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By Matthew Russell Lee & sources, Exclusive

UN GATE, Feb 29 – This has led to a situation where Azoulay's mismanagement is damaging UNESCO's core functions more than ever. Earlier this month, we published information about the outlawed sleight-of-hand of her senior budget officials (here ).

  Then, right away, Nicholas Jeffreys, the financial and management boss of the Agency, mobilized every effort to put out the fire.  The Inner City Press article caused quite a stir at UNESCO. The Secretariat expected the maneuvering to cover the 2023 deficit with 2024 funds to go unnoticed by member states.

As it didn’t happen that way, after our article a solution for a way out of this embarrassing situation is framed by the Secretariat aiming at creating a special account and dealing with the deficit only after the approval of this solution by the Executive Board in March. A draft resolution has been prepared along these lines by Azoulay’s Cabinet for this purpose. 

Last week, the Preparatory group of the Executive Board took place. It's clear to those present that the Inner City Press exclusive had been read by everyone. By the Secretariat as well as in the embassies and permanent delegations to UNESCO.

And this time, member states played their part by asking the right questions and adopting the right attitude.  Some tough questions were raised by member states, who for once directly attacked the decisions taken by Chief financial officer (CFO) Magdolna Bona and ADG for Administration and Management Nicholas Jeffreys. Perhaps because it's all about money. Member States' money, or more accurately, their taxpayers' money. The time seems ripe for accountability. Few voices of criticism have been missed, however - those of the European Union and representatives of the Nordic countries.

 Canada, represented at the PrepGroup meeting by Ms Dominique Levasseur, despite her usual total support for the Secretariat and her attitude of finding excuses for their flagrant incompetence, this time opted for asking legitimate questions.

This change in the Canadian representative's behavior can certainly be explained by the fact that Canada is the Agency's current external auditor. Since they strangely failed to uncover the financial irregularities, it's high time to take a firmer stance and protect the reputation of the Canadian Court of Audit.

Ms. Levasseur also raised the issue of the expected Board approval of the Secretariat's use of funds generated by interest rates, something the Azoulay boys and girls have never asked for before.  The question is whether member states will let the mistake go unpunished without consequences for the senior executives at fault. In our last article, we exposed that all this is contrary to financial rules and regulations. This is serious enough for member states to call for the immediate dismissal of Magdolna Bona, Nicholas Jeffreys who is covering up everything, and Bernardin Assiene, Director of IOS, who is completely failing to do his oversight job and take action against wrongdoing by senior UNESCO officials. 

An additional fact has been brought to our attention: Ms. Bona closed UNESCO's 2023 accounts, as announced and confirmed in the e-mail of January 5, 2024 quoted in our previous article. Then, following the explosive information revealed by Inner City Press, she decided to reopen the accounts in order to hide not only the deficit but also her illegal decision to cancel the 2023 obligations without even informing the program sectors and central services.

It remains to be seen how long she can survive at the Agency after this mistake. Her days would be numbered in any normal administration, but at UNESCO, abnormality is the rule.  UNESCO is quick to sanction junior staff, as happened in the case of the $450,000 stolen from UNESCO accounts (see here  and here ).

However, with a few exceptions, senior officials have always been protected by Audrey Azoulay despite their involvement in major scandals.  This financial mismanagement scam is also a serious blow to the reputation of the team of Canadian external auditors. How is it that such an illicit maneuver has gone unnoticed is an open question. This is worrying, even though their mandate is about to expire. The Canadian team is due to be replaced this year by the South African team.

 Still, the current external auditors must investigate this matter further and request all documented evidence in order to clarify respective responsibilities. Any actions taken by senior management in contravention of the appropriation resolution adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO last November, or in contravention of the financial regulations, which could jeopardize the implementation of the program, must be thoroughly disclosed, documented and sanctioned. 

As this is now public, the Azoulay administration can no longer hide behind false excuses or try to convince member states that the $19 million deficit that led to the cancellation of all financial obligations in December 2023 was reduced to $400,000 in February 2024 thanks to the miraculous acts of her management staff. So why didn't they do all this before the publication by Inner City Press? All their actions were activated only after our publication.

There's no good explanation for this, and these days, even UNESCO's Secretariat usual blatant lies to member states face a limit.  At the forthcoming session of the Executive Board, Member States should re-establish the authority and institutional role of this governing body. Member States may also wonder how the Secretariat will articulate the monitoring of program implementation in the SISTER system while using funds from sources other than the regular 2024 program adopted for the execution of activities as voted by the General Conference. This disconnect will create another information fog wall for those seeking accountability and expenditure control at UNESCO. 

As far as the 2024 funds are concerned, South Africa's new team of external auditors must start looking into this matter now, especially if the Canadian auditing team proves unable to identify the responsibilities and roles of the senior staff who were involved in creating and attempting to conceal this financial mess.  This is where UNESCO stands today, a UN agency ravaged by harassment of staff and financial misappropriations, propitious to the flourishing of abuse of power, corruption and nepotism. Watch this site. 

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