•Written by The Editors• ••Thursday•, 09 •October• 2008 17:36•
Hundreds of independent consultants and recently hired full-time staffers working for the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) are becoming increasingly frustrated if not outraged by the ongoing delays with contracts, payments, salaries, school fees and holiday reimbursements, some of which date back more than a year. A few, too, are facing severe cash flow difficulties, a situation not helped by the current financial crisis. Many working for UNAIDS, the UN agency dealing with HIV/AIDS and whose administrative procedures are run by WHO, are also affected. The bulk of these payment problems have been caused largely by WHO’s decision to implement – too hastily it appears - its new Global Management System (GSM), including the transfer of most of its accounts operations to Kuala Lumpur, ostensibly to save money.
According to employees with WHO and UNAIDS interviewed by The Essential Edge, the UN health agency established the new system without ensuring that all the anticipated bugs, including specific design errors, were properly ironed out. They also maintain that the WHO Director General’s office chose to ignore the evaluations and recommendations of outside consultants that the system not be rolled out in its current state, or at least until proper measures had been adopted to ensure that it functioned. This included advice proffered by other UN agencies based in Switzerland, such as the International Labour Organization (ILO), which have adopted similar systems but with less teething. “They chose to brush off virtually all the recommendations made to them,” noted one UN finance official.
The WHO staff association has strongly voiced similar concerns to WHO boss, Dr. Margaret Chan, in a recent open letter. (See WHO Staff Association letter 5 September, 2008 in the UN & International Organizations section) The letter said it supported the aims of the GSM but that in the interests of transparency and accountability, immediate action needed to be taken to resolve the situation. It was “unacceptable” for employees not to be paid, it said. It further noted that the delays were severely damaging WHO’s credibility with outside vendors and contractors.
The staff association cited the findings of an outside audit submitted to the World Health Assembly last May which claimed that, in the wake of three revisions following the rollout deadline, there was enormous pressure at the top of the organization to launch the new system despite evidence warning of severe problems. The audit also noted that agreed-upon benchmarks for project management procedures were not followed and that end-to-end user testing of the integrated system was never done.
Officially, Director General’s office admits that there have been some “challenges” – UN-speak for problems – but that these have been no different than those encountered by other organizations. The Director General also claims to be responding appropriately toward resolving these problems, an assertion which some within WHO and UNAIDS, including senior representatives, maintain is simply not true. “It is only recently that Madame Chan seems to be recognizing that she has a real problem on her hands,” said one official.
The end result is that until these dire problems are resolved, both WHO and UNAIDS will suffer, particularly with regard to contracts with outside consultants and companies. Scores if not hundreds have been waiting for months on end for their contracts to come through. And even when this finally happens, they have to wait for weeks if not months to receive their first payment. Some contractors have stopped working for WHO until their paper work is ready or fees come through, holding up work in other areas. Some are also nervously pondering whether WHO will actually have the money to pay given the strong possibility of some principal donors struggling with their own financial crises not coming through on their pledged commitments.
Some staffers who began work in May or June this year without contracts are still waiting to see their documents squared and to be paid. This means that they have had to cough up for their own expenses for moving to Geneva, getting an apartment and otherwise covering their costs, including school tuition for their children. To make matters worse, some have been paid twice. These individuals are now being requested by Kuala Lumpur in blatantly insensitive emails to reimburse these amounts immediately regardless whether they are still owed thousands of dollars by WHO. Former or current consultants and staffers are also waiting to be reimbursed for outstanding holiday time dating back more than a year. Furthermore, recently hired Malaysian accounts personnel are also reportedly waiting to be paid causing even more aggravation, including departures for other jobs.
Ever since WHO decided in 2005 to move over to the Oracle system, there has been one problem after another. While WHO’s technical side claims it has been up and running for some time now, the administrative procedures have fallen disastrously behind.
Human resource personnel and accounts representatives have been dealing with this by ignoring emails and not getting back by phone, even to queries by senior officials. One WHO human resource officer admitted that she could no longer take the abuse. “I only answer numbers which I know on the screen. It has been utterly embarrassing,” the representative said. “It has certainly hampered WHO staff operating in a professional capacity, which is hard because I believe that we are good organization and people want to do a good job. However, I can fully understand their anger. It has made us look very bad.”
While ILO across the road has also adopted Oracle, the organization spread the process over three years. According to ILO sources, all salaries and consultancy fees have been paid on time and with no particular delays for the issuing of contracts. One wonders why WHO did not bother to seek lessons learned from their ILO counterparts. Or if they did, to at least implement them.
According to WHO, the move to Kuala Lumpur was designed to save money. However, it is now questionable whether the decision will prove justified. With its fast-developing economic and equally fast rising salaries, Malaysia is no longer that attractive from the cost-cutting point of view. WHO is competing with the private sector and salaries are fast approaching European levels. So WHO may end up being burdened with a costly white elephant with personnel working on a different time zone and nothing much to gain.
If any readers have further insight or information on this matter, we look forward to your comments.
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written by Emiliano Zapata, October 16, 2008
Yes, you got it right. I am talking about YOU. The cream of the cream, the elite of all well connected people, lucky elite Doctors, scientist, administrators who happen to be earning extraordinary salaries, unfeasible bonuses and holidays. Yet, all you do is nagging and complaining about your condition and how ‘unfairly’ you are being treated.
At the time when majority of well educated world scientists all around the world are driving taxi and washing dishes to make a living. YOU, the wonderful, designated people are Nagging about your salary, day-care bills and for not getting Champagne in your first class trips to Africa, so you can “save” the 11 million dying children in Africa..
Shame on you! You are selfish, spoiled and most of all, Honorary Ambassadors of Hypocrisy,
May God help this world which your are the “guardian of it’s health and well-being”,,
Amen!
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written by United Nations Believer, October 31, 2008
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The WHO should undergo a proper GSM training and Kuala Lumpur scrapped. In the Meantime, Dr. Chan's salary should be frozen until the financial "challenges" are fixed; captain of the ship should be the last to jump off. It should give her the proper incentive to properly plan projects before even doing as much as trying them. The WORLD's SICK is at stake, while the powers that be mess up an effective system for no-one-knows-what and still get way with it. It is a shame.