Corrupt UN of Guterres UNESCO Fraud As US
Sends Taxpayer Funds Wozencroft Returns
By Matthew
Russell Lee &
sources,
UN
GATE, July 22
– 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.
Despite
all that has
been said so
far, little
progress has
been made to
correct
Azoulay’s
administration,
mainly due to
the criminal
complicity of
the member
states. They
are therefore
entirely
responsible
for UNESCO’s
unquestionable
bankruptcy.
In
the
IOS-related
revelations
that Inner
City Press
disclosed last
February 26,
certain member
states, in
particular
those of the
European Union
and the Nordic
countries –
the ones who
usually
lecture the
world on the
importance of
fighting
corruption –
had a strong
chance of
leading the
rescue.
Unfortunately,
they haven’t
said a word,
and that’s no
surprise. It’s
always easier
to criticize
when the DG
doesn’t belong
to their own
electoral
Group I, as is
the case with
France’s
Audrey
Azoulay.
So why not
turn a blind
eye when DG
Azoulay
promotes and
protects the
interests of
this Group, as
demonstrated
by the
priority given
to Europeans
when
appointing the
Agency’s
Directors and
senior
managers over
the past two
years.
Consider
this. The
Constitution
UNESCO
provides that
‘subject to
the paramount
consideration
of securing
the highest
standards of
integrity,
efficiency and
technical
competence,
appointment to
the staff
shall be on as
wide a
geographical
basis as
possible’. In
1960,
following a
spurt in the
growth of
African, Arab
and Asian
membership,
the governing
bodies of
UNESCO adopted
formal
criteria for
the
distribution
of posts among
all member
states with a
view to
ensuring that
more posts
would be
allocated to
developing
countries.
Statistics on
the
distribution
of posts in
the
professional
category have
been supplied
in UNESCO
documents on
the
geographical
distribution
of staff since
1976.
Under
Audrey
Azoulay, the
vast majority
of positions
of senior
responsibility
have gone to
Europeans. The
latest
statistics
provided to DG
Azoulay’s
Cabinet by the
human
resources
bureau HRM are
blatant in
their brutal
presentation
of the facts.
In reality,
despite all
efforts to
hide the truth
in the fake
documents, HR
strategies and
power point
presentations
prepared for
member states
at each
Executive
Board session,
the truth is
this:
Over the last
two years,
Madam Azoulay
has appointed
12 Directors
and above from
the Group I
(Europe); one
from Group II
(Eastern
Europe – but
still European
Union since it
went to a
Polish
national);
three
Directors for
Group III
(Latin America
and
Caribbean);
three for
Group IV
(Asia/Pacific);
three for the
Africa Group V
– which is
pretendedly
one of the two
big priorities
for UNESCO;
and only two
appointed for
the whole Arab
Group, with an
Egyptian and a
Tunisian.
With
the next two
appointments
in the
pipeline – a
director’s
post for HRM
to go to the
Netherlands
and another
director’s
post to go
again to
France to
replace
Nicolas
Kassianides,
who was sacked
recently, this
will make a
total of 15
director’s
posts for
Group I, with
the largest
share going to
the EU,
including
Poland,
compared with
11 senior
posts for the
entire rest of
the world.
Who
says there’s
no equitable
geographical
distribution
at UNESCO, and
why should
then Group I
ambassadors
and
representatives
on the
Executive
Board
criticize DG
Azoulay’s
administration
when the whole
power is
obviously with
Group I?
The new
US Ambassador
to UNESCO, Mrs
Erica
Barks-Ruggles,
appointed on
July 14, may
have another
immediate
problem to
deal with.
Inner City
Press has been
informed that
DG Azoulay has
decided to
bring back to
Paris
headquarters a
well-known
administrative
swindler about
whom Inner
City Press
wrote as long
as more than
three years
ago. By letter
of June 29,
below, Nutan
Wozencroft was
transferred to
Paris from
Canada, where
she had been
exiled
following a
major
financial
scandal.
In 2019, Inner
City Press
wrote about
her misdeeds,
when at UNESCO
an internal
audit had
revealed that
more than two
million tax
payers dollars
have been
spent over the
last few years
by UNESCO on
the
integration of
the two main
management
systems, the
programmatic
one (SISTER)
and the
financial one
(FABS) with no
result or
progress
achieved
whatsoever.
Internal
sources in the
financial
office
indicated that
most of the
tax payers
money ended in
the pockets of
IT companies
close to the
heart of the
Chief
Financial
Officer of
UNESCO, Nutan
Wozencroft who
was a senior
Director – UN
D2 level (see
here)
This
was not the
first time
Nutan
Wozencroft was
under the
spotlight.
Under the
previous
UNESCO
administration
run by Irina
Bokova of
Bulgaria, she
instigated the
misuse the 14
million US
dollars
remaining
under the
Emergency Fund
created for
voluntary
contributions
by member
states.
