UN
Budget Cuts 59
Publishing
Jobs, Leaked
Minutes Show,
Interpreters
All Wet
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 7 –
The budget
squeeze in the
UN under
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon is
reflected in
minutes of a
meeting of
officials
of the
Department of
General
Assembly and
Conference
Management
obtained and
exclusively
published by
Inner City
Press, here.
DGACM
intends, only
in New York,
to cut over
$11 million in
its 2014-15
budget. The
largest cut is
of 59 posts,
or jobs, in
its Publishing
Section,
overseen by
Narendra
Nandoe.
Meanwhile,
travel
funds are
being
increased by
at least
$250,000.
DGACM is
spending $5
million on the
“digitalization
of meeting
rooms signs.”
There
was talk of
imposing a cap
on the length
of the Summary
Records of
meeting, and
of
outsourcing:
“savings
already
achieved in
processing
Summary
Records over
the last 5-6
years by
employing
exclusively
local
free-lance
precis-writers
and
translating
them
contractually.”
The
controversial
“FlexTime”
system was
contrasted, by
its proponent,
to using
“pencil and
paper” --
which would
require, he
said,
three more
staff posts.
The
minutes also
reflect that
the
Interpretation
Section is
currently and
prospectively
housed in a
leaking
office, even
after the
Capital
Master Plan
renovation.
In the CMP,
Conference
Rooms 3 and 10
will
not be ready
by April.
Meanwhile,
Interpreter
coverage will
be
over-stretched
between April
8 and 19. Lost
in
translation?
Watch this
site.
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