Developing states raise questions over UN overhaul

By Evelyn Leopold
April 20, 2006
Reuters
Original Source: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-04-20T205320Z_01_N20359958_RTRUKOC_0_US-UN-MANAGEMENT.xml

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Developing nations wary of losing out in a estimated $500 million U.N. management overhaul have asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan for dozens of reports the United States and other rich countries fear would torpedo the proposal.
South Africa drafted a resolution on behalf of 130 developing nations, known as the Group of 77, seeking the reports for the next General Assembly session, which begins in September. An assembly committee was discussing the request on Thursday.
The seven-page draft resolution seeks numerous evaluations on issues such as how Annan's proposals would improve U.N. effectiveness and the impact of previous reforms.
The United States, the 25-member European Union, Australia, Canada and Japan oppose the measure, which they see as a way to delay or block the overhaul with a mountain of paperwork.
It would kill the secretary-general's own recommendations, said Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations.
Annan, with U.S. support, last month introduced a 33-page report on overhauling the U.N. bureaucracy, the mainstay of his reform proposals. He sought more financial oversight, simplified hiring and firing procedures, career planning, staff buyouts, training and a modern information system.
The costs could run to $500 million, and some jobs could be transferred to other countries from New York.
The United States has tied progress on management reform to a condition for refinancing the U.N. budget on June 30, but some of the developing nations which comprise a majority of the 191 U.N. members fear the overhaul will steer programs and jobs to benefit the rich.
Some Western diplomats hope for a quick vote on the information request, hoping it would be defeated, as opposed to a negotiations, but others say there may be enough support to pass the measure as it is and negotiations are needed to water it down.