United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has quietly promoted a fellow Portuguese staffer to the rank of assistant secretary-general as other UN personnel, especially junior and midlevel workers with weak contracts, face uncertainty about their jobs and future in the organization.
Miguel Graça, a director in the executive office of the secretary-general, was promoted to the position of assistant secretary-general, or ASG, in March 2025, the same month Guterres announced his UN80 initiative. The plan is meant to make the UN more efficient by shrinking agencies, funds and programs systemwide by 20 percent cuts this year.
Two internal UN documents viewed by PassBlue showed that while Graça is now an ASG, a position that comes with robust perks and a retirement package, his job title as “director” has remained the same. He did not provide a detailed response to PassBlue’s email asking how his job description has changed as an ASG. (The International Civil Service Commission sets salaries and benefits, not the secretary-general.)
“I am in touch with the office of the spokesperson, who will send you comments,” Graça said in an email to PassBlue.
Graça’s promotion was neither publicized nor officially announced to staff, suggesting that the Secretariat is aware of its bad optics as Guterres’s UN80 reforms have sparked widespread fears of job cuts, relocations and other structural overhauls among General Service and midlevel staffers.
“I think this shows the incoherence of Guy Ryder’s UN80,” said Ian Richards, the president of the UN Geneva Staff Union. “Promotions for those around him. Job losses for the rest.” Ryder, the UN undersecretary-general for policy, is helping to lead the UN80 plan.
Graça is described as Guterres’s special assistant and adviser in various government documents and news coverage from 2021 to 2022. His conversation with Guterres was part of a 2023 leaked document revealed in news reports on surveillance gone-wrong expedition by the United States on the UN.
Graça’s UN background includes high-level roles in disarmament and policy coordination. He accompanied Guterres to Fez, Morocco, when he met with King Mohammed VI in 2022. He was also part of Guterres’s entourage when the secretary-general met with US President Joe Biden in September 2023. Graça, a lawyer, was also a director in Portugal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2014 and served as first secretary for the permanent mission of Portugal to the UN in 2005.
The secrecy surrounding his recent appointment by Guterres has drawn criticism for revealing how the current major reforms are apparently being conducted behind closed doors and their long-term effects on the UN’s core work.
Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson to Guterres, did not respond to PassBlue’s query on why the promotion was done amid austerity measures in the UN. He also did not address questions by PassBlue about staff concerns regarding the seeming lack of transparency and perceived favoritism.
“The Secretary-General appointed Mr. Graça in early March 2025. This was under the Secretary-General’s discretionary authority granted to him by the General Assembly relating to the appointment of staff in his office,” Dujarric told PassBlue in an email on June 20. “It was done together with other promotions based on the exceptional contributions to the work of the Organization. For that purpose, the SG used a vacant post.”
The UN80 initiative and information about job cuts or relocations from New York City to overseas are expected to be known by the start of the annual opening debate of the General Assembly in mid-September, when the plan is to be presented to member states.
The financial viability of the UN continues to be under duress as many countries are delaying or outright holding back on paying their mandatory annual dues to the general budget. The UN80 initiative is driven by the widening funding gap as well as by large budget cuts from the US to UN entities.
Dorothy Shea, the US interim chief of mission to the UN, recommended cutting posts and reassessing “generous” packages of compensation and benefits as another means of saving money.
This article was updated to include who sets the salary and benefits of UN personnel.
Damilola Banjo is an award-winning staff reporter for PassBlue who has covered a wide range of topics, from Africa-centered stories to gender equality to UN peacekeeping and US-UN relations. She also oversees all video production for PassBlue. She was a Dag Hammarskjold fellow in 2023 and a Pulitzer Center postgraduate fellow in 2021. She was part of the BBC Africa team that produced the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Sex for Grades.” In addition, she worked for WFAE, an NPR affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. Banjo has a master’s of science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an undergraduate degree from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
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How many ASG and USG are in charge for no reasons? Not to mention the thousands of D2s, D1s and P5s leading small units with vague mandates…
Also Stephane Dujarric the spokesperson was made ASG
When?
I don’t know when – but you can see it on outlook if you work for the UN. He is listed as ASG as his title. Miguel Graca has the same title…