Others such as Donald P. Gregg, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, said that the complaints were driven by envy: "I think being from South Korea, and people have growing respect for South Korea, that's a great enhancement for the secretary general. If he brings along talented people who he knows very well, I think that's also a plus."
UN records show that South Korea, the organization's eleventh-largest financial contributor, had only 54 South Korean nationals assigned to its mission six months before Ban took over the top UN post. By contrast, the Philippines, a significantly poorer country, had 759 nationals in its mission.
Former UN Under Secretary General for Oversight Services Inga-Britt Ahlenius denounced Ban Ki-moon after resigning her post in 2010, calling him "reprehensible".
Ahlenius claimed that the Secretary-General made efforts to undermine the Office of Internal Oversight Services mandate and challenge its operational independence.
In particular, the two disputed Ahlenius's plans to hire a former prosecutor, Robert Appleton, who had carried out investigations into corruption in UN peacekeeping missions from 2006 to 2009.
Ban's staff explained that Appleton's appointment was rejected because Ahlenius had not properly considered female candidates for the appointment, and said that the final selection should have been made by Ban, not Ahlenius.
Ahlenius claimed in her End of Assignment memo that "for the Secretary-General to control appointments in OIOS is an infringement of the operational independence of OIOS".
Ban's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar described Ahlenius's complaints as "a deeply unbalanced account", and also stated that "many pertinent facts were overlooked or misrepresented" in Ahlenius's memo. Nambiar further noted that Ban "fully recognizes the operational independence of OIOS, [but that] does not excuse [Ahlenius] from applying the standard rules of recruitment".
American diplomat James Wasserstrom claimed that Ban attempted to limit the jurisdiction of the UN dispute tribunal following Wasserstrom's dismissal from his Kosovo post and lengthy appeals process.
Ban had refused to hand over confidential documents relating to the case to the UN personnel tribunal, despite repeated orders by the court to do so. In relation to another case, Ban was admonished by Judge Michael Adams for "willful disobedience" for again refusing to hand over key documents in an internal promotions dispute.
In 2013, Ban was accused of undermining collective bargaining rights of The Staff Coordinating Council, the union representing United Nations staff. Ban unilaterally eliminated the role of the union to negotiate on behalf of the employees and terminated talks when the union protested.
Ban was named in a lawsuit challenging UN legal immunity on behalf of Haitian cholera victims in the U.S. District Court of Manhattan. UN peacekeepers from Nepal are said to be the source of the 2010-13 Haiti cholera outbreak. Ban declared that the legal immunity of the United Nations before national courts should be upheld, but that this does not reduce the UN's moral responsibility to overcome Haiti's cholera epidemic.
In January 2015, Judge J. Paul Oetken dismissed the lawsuit, affirming UN immunity. An appeal to Oetken's decision was submitted to the Court in May 2015.
British magazine The Economist, in May 2016, called Ban "plodding, protocol-conscious and loth to stand up to the big powers" and "the dullestand among the worst" secretary-generals.
Japanese diplomat Kiyotaka Akasaka defended Ban's understated presence as more quietly Confucian, stating that "[Ban's] behaviour has been like that of the wise man, the sage in Oriental philosophy".
One UN official claimed that while Ban would greet world leaders in their native language, he would then read directly from his talking points without small talk. [BRAVO!]
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