Stakhanovite FAO chief locks staff showers, curbs vacations

JAN FILIPOWICZ

ROME – FAO DG Jose Graziano da Silva has begun locking staff showers to discourage employees from spending long lunches exercising on the sports track next to the agency, FAO sources say.

 Graziano evidently has become concerned that lunches among the 3000 headquarter staff are too leisurely.  Under the Brazilian agronomist’s predecessor, fun-loving Senegalese Jacques Diouf, a new electronic system was instituted and aside from letting staff members in and out of the building, it also monitors when staff arrive and leave.

U.N.
25 Aug 2014
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Kuwaiti "Journey of Hope" arrives in Sicily

Insider reporters

 PALERMO, Sicily -- The Kuwaiti-flagged vessel "Journey of Hope" arrived in the Sicilian port capital Thursday as part of a world tour to raise awareness about the rights of the mentally disabled.

Business, Embassy Row, World, Italy, Travel
21 Aug 2014
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Italy arming Kurds "within days"

INSIDER NEWSDESK

 ROME- Italy may send a first consignment of AK-47 Kalashinikov assault rifles for Kurdish forces to Erbil aboard a C-130J aircraft "within two or three days," defence ministry sources said Tuesday.

Embassy Row, World
19 Aug 2014
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FAO chief "requests personal driveway"

JAN FILIPOWICZ

 ROME –FAO Director General Jose Graziano da Silva is billing the UN agency for building a private driveway to his apartment block so he need not mingle with his neighbours, FAO sources say.

 Dr. Graziano claims building a separate, parallel driveway for his exclusive use at his apartment block in the posh Aventino hill neighborhood of the Eternal City is necessary as his use of the existing condominium driveway “produces pain in his lower back,” evidently when he is jostled by the other residents.

U.N., Embassy Row, World
6 Aug 2014

FAO Latam boss told "get lover off payroll"

JAN FILIPOWICZ

Rome - FAO DG José Graziano da Silva has ordered the agency's Latin American top jefe to send his girlfriend back to Buenos Aires as part of a crackdown on nepotism, FAO sources say.

U.N., Embassy Row
21 Jul 2014
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Interview: SJU, Rome’s increasingly popular U.S. Catholic university

asia guerreschi

ROME –The Eternal City’s only US Catholic university campus offers a unique combination of academic rigour with opportunities to network with cardinals, interim President Fr Joseph Levesque says.

Culture, Embassy Row, Vatican
18 Jul 2014

IFAD purge after Australia flop

JAN FILIPOWICZ

ROME– IFAD strategy whizz Gary Howe has quit citing differences with President Kanayo Nwanze as top honcho Thomas Elhaut "took a sabbatical" after clashes with the Nigerian czar, UN sources say.

 Howe resigned last week as Officer in Charge of the Strategy and Knowledge Department in the latest round of blood-letting at the Rome-based agency only a few months after he replaced Vice President Adjoint Carlos Seres who resigned informing staff that “nobody with dignity” could accept Nwanze’s dictatorial tendencies, the sources said.

U.N., Embassy Row
11 Jul 2014
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FAO's flamboyant CIO honcho "bows out"

JAN FILIPOWICZ

ROME - Controversial FAO CIO division chief Florentin "Dracula" Albu has bowed out of the UN agency after apparently agreeing to reject an extension of his contract, FAO sources said.

U.N., Embassy Row
3 Jul 2014
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Australia, after Insider scoop, shuns IFAD

JAN FILIPOWICZ

ROME –After Australian MPs read the Italian Insider story on Kanayo Nwanze’s lavish lifestlye, Australia has formally told IFAD's director general it will not re-join the UN agency, officials said.

 During a debate on whether Australia should re-join the International Fund for Agricultural Development, MP Philip Ruddock told Parliament:

 “What I found particularly fascinating was an article by (Italian Insider Editor) John Phillips entitled 'IFAD chief in expenses furore'. It made the following points:

U.N., Embassy Row, World
28 Jun 2014
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