By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 21,
updated --
With the UN
budget fight
heating up as
Christmas
approaches,
Saturday night
found UN
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
gathering in
groups on the
second floor
of the North
Lawn building.
There
was Peter
Wilson of the
UK and Alexis
Lamek of
France, and
their EU
counterpart
Ionnis
Vrailas. There
was US
Joe Torsella,
making
analogies to
the budget
deal struck in
Washington:
can the UN do
it?
In
fact, UN DESA
has commented
on US budget
woes, as Inner
City Press
covered. They
slammed the US
for the
impending
fight of
raising the
debt ceiling.
So who's
mocking whom?
Update:
past 2 am on
December 24 in
the Vienna
Cafe, sources
told Inner
City Press
that while
"the Pension Fund
item just got
agreed, re-costing
is still in
play;" another
told Inner
City Press it
was a matter
of "finding
scraps" to pay
for it, with
Ban Ki-moon
requested to
issue a report
on future
alternatives.
Update
2:38 am - A
Permanent
Representative
tells Inner
City Press
that "they...
the West" want
to cut the
Department of
General
Assembly and
Conference Management
and the
Department of
Public
Information by
2.9%. "But
then they complain
about the
qualify of
services. Let
them cut Ban's
travel, and
consultants."
And amid calls
for cuts,
including
layoffs for
some UN
Security
officers on
January 2, why
is the UN
moving to send
500 blue
helmeted
guards to
Central
African Republic
with mandates
limited to offering
protection to
a smaller
number of UN
staff? Click
here for that
Inner City
Press story.
In the
UN budget
process,
disputes
include $160
million of
"re-costing"
-- adding back
to the budget
after
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
claimed cuts
-- and the
mobility plan
of Mister Ban,
himself so
mobile as to
be out of town.
Ban's
Controller was
present
Saturday night
along with
other
staffers.
Apparently
there were no
UN
Spokespeople
working --
Inner City
Press' questions
from Saturday
morning about
the crisis in
South Sudan
went entirely
unanswered for
eight hours
and counting.
When
Inner City
Press spoke
with diplomats
working on the
budget
Saturday
night, there
were many
critical
comments about
Ban's
"corporate
partnerships"
proposal, some
calling it an
attempt to get
a promotion
for longtime
UN official
Robert Orr,
said to be
very close
with Ban.
Orr
himself was
not seen, at
least by this
reporter in
several hours,
in the North
Lawn.
This
is not a good
time for the
UN to have no
one on duty
answering
press
questions, and
no noon
briefing
scheduled for
Monday,
December 23 as
protested
by the Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
@FUNCA_info.
As
many of
complained,
the 2014-15 UN
budget is over
600
paragraphs, 85
pages.
Diplomats
wandered
around with
random pages.
A table was
set up with
mint Oreo
cookies and
dried green
mangos; pizza
boxes came in,
and boxes of
Starbucks
coffee.
America may
run on Dunkin
but the UN is
all about,
well,
destroying
neighborhoods
(as one
anti-Starbucks
diplomat put
it).
Notably
absent
from budget
negotiations
on Saturday,
even on the
sidelines,
were the Staff
Union, whose
incumbent is
battling to
stay in
control or
block the
recognition of
Ticket 1,
and those
ostensibly
covering the
UN.
At
least two
Permanent
Representatives
were present:
Benin, and
Fiji as chair
of the Group
of 77, which
Bolivia takes
over on
January 1.
Finland's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Janne Taalas,
the chair of
the Budget
Committee,
joked to Inner
City Press
that it should
get done since
"this is the
longest night
of the year."
Watch this
site.
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