U.N. Faces Reputation Crisis After Scandal 
November 2, 2005
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-UN-Reform.html?emc=eta1

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The United Nations faces a crisis of reputation in the wake of the oil-for-food scandal, but the 191 member states and Secretary-General Kofi Annan are determined to reform the world body, the top U.N. management official said Wednesday.
Key elements of that reform include a new, strengthened whistleblower policy and new financial disclosure rules that, among other things, will require that staff report gifts of more than $250 rather than $10,000 as the rules currently demand, said Undersecretary-General Christopher Burnham.
Burnham is an American and former official in the administration of President Bush. He was hired five months ago to oversee internal reform that has been a focus of U.N. critics in the United States Congress, who claim that the United Nations is inefficient, corrupt and poorly run.
Burnham said that the reforms now under way, designed in part to address critics in the United States, would come into effect soon. He called the new financial disclosure requirements an ''essential ingredient in restoring the confidence that the United Nations is a beacon of honor and probity and dignity and integrity.''
The U.N. has been rocked by a string of scandals in recent years, from sex abuse by peacekeepers, to allegations of corruption, to the widespread fraud of the oil-for-food program, which former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein manipulated for $1.8 billion.
Management reforms were a central element of an outcome document adopted by world leaders at a summit in September. But one stumbling block is that the U.N. General Assembly, where each of the 191 U.N. member states gets one vote, is reluctant to give up power and has seen some of the reform as a U.S.-orchestrated effort.
Burnham said he thought the scandals afflicting the U.N. could help push reform.
''My experience is that governments and corporations reform when there's a crisis,'' he said. ''Most of the time, that crisis is associated with funding, and in fact, the U.N. could face future funding crises, but right now we face a reputational crisis.''
Burnham said one way to fix that was by adopting the new, more meaningful whistleblower policy. A staff survey last year found that many U.N. employees feared retaliation if they came forward with claims of wrongdoing.
The office of Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette has been working on a revised policy for several months. Her office circulated a new draft on Monday, and U.N. officials including Burnham acknowledged that it's still a work in progress.
''There's near universal support for bringing the United Nations into the 21st century,'' Burnham said. ''And bringing the United Nations into the 21st century means that we have the kinds of protection out there that give the staff confidence that they can come in every day to create a more free and secure and dignified world.''
The new financial rules will require more U.N. staff to file disclosure forms and will demand more detail about ''income and assets, transfers to spouses and dependent children.''
Also on Wednesday, Annan announced he was appointing Rajat Kumar Gupta, a senior partner at the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., a special adviser on reform.
''Mr. Gupta will come in and give us a fresh pair of eyes from the outside world on how to make the reform process best fit in with best practices,'' U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.