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Final UN Budget Drafts Hit Nairobi Corruption, Reinstates
Africa Advisor
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 24 -- It was Christmas Eve
when the UN's
budget resolutions for the year were finally distributed. They
ranged from 92 new jobs in the field of development to corruption in
construction of offices in Kenya. One resolution specifically criticized
the
UN's investigator Inga-Britt Ahlenius, for leaving posts vacant to be
filled by
her own cronies. Another savaged Ban Ki-moon's information
technology units,
which Inner City Press this week exposed as wasting $3 million on
30,000
computer licenses from Oracle that have yet to be used. Click here for that.
The
recorded votes, however, were requested on culture war issues like the
Durban
II conference, anti-racist or anti-Israel depending on who you talk
with, and
the Convention on the Rights of the Child. There were political
objections,
such as to the continuance unreformed of Terje Roed Larsen's mission to
Lebanon. Ibrahim Gambari's "good offices" mission to Myanmar was
costed out, as was a conference for the arms trade treaty, on which the
U.S.
wanted to call a vote. It was past one in the morning, and still no
vote was
called. But at least the documents were out.
The Russian
Federation's representative, speaking on the OIOS resolution, says his
country
understands that the staff of the Procurement Task Force will not be
incorporated into the staff of OIOS. But why then has Alhenius kept
seven posts
empty?
UN's Ban and Diarra, multiple hats and G77
push back not shown
As the
Budget Committee's proceedings got going, the U.S. called for a vote on
the
arms trade treaty. 123 for, 1 against with 21 abstaining. The one was
the U.S.
-- but afterwards, Costa Rica said that technical difficulties had led
to their
yes vote not being counted. The UK was said to abstain, when they
support it.
The US spoke against Durban II. The vote was 112 for, eight against,
and
twenty-some abstentions.
On the
development resolution, beyond the new posts, as Sudan emphasized after
the adoption,
Ban Ki-moon is directly to re-fill the position.
Update of 2:39
a.m. -- Lebanon's paragraph questioning Roed Larsen's mandate passed,
86 to 20-some. and soon thereafter, the meeting was suspended for yet
more 30 minutes, because the next resolution was not ready. Now, some
groaning was heard.
Update of 3:16
a.m. -- like zombies 5th Committee delegates stumble around the halls
of the UN. The basement soda machine is empty; a crowd gathers by the
machine on the second floor beside the Security Council. The
Controller stands chatting with the Secretary of the Third Committee,
who is waiting for some of "his" resolution to be taken up by the full
General Assembly plenary. Will that be before dawn? Where is the
missing 5th committee resolution? Who is running this process? As one
delegate grumbled, why didn't they just get their act together and have
people come back Wednesday at 10 a.m. for orderly debates and votes?
Why indeed.
Update of 3:27
a.m. -- as otherwise prissy delegates doze off on couches among the UN
basement corridors, it is suggested to Inner City Press that as the
only media present, it is literally embedded in the UN.
A Fifth
Committee veteran comes by to opine to Inner City Press: "this is
not the worst. Take the 55th General Assembly, when Movses was
the chair and coordinator on the scale of assessments. We were
like this for days, with Richard Holbrooke involved, until the Republic
of Korea stepped up and paid someone else's assessment to get things
moving."
Inner City Press
introjects, is that at least as a matter of karma why Ban Ki-moon
became S-G years later? But the story continues --
"Back then it was only one
issue. Tonight there are multiple issues, and it is impossible for the
Secretariat to accomplish what is expected of them. Also the 60th,
under John Bolton." And how will things be under Susan Rice?
We'll see.
And at 3:35 a.m., Angela Kane of
the Department of Management strode in, in Elvis Costello-like glasses,
chipper. "We are resuming," a conference officer said....
Update of 3:39 am -- news flash!
G77 will pay $6 per square foot, with all past due rents written off.
The resolution passed says that in the future, "the S-G, as CAO, should
handle rental issues with individual tenants according to existing
procedures without recourse to the GA." Does this mean that journalists
will be charged? No, we opine, there is no "existing procedure" for
that. Welcome to fUNca.
Update of 3:48 a.m. -- with a
gavel and applause, this session of the Fifth Committee has ended. And
we head upstairs to the General Assembly chamber to repeat the ritual
-- but what surprises might await?
Update of 4 a.m. -- as we wait
for the General Assembly plenary to convene, Angela Kane's take on the
G77 rent is that it had to be clarified, the resolution was fuzzy and
she had no discretion to just write it off. Now by resolution the past
is erased. But what does the future hold?
Inner City Press told her
that word in the basement was that Catherine Pollard was the highest
Secretariat official still awake. Ms. Kane bristled, I told them to
give me five minutes, that's how long it takes to get downstairs. And
then she went back up.
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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earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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