after posting the post which was advised for a month and the EO questioned the procedures, when they received the memo but they are still going with the recruitment

The name of the person being recruited is Nils Schmieder. Inner City Press will have more on this.

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