As Menkerios Adds Addis Job to His Sudans Post, Where Will Cost Save Go?
By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 21, 2013 -- While the UN continues to waste money, for
example by having its purported Sahel envoy Romano Prodi based in Italy
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/prodi1norome051013.html> , last week some
potential savings emerged, if only temporary.
Haile Menkerios was named UN envoy to the African Union in Addis Ababa; the
announcement said he will remain as envoy on Sudan and South Sudan. This is
called, in UN-ese, double hatting. The AU post used to be at the Assistant
Secretary General level but it being bumped up to Menkerios' current pay
scale as an Under Secretary General level, like Prodi. It seems unlikely the
Addis post will ever be shifted back down.
But even in the UN system, it seems unlikely he will get both the USG and
the Assistant Secretary General ASG salaries. So the latter will be "saved."
But how will the savings be used? A knowledgeable UN budget source tells
Inner City Press that it could be used for budget lines which are
over-spent, or for so-called "vacancy management" -- short term, unfunded
jobs, "uncontrolled."
Recently Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's
spokesperson's office for Ban's response to criticism of Sahel envoy Prodi
being based in Rome <
http://www.innercitypress.com/prodi1norome051013.html>
. They said they would look into it: but so far nothing. Watch this site.
Footnote: meanwhile Ban Ki-moon on May 14 filed an appeal to the case of
whistleblower James Wasserstrom
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/un1wasserstrom040813.html> . Ban had gotten
rare, and in this instance unwarranted we think
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/un1whistleblowers040913.html> , praise for
merely announcing he would hire a consultant on the protection of
whistleblowers. Is this appeal the result of that consultation? We hope to
have more on this.
Received on Tue May 21 2013 - 21:49:45 EDT
