Sheeran "using WFP funds for reappointment campaign"
By JAN FILIPOWICZ and ALYX BARKER ROME–U. N. World Food Programme Director Josette Sheeran is using WFP funds to finance a campaign to be reappointed, despite the U.S. government indicating that it wants a new head to replace her, the Inner City Press has reported. A WFP spokeswoman Jane Howard, said they had no comment to make on the report when contacted by Italian Insider.
The report in the respected New York-based investigative agency that covers the U.N. follows a recent dispatch in Foreign Policy magasine that the Obama administration wants Ms Sheeran replaced by Ertharin Cousin, the U.S. representative to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), when Ms Sheeran’s term comes to an end in April.
Ms Sheeran has now launched a 're-election campaign', using vital WFP funds, in an attempt to secure a second five-year term in the dlrs 300,000 a year post, Inner City Press claimed.
Inner City Press has also quoted WFP sources as saying that Sheeran is asking senior staff to lobby Member States to support her in her attempts to be reappointed, and that she and her inner circle are attempting to create a bogus petition purportedly initiated spontaneously by employees of the hunger-relief agency. The report also stated that Sheeran planned an expensive 50th anniversary celebration for WFP which many see as part of her campaign for reappointment. Several officials are said to have declined to attend, seeing it as a waste of WFP funds, which could be better spent aiding the hungry in the Horn of Africa.
Washington has been pressing for the appointment of Cousin, who is formerly president of the Polk Street Group, a Chicago-based public relations firm, the report said. Cousin also worked at Albertsons, the food giant and was CEO of America’s Second Harvest, an U.S. anti-hunger organisation.
Officials are concerned that UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has not appointed Cousin to the post yet, as requested by the U.S. Government, and fear he may appoint another candidate or leave Sheeran to continue. Also in the running is Dan Glickman, a former Democratic lawmaker from Kansas and Secretary of Agricultural Affairs under former President Bill Clinton, said the report.
The WFP Director is selected by the UN Secretary General and the FAO Director General, “generally on the basis of a recommendation from the United States,” says the report.
The US Embassy to the U.N Agencies (including the WFP) said that they were unable to comment on the matter.
Italian Insider reported in June 2010 that the U.S. government wanted a reshuffle of WFP leadership after disclosures that up to half the agency's aid to Somalia was diverted to local staffers.
The Inner City Press report is the latest in a series of allegations calling into question the credibility of the Rome-based U.N. food agencies. Kanayo Nwanze, the head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, moved hurriedly out of his sprawling 400,000 euros a year villa on the Appian Way in December after Italian Insider disclosed his sky-high personal expenditure.
In another development Inner City Press reported WFP staff questioning a controversial appointment by Ms Sheeran.
"After the deadly bombing of the UN compound in the Canal Hotel in Baghdad in 2003, then Secretary General Kofi Annan's spokesman said that Ramiro Lopes da Silva would be required to resign but could "return to his 'D-2' (Director) post in World Food Programme," emphasizing that 'his future assignments will not include any responsibilities for security matters.'"
Two weeks ago, WFP staff contacted Inner City Press to complain that despite this history, Ramiro Lopes da Silva had been put in charge of WFP security by Ms Sheeran.
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