Anna Tibaijuka,
the outgoing head of the U.N.'s top settlements agency, UN-Habitat, sharply
criticized U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon in a parting letter for failing to swiftly appoint a successor despite frequent
appeals to ensure a smooth leadership transition.
The Tanzanian chief of the Nairobi-based agency, which is
responsible for promoting housing rights for the poor, warned in the confidential
letter dated Aug. 10 that the avoidable "management and leadership vacuum"
threatened to derail the agency's achievements and endanger international
funding for its programs. She also complained that she had not been consulted
about the recruitment process for selecting her successor and suggested she was
being forced out of the U.N. system unwillingly.
"As my tenure at UN-Habitat comes to a close, I am writing
to you with a deep sense of urgency and frustration to express my concern and
distress about the coming delay to appoint my successor in good time so that I
could have undertaken an orderly handover," she wrote in the letter. "I fear a
period without leadership is likely if not bound to destabilize UN-Habitat once
again, given that we have a perilous global financial environment due to the
economic difficulties being faced by our donor members states...[D]onors are
unlikely to commit new funding until they are convinced that good leadership is
in place."
Ban's office challenged Tiibaijuka's account, saying he has
already picked a successor. "The secretary-general has already made his
selection and we have taken the matter up with the regional groups. The General
Assembly will have to set out a date for their action," said Farhan Haq, Ban's acting deputy
spokesman. "Anna Tibaijuka had given her views on the process and the possible
candidates. This input was also carefully considered and the outcome also
reflects that."
Tibaijuka is one of a number of senior officials who have
recently left the United Nations in anger and frustration. Inga-Britt Ahlenius, the former chief of internal oversight, wrote
a scathing end
of assignment letter earlier this month accusing Ban undercutting her
independence and interfering with her right to recruit her own staff. Robert Appleton, a former top internal
investigations chief, filed a grievance with the U.N. this month on the grounds
that his appointment by Ahlenius for the U.N.'s top investigations job was
blocked on the grounds of discrimination.
Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Tibaijuka executive director of the U.N. chief
housing agency in September 2000, making her the most senior African woman in
the U.N. system until Ban hired a former Tanzanian foreign minister, Asha-Rose
Migiro, in 2007 as his
deputy secretary-general. In 2006, Annan appointed Tibaijuka director general
of the U.N. office, which has responsibility over Habitat and the U.N.
Environment Program (UNEP).
A former academic, Tibaijuka is perhaps best known for
writing a 2005 report
on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's massive displacement program --
dubbed Operation Murambatsvina, or Operation Drive Out the Trash -- which
carried out large scale evictions of alleged squatters and unregistered
businesses in poor neighborhoods, particularly those linked to the country's
political opposition. Tibaijuka concluded that the evictions were
discriminatory, unjustified and inhumane.
Tibaijuka is credited with raising the profile of the U.N.
housing agency and persuading the UN Secretary General to upgrade it from a
small department to a full-fledged U.N. program. In her letter, she claims to
have taken an institution that was "in tatters" and that she leaves behind an
institution with a "working reserve that I built from scratch."
But she has had cool relations with Ban, who last year
stripped her of authority for running the U.N. office in Nairobi. The post was
transferred to Achim Steiner, a German national who heads UNEP. Last
September, Tibaijuka appealed to Ban's chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, to
consider her for a new job in the U.N. system when her term at Habitat expires
at the end of this month. But U.N. officials said that she will be leaving.
"I have not had any formal indications concerning incumbency
of my post, but I anticipate that the secretary general does not have an
intention of recommending my renewal," Tibjaijuka wrote in the letter to
Nambiar. "Nonetheless, I await your advice on the next steps concerning my
future based on the principle of rotation. As you might be aware, I was
originally engaged in the UN as a contracted staff member. I am not aware of
ever having lost that standing upon my translation to Executive Director and I
retain all the entitlements concerning continuity of employment that my default
status entails."
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