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UN PGA Abdulla Shahid Won't Say Which Staff on Thai Junket Or Who Pays Them, Bans Press

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN

UN GATE, May 22 – After UN President of the General Assembly John Ashe was indicted for taking bribes from Chinese government businessman Ng Lap Seng, and died before trial, the UN's lone reform was to say that future PGAs would disclose how each of their their staff members were funded, and by whom.

And now, even that insufficient reform is not being complied with. As of October 31, under staff, rather than lists who pays whom, Shahid says "Information on the staff of the Office of the President The staff of the Office of the President of the General Assembly (OPGA) are identifiable through their biographies on the website." This makes a mockery of transparency, and violates the post-Ashe commitment. And the Press that asks about ongoing UN corruption is banned.  

Now in May 2022 Abdulla Shahid is again on the road, this time in Thailand, bragging about the the people he'll meet. In faux disclosure he says, "The trip is co-sponsored by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the OPGA Trust Fund." He doesn't even, as on Palau, mention the word COSTS, as in "costs associated with the visit are paid for by the Office of the President of the General Assembly’s Trust Fund. The President is accompanied by three members of his Office."

WHICH staff members, and who is paying THEM? Shahid has continued to refuse to say, and his spokesperson Paulina Kubiak Greer, who often gets no questions at all in the briefing room or WebEx, has refused to answer Inner City Press' daily e-mailed questions.

On this murky drip "On 22 May, President Shahid met with the United Nations Country Team in Thailand, led by Resident Coordinator Gita Sabharwal. President Shahid will meet with high-level officials of the Royal Thai Government, and other regional government officials in-attendance at the UNESCAP 78th session. The President will also meet with ESCAP Executive Director Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana.     The President is being accompanied by five personnel from his Office."

Which five? Who pays them?

  Shahid's is not a "Presidency of Hope" - it is a presidency of corruption, or at least, of censorship.

Back on September 16, 2021 Inner City Press wrote to then-new PGA Abdulla Shahid's then-spokesperson Monica Grayley, "state when you will put on the PGA website the financial and staffing information committed to after the indictment of then PGA John Ashe."

It asked for confirmation of receipt, and a copy of the list of speakers for the UNGA High Level Week. Neither was provided, nor any response on what Shahid, Maldives' foreign minister, will do to ensure access to "his" UNGA by the Press which asks these questions.

Instead, with the Press still banned, Shahid on October 31 in Glasgow pontificated: "We must be honest about this, with ourselves, with each other, and with the rest of the world." Honest?

 How can the Press be banned? Corrupt

There is a pending application to the UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit, acknowledged (unlike PGA Shahid's Grayley) but not acted on.  

On September 17, with the "Team" section of PGA Shahid's website still empty, Inner City Press wrote to two other staffers in the PGA's office, Carl Mercer  Lead, Communications, Advocacy & Speechwriting and Ahmed Salman Zaki, Executive Assistant to the PGA. Also complicity in the censorship of Press:  Carl Mercer  Lead, Communications, Advocacy & Speechwriting. At the UN, there are other more accurate words to describe these functions. Watch this site.

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