At the UN, Complaints Against New Labor Chief Unanswered, Moonlighting Sportsman

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.innercitypress.com/un1ohrmpollard040308.html

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, April 3 -- With the UN's top human resources post vacant for months now, speculation grew and then crystallized about Jan Beagle's replacement. More than a week ago, people in the know began to say it would be Catherine Pollard, currently Jean-Marie Guehenno's chief of staff in UN Peacekeeping, prior to that a budget expert on the same topic. Almost immediately, concerned staff began circulating and offering to the Press a three page complaint about harassment and discrimination, in which Ms. Pollard is described as being at the top of the chain and personally responsible. The complaint also describes UN supervisors forcing lower level staff to buy insurance, software and even computers from them.


Ms. Catherine Pollard, complaint not shown, response not received


Because of the broad nature of the complaint, Inner City Press on April 1 sent a copy to Ms. Pollard's official e-mail address, along with a request for comments "on the issues raised in the attached letter, and for you to confirm or deny that you are seeking the ASG of OHRM post, and your understanding of where the selection process stands, and any other comment you have." Ms. Pollard did not respond, or seek to rebut the complaints in the letter in any way. Two days later, the Deputy Spokesperson announced Ms. Pollard as the new "Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management... bring to OHRM her demonstrated capacity to forge collaborative partnerships with different groups of stakeholders in order to get the job done."

Inner City Press asked, "there's a pretty widely circulated staff complaint, and I admit it’s a complaint, regarding Ms. Pollard. It's standard to ask her for a comment, which I didn’t receive, but is the Secretariat aware of this complaint, which seems widely circulated in this building, and did they look into it and reject it, or how did it relate to the appointment?"

The Deputy Spokesperson said, "I’ll look into that for you." But ten hours later, no answer had been provided, even a confirmation or denial that the 38th floor had considered the complaint.