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In UN Budget Committee, Poor
Versus Rich, 90 New Jobs, While Oracle Is Paid for Unused Licenses
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, December 22 -- As
the UN
budget committee's process moved into its eleventh hour for the
year,
sleepless delegates assembled in Conference Room 4 for an expected
showdown
between poorer countries who want more UN jobs in the development
sector, and
richer countries which balk at paying for it. The sign outside the
meeting
initially said "Closed," even those it is a formal plenary. Inner
City Press raised this to General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto
Brockmann
at 240 pm. At 3, the word "Closed" had been removed. Committee staff
cautioned against reading too much into it. "Someone had pushed the
wrong
button," one of them said.
The UN's head of Management Angela Kane, on her way
into the meeting,
said that the figure of 150 posts was simply one that had been in the
Secretary-General's report. We are hoping for consensus, she said,
adding that
she would appreciate positive noises, positive.
Delegates grumbled about working until four in the
morning, and still
not finishing the work. At Monday's UN noon briefing, Inner City Press
asked
Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson two questions about the budget, including
about the
controversial
Consumer Relations Management system, for which the UN bought but
did not use 30,000 licenses from Oracle for over $7.5 million, with $3
million
already spent.
UN's new construction, while budget process is stuck
Mexico read a statement; G-77 introduced a new
resolution. France took the floor, for the European Union, and
denounced it.
Canada did too, urging that G-77 come back to negotiations. An informed
source told Inner City Press the real fight concerns the difference
between 80 or 90 new posts. We'll see.
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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