The U.N.: As Flawed as Its Own House

By Benny Avni
December 18, 2006
The New York Sun
Original Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/45347
The crumbling insides of that Turtle Bay building with the iconic façade is the best metaphor for the organization that the secretary-general designate, Ban Ki-moon, will inherit when he assumes power on January 1.
As the man now charged with selling to the public the plan to refurbish the U.N. campus, Werner Schmidt, describes it, what makes the building run today is 1950s state-of-the-art technology.
The mid-century construction was a result of cross-Atlantic cooperation because, according to Mr. Schmidt, No American could have thought of it, but no European could have built the U.N. building. But the building's managers and owners — the secretariat and the representatives of the 192 member states — have since acted like the slimiest of New York slumlords.
All New York City building managers and co-op boards have to comply with codes set up by the city to assure basic tenant safety and comfort. For instance, some landmarks, such as the Empire State Building, are much older than the U.N. building but are regularly maintained and thus function well.
The U.N. has not complied with city codes, Mr. Schmidt said as he gave me the standard dirty tour last week. The trip around the building's asbestos-infested intestines is meant to convince American taxpayers, who finance 22% of Turtle Bay's budget, of the need to pony up hefty sums to bring the U.N. building up to speed.
No more duct-tape maintenance solutions, the dirty tour cries out. No more blue-collar U.N. staff heroics like wearing haz-mat suits each time the heating system pipes need repair. No more fear that if fire, terror attack, or worse happens, city emergency teams would be unable to gain access.
We have been here before. In 1976, the United Nations approved a $55 million building-refurbishing plan. An internal survey found that the electrical and mechanical systems were in remarkably good condition. The money thus was used to build yet more space for bureaucrats, including a new staff cafeteria and underground facilities.
It turns out that all was not so rosy with the inner systems, and now they desperately need repair. The $1.877 billion Capital Master Plan budget is expected to be approved this week byTurtle Bay's funding organ, the Fifth Committee, which recently allotted $4.5 million to redo the secretary-general's residence.
According to the latest plan, U.N. staff will be transferred to yet-to-be-rented Midtown offices, a temporary conference space will be constructed on the United Nations's own grounds, and if all goes well, by 2014, all will return to a shiny, early-21st-century, state-of-the-art building.
And then what? Even if all goes according to this constantly changing plan