UN
Budget Fight
Into Overtime,
Playgrounds
&
UMOJA,
Cut-Backs
Fought
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 24 --
In the run up
to today's
annual
December
ritual of
budget
showdown at
the UN, a
delegate from
Uruguay last
week urged the
rest of the
Fifth
Committee of
the UN General
Assembly
to do
everything
possible to
come to a
conclusion
before midday
on
December 24.
That
is not to be.
On
December 23
when Inner
City Press
checked in
again with the
sprawled
out Fifth
Committee in
the UN's first
sub-basement,
along with
pizza
boxes and
coffee
containers
with spouts
were an array
of still-open
items.
In
this session
the Fifth
Committee is
considering,
for example,
the
proposed
program budget
outline for
the biennium
2016-17. On
this,
amid threats
of cut-backs,
the Group of
77 and China
put a
resolution
into an “L
document” on
December 23,
leading to
protests from
diplomats from
Italy, Japan
and the US.
Diplomats
stayed
until 6 am on
December 24,
and returned
for a G77
meeting at
11 am, moved
due to its
size from
Conference
Room 9 to CR
1.
Bolivia's
Permanent
Representative
Sacha
Llorenti, soon
to turn over
the G77 gavel
to South
Africa,
reported back
to G77
Ambassador
where
things stood.
For
now, the Fifth
Committee
“plenary” is
not set until
3 pm, with
the full
General
Assembly with
no time set at
all.
Other
items include
the Capital
Master Plan,
the
Extraordinary
Chambers
court in
Cambodia, revised
estimates for
the Ebola
mission UNMEER
and
for the Human
Rights Council
(regarding
cut-backs at
which, see
this
Inner City
Press
story) and
UNHQ long term
accommodation
needs,
otherwise
known as building
on a current
New York City
playground.
Another
item
concerns the
UN's UMOJA
system, with
cost overruns
and
corruption
scandals. One
former UMOJA
official, Paul
van Essche who
was caught up
in a scandal
-- "PHP
irregularities,"
Inner City
Press exclusive
coverage here
-- now
announces
he'll
resurface as
UNICEF's
chief of
information
technology in
January 2015.
We'll have
more on
this.
, 
