15 November 2004

When unforum reported as appropriately as possible the unusual week-end promotion of a female staffer from P-4 to D-2, Dileep Nair the Chief of the office in question, responded nervously by confirming the report -- with a twist and shout. The twist was his claim in a memo to staff dated 25 October that he got the agreement of the Secretary General to form a "Selection Board" which "interviewed six candidates and unanimously determined that Patricia was the best qualified candidate" and that he "put her case to the Secretary General who approved the appointment." (From P-4 to D-2?!) His shout was in name-calling this website.

The first question to ask is: DID SECRETARY GENERAL KOFI ANNAN AGREE TO THIS PROMOTION for which most devoted staff members devote a lifetime to attain, if ever? Mr. Annan has an honourable track record in such cases when he was Chief of Personnel. As mentioned in the past issue, he AT THE TIME stood up to a more senior colleague to stop such action.

Another question, with so many reported accusations about Dileep Nair seeking varied favours, is WHO INVESTIGATES THE INVESTIGATOR?

A third question is WHAT KIND OF POWER does Dileep Nair has to INCREASE THE NUMBER OF HIS OFFICE STAFF FIVE TIMES from 20 in 1998 to 101 in 2003? Whom and what was he investigating with such a five-fold increase of people? Is it just empire building or part of a policy to "police" the staff? In a really valuable report about the work of the office, a claim is made that he saved the U.N. about $16 million. How much did his huge staffing increase cost the U.N.?

As to his "scurrilous allegations" about this site, we had refrained from describing him -- as is generally known -- as the "bore from Singapore." We had also turned down an offer of some interesting photographic displays. Our main interest is to monitor and point out what is unfair to a mostly dedicated U.N. staff. As for scandals, here are enough of them to go around these days -- as Dileep Nair's own report shows.