| In
Corrupt UN of Guterres UNESCO Poor
Governance Addressed by the Executive
Board?
By Matthew
Russell Lee &
sources,
Exclusive
UN
GATE, March
23
– UNESCO,
like the whole
UN system
under Antonio
Guterres is
falling apart
in corruption
and fraud.
Inner
City Press has
been reporting
on serious
malfeasance by
the French
Audrey Azoulay
administration
at UNESCO in
Paris, almost
as bad as
Antonio
Guterres'
corruption in
and of the UN
in New York. A
fish rots from
the head.
For
some years now, every case of mismanagement
has been duly denounced by Inner City Press.
Every misappropriation, every unfounded
appointment of parents and mistresses, every
element that could have led to an
investigation by IOS and sanctions. In vain,
Frenchwoman Audrey Azoulay and her team tried
to convince everyone that the revelations did
not correspond to reality, and each time the
facts proved them wrong. The truth hurts far
more than any slander, and Azoulay's boys and
girls learned this the hard way.
During this period, UNESCO's governing bodies
were regarded as weak and incompetent by DG
Azoulay. Elections at the last General
Conference and the current session of the
Executive Board, which opened a week ago, set
a totally different tone. The right questions
have been asked and the right observations
made by member states, much to the chagrin of
DG Azoulay. UNESCO's Drama Queen is beginning
to feel the heat of the end-of-term period,
and this is only the beginning of her
institutional pain.
Over the past seven days, the French
administration of UNESCO has been slapped by
the Board on a number of issues. Some of the
controversial matters, however, got some
diplomatic support that revealed the new
Azoulay's friends sitting on the Board. For
example, the debate on travel by the DG and
her senior staff caused a stir and frightened
off a number of senior UNESCO officials who
are using medical waivers to travel on
business class when they had no right to do
so, according to the financial regulations.
The amendment proposed by South Africa on the
subject of DG Azoulay's travel policy, was
substantially modified thanks to the active
support to the Secretariat’s position by some
of the usual members of Azoulay’s fan-club
that nowadays includes Gabon, Congo
Brazzaville, Djibouti, Lithuania, Côte
d'Ivoire, Chile and Egypt. It’s worth
recalling that the current policy allows Ms.
Azoulay to take a private family trip in
Venice on a boat paid for by UNESCO taxpayers'
money allocated to the Culture sector (here).
Nevertheless, the number of countries beyond
the EU supporting Audrey Azoulay is
diminishing significantly, and real progress
has been made in countering the criminal
complicity of these member states. It's clear
that the majority of member states elected to
the Executive Board are gradually abandoning
the permanent green light policy that allowed
DG Azoulay to perpetrate her usual
mismanagement practices, with no
accountability nor transparency whatsoever,
and this is actually good news.
In a further blow to Azoulay, support for
Egyptian candidate Khaled el Anani, put
forward by Cairo to be UNESCO's next DG, was
expressed in plenary session by a number of
representatives at the Executive Board.
Showing this support so early in the electoral
calendar is an unprecedented affront to Audrey
Azoulay's ego and to her nonsensical UN
existence at the head of the Paris-based
agency. After this plenary session, Audrey
Azoulay is more than ever in the lame-duck
costume. This speaks volumes about how fed-up
Board representatives are with Azoulay's
moronic regime.
This support for the Egyptian candidate has
raised serious concerns within the UNESCO
administration, and in particular among two of
its ADGs. The unacceptable situation in which
senior managers such as Ottone Ramirez in the
Culture Sector or Gabriela Ramos in the SHS
Sector are able to exercise totalitarian
control over staff, including through
intimidation and harassment that force staff
members into fear and obedience, has been
brought out into the open.
The problem for both is that they are
currently preparing to run for the DG
position, while both are the subject of
harassment complaints lodged by staff against
Mexican ADG/SHS Gabriela Ramos and ADG for
Culture Ernesto Ottone. This is all
rather unpleasant for Azoulay's
administration. The Social sciences and
Culture sectors have become Audrey Azoulay's
inexplicable and endless field of
administrative experimentation. The two ADGs
must therefore either formally declare that
they have no intention of running for the
position of DG, or cease using public funds
for campaigning and be invited to
resign.
Alaa Youssef, Egypt's Ambassador and Permanent
representative to UNESCO and France, could
legitimately take the initiative. However, as
he is a good friend of DG Azoulay, it is
highly doubtful that he would do so, as,
according to our sources, it seems that he is
rather annoyed by his compatriot's candidacy
for the post of DG. So how could Cairo count
on him to defend Anani's interests? Would Alaa
Youssef be prepared to break off his
privileged relationship with Azoulay for the
much-needed departure of her two ADGs? Tough
political decisions lie ahead for the Egyptian
Ambassador. The question also remains as
to what Member States will do to stem the
rampant corruption at UNESCO, caused by the
mismanagement and violation of financial rules
and practices. Next Monday, the debate on
UNESCO’s 2023 deficit revealed by Inner City
Press (here
) will be of crucial importance.
The U.S. representative's position will
certainly be closely scrutinized, given that
the U.S. is generally very tough on issues of
misuse of public funds and bad governance
involving financial manipulation of accounts
contrary to the rules. We will have more on
that. The whole Inner City Press
exposure clearly provokes some of the
necessary corrective measures. The habitual
complicity of member states with the Azoulay
regime over recent years is fading, while the
governing bodies are administering more
actively, in accordance with their
constitutional role and responsibility.
Nonetheless, personal accountability must be
sought for UNESCO's moral and financial
bankruptcy.
One of the first to be given the pink slip is
Bernardin Assiene, the Director of UNESCO's
Internal Oversight Service (IOS). Not only did
he lie to the Executive Board at the last
session about cases of fraud and abuse of
power concerning him and his service, but at
UNESCO anything is possible to an extent never
seen before because IOS is not doing its job.
The role of Bernardin Assiene, who is normally
responsible for proposing sanctions in the
event of violations of the rules, should
therefore be questioned and challenged in his
behavior of covering up the misdeeds of senior
UNESCO officials. Clearly, member states
are increasingly unhappy with France's
arrogant mismanagement of the UN agency. Staff
are under pressure and depressed. Most
activities, others than statutory commitments,
are suspended.
Under Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO's main mission
has shifted to Prada events and Cannes
Festival celebrations. Happily, next year her
mandate comes to an end, and this is the only
truly comforting and inspirational thought for
both the staff and the national authorities
who care about UNESCO's future and continue to
take an interest in it. This is where
UNESCO stands today, a UN agency ravaged by
financial misappropriations, propitious to the
flourishing of abuse of power, corruption and
nepotism. Watch this site.
***
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