Aspiring
for an even
higher
position in
the UN at that
time, Nutan
Wozencroft
assisted Irina
Bokova in this
failed attempt
to use those
funds for
projects that
were to serve
as masked
bribery to
Security
Council member
states, while
running for
the UNSG
position in
2016. When
this scheme
was rejected
by the
Executive
Board of
UNESCO, DG
Bokova then
covered the
misdeeds that
had been duly
planned in her
favor. Another
accomplice in
this
fraudulent
scheme: the
then Assistant
Director
General of
UNESCO for
Strategic
planning, the
Brazilian
Thompson
Flores,
benefitted
from the same
administrative
cover-up and
despite the
overwhelming
report by IOS
against her,
she was sent
by Bokova as
Director of
the Venice
office of
UNESCO instead
of being
fired.
At that
time, in 2019,
we asked
publicly the
question
“whether
current
Director
General of
UNESCO Azoulay
will take any
action on CFO
Wozencroft or
again, in the
usual culture
of the UN of
Guterres, she
will be
provided with
an option to
spend some
time in a cozy
position in
one of the
Field offices
of UNESCO like
it happened to
Thompson
Flores”. Well,
the answer is
far from the
expectations.
After a
comfortable
stint in
Canada, Nutan
Wozencroft is
now back in
Paris to be
looking after
the spending
of the 150
million
dollars
representing
the initial US
financial
contribution
to UNESCO.
With such a
past record of
concealment
and
embezzlement,
the U.S.
delegation to
UNESCO would
have a lot to
worry about,
and may
already start
to be
seriously
concerned.
Nutant
Wozencroft’s
transfer to
Paris could in
fact trigger a
real change in
the way member
states
approach the
agency’s
administrative
culture, most
of them hoping
for support in
righting the
wrongs with
the return of
the USA to
UNESCO, as no
one imagines
that
Washington
will swallow
in the same
way, as others
did, all the
Azoulay
administration’s
silly
explanations
of how
taxpayers’
money is
spent. Most
observers
expect such a
change, given
that the US
government is
often
unpredictably
firm on
unconcealed
corruption,
especially in
the run-up to
next year’s
presidential
elections.
One of the
USA’s Gulf
allies is
currently in
serious
trouble with
UNESCO’s DG.
The
World Heritage
Committee
meeting
organized by
Saudi Arabia
was severely
sabotaged by
DG Azoulay. It
remains to be
seen how this
meeting will
turn out after
Azoulay’s
unacceptable
interference
in member
states’
procedures for
organizing and
holding
it.
Furthermore,
the UNESCO-Al
Fozan
International
Prize for the
Promotion of
Young
Scientists
attracted some
attention
during the
ceremony of
its first
edition that
took place on
19 June 2023
at UNESCO in
Paris, but not
that much for
the
advancement
and
popularization
of science and
international
cooperation,
but rather
with the
protocol
imperfections
observed
during the
event.
Ministers were
not welcomed
properly and
basic protocol
shortcomings
were observed
everywhere in
the
preparation
and holding
arrangements.
The Protocol
service,
headed by
Ricardo de
Guimaraes
Pinto is
continuously
suffering his
incompetence,
about which
Inner City
Pres already
wrote (here)
Ricardo de
Guimaraes
Pinto, who was
the former
chief of
cabinet of DG
Azoulay, but
had to be
removed
because of
Azoulay’s
decision to
hand back the
position to
the Frenchman
Flavio
Bonetti. About
the
‘achievements’
of Bonetti see
here and here.
Right after
his
appointment
against any
normal
recruitment
process as per
the rules,
Ricardo Pinto
was tasked by
DG Azoulay
with bringing
UNESCO’s
protocol
closer to that
of the Quai
d’Orsay, which
reflected her
constant
efforts to
increase
French grip by
strangling all
aspects of the
organization’s
operations.
Failing
in most of his
tasks is
normally a
serious enough
mistake for
Ricardo Pinto
to be
reprimanded or
even dismissed
from protocol.
With the
return of the
United States,
protocol must
live up to
normal
expectations.
The
question
therefore
remains open
as to how,
under
Ricardo’s
leadership,
the protocol
will be able
to meet the
American
administration‘s
supposed demands
for high
standards and
quality, when
he is not
capable of
handling a
simple Saudi
event. What’s
becoming even
more obvious
is that
influential
member states
are becoming
increasingly
uncomfortable
with remaining
silent, and
their
indulgence is
fading by the
day in the
lame-duck
period that
Azoulay and
her team are
left with. The
deep moral
crisis in
which UNESCO
finds itself
today may
hopefully soon
be resolved,
thanks to
those who fund
the
Organization
and take
responsibility
for taxpayers’
money.
This is
where UNESCO
stands today,
a UN Agency
propitious to
the
flourishing of
corruption,
embezzlement,
abuse of power
and nepotism.
We will have
more on that.
Watch this
site
***
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