'Tailoring' of recruitment for FAO senior evaluation officer job underlines rampant croneyism

 ROME – Selection for a coveted P5 rank senior evaluation officer post at the FAO evidently has been ”tailored” in order that a candidate favoured by the Argentinian divisional Chief should be given the appointment with a mouth-watering total package worth some dlrs 500,000 paid for by donors, FAO sources say.

 Candidates on the short list recently were interviewed for the vacancy that was created to replace a senior oficer who retired. But in the case of the preferred Palestinian American candidate the questions to be asked at the interview allegedly were ”known to her in advance,” the sources added. Italian Insider has disclosed similar scandalous rigging of top appointments at the UN agency in the past, notably by the FAO press office for the appointment under DG Graziano of a communications oficer for Latin America, that was earmarked for the nephew of a Chilean Socialist politician while two strong women candidates were discarded.

 Observers noted that such malfeasance in the evaluation division recruitment procedurę calls into question the integrity of a crucial division that itself evaluates the work of other people in the organization. The evident skullduggery in the appointment also underlines that the FAO Human Resources department, whose unctuous Lebanese Chief is aware of such practices, ”does not insist on the rules and regulations being applied” in the hiring for top jobs.

 ”HR is a very troubled division because they are not providing a strong stance on rules or insisting on transparency,” a seasoned FAO watcher told the Insider. ”There are so many gaps and loopholes on application of the official manual’s procedurę and they can overrule anything.”

 In theory, for example, qualified internal candidates from a division are supposed all to be called for interview for a vacancy ”but in practice it is applied selectively,” the source added, speaking on condition they not be named.

 ”In effect it depends on the director of each division, they can bring in any dick, tom or harry or they can say no to the best qualified canidate.”

 Against this background observers also are concerned that more and more senior officers in the valuation division are being recruited from Matematica, an organization where the divisional Chief previously was employed, including evaluation division senior staff based at the FAO office in Washington. Once again the HR department shamefully turns a blind eye to this evident croneyism, the sources added.

 All internal candidates with a different background are discarded by the divisional Chief on the dubious ground that their ”performance is not good,” often because they deliberately are given confusing instructions.

Also troubling staff in the division is repeated verbal abuse by a senior oficer from central Asia who continues to bully junior staff despite numerous complaints to the OIG and ombudsman that are just ignored by these supposed ethical gatekeepers, the sources told the Insider.

 jf