UN panel lifts UN spending cap; US, Japan object

By Evelyn Leopold
June 28, 2006
Reuters
Original Source: http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=N28400610


UNITED NATIONS, June 28 (Reuters) - A U.N. General Assembly panel on Wednesday lifted a spending cap on the United Nations budget, thereby avoiding a financial crisis on paying some 14,000 U.N. staff over the next six months.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton did not block the decision, taken by consensus without a vote, but objected to it because the resolution was not conditional on enacting U.N. management reforms. Japan and Australia agreed with him.

The General Assembly in December imposed a six-month budget freeze of $950 million as part of a U.S.-led bid to get a series of management reforms first proposed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed last year.

Still, U.N. General Assembly President Jan Eliasson said the lifting of the cap would make developing nations, who hold a majority in the assembly more amenable to reforms.

He hoped for a resolution on Friday that would pave the way to better management oversight, cutting down on programs and an upgrade in information systems.

Wednesday's decision was taken in the administrative and budgetary committee, which includes all 191 U.N. members and is tantamount to formal adoption in the assembly.

But Bolton told the panel, We do not believe it is in the long-term interest of the United Nations to continue delaying reforms.

In response, South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, head of a group of some 130 developing nations, said, This spending cap had turned into poison. It has turned into abuse and it had begun to affect the trust that we need to work together.

We are committed to rebuilding this trust. But it is very hard to build trust with colleagues when they dissociate themselves from you, an obvious reference to the United States, Japan and Australia.

While the Bush administration has promised to pay its 22 percent share of the $1.9 billion 2006 budget, Bolton said the U.S. Congress might not authorize it. Should Congress ask him about reforms, I will answer honestly: not much, he told reporters earlier.