The Fund Secretariat
management is, not surprisingly, unhappy about the report of the UN participant
representatives to their 85,000 constituents about the Board's annual meeting in Nairobi last month, including various governance issues that pose serious risks to the health of the Fund, such as this about the backlog in pension
payments (link to report below):
“It would appear from our estimates that around 4,000
beneficiaries have not been paid at all, with the funds owed to them at risk of
being forfeited as deadlines pass.”
Apparently the Fund
Secretariat management has a new tactic -- attempted union-busting -- in its longstanding efforts to discredit the UN participant representatives, who are the duly elected representatives of
85,000 active staff of the UN and its funds and programs.
The Fund Secretariat has long under-reported the extent of the backlog, and currently claims that no backlog exists, contrary to informed analyses of the actual backlog. The new Entitlements Chief, Bernie Sheehan, has dived headlong
into the fray, sharply disputing the reported backlog and claiming that staff
under his supervision are upset about the report.
In addition, the
Fund Secretariat has reportedly unleashed
its new communications officer (Serge Gas, brought over from IAEA by the Acting
CEO, as her Special Assistant and placed
on a P5 post that was twice not approved by the UN General Assembly) presumably to promote the Fund Secretariat's false narrative.
For her part, the
Staff UN president, Patricia Nemeth, refused to allow the UN participant representative's report to be published on her union's broadcast system and is blocking its publication on iSeek, the UN
internal Intranet.
Why? She reportedly
says she doesn’t believe the UN participant representatives’ reports of physical
threats and intimidation at the Board meeting.
It’s offensive language, she says, unbecoming in tone. She exhorts them
to instead, focus on “substance”.
What the UN Staff
Union president seems to fail to understand that nothing is more
anathema to substance than when participants in any fora are bullied and
subjected to false pretexts to block their active participation, as was the
case for the UN participant representatives, who are duly elected and accountable
to their 85,000 constituents.
Wittingly or unwittingly joining forces with Fund Secretariat managers, Nemeth claims (in a Staff
Union Broadcast today) that Fund staff deem the UN participants’ report as criticism
and are thus disappointed, “despite the fact that they diligently come to work
every day to make a difference”.
She either fails
to recognize and doesn’t wish to, that the real “disgruntled” Fund staff are Fund Secretariat managers who dislike information going out about
their ongoing dysfunction and will apparently stop at nothing to discredit its source.
The UN
participant representatives have been consistent and diligent in their support
of the hardworking staff of the Pension Fund whom they have noted time and
again, are doing the best they can under the Fund Secretariat’s incompetent leadership.
The UN Staff
Union president needs to wake up to the fact that by allowing herself to be weaponized
by the Fund Secretariat leadership she’s jeopardizing the health of the UN
Staff Union, while failing in her own responsibilities and obstructing the
ability of others to serve the interests of their constituents.
Most important, the
reforms contained in General Assembly resolution A/RES/73/274 stemmed from mismanagement
and conflicts of interest by the Fund Secretariat under its former CEO, Sergio Arvizu.
He’s gone, but his coterie, along with the culture of
dysfunction that he fostered remains intact, and has led the Pension Board in discrediting the governance audit (A/73/341) and foot-dragging on reforms.
The Fund
Secretariat management must recognize that General Assembly reforms will not be
thwarted by manipulation, circumvention, or by its new tactic of attempted union-busting.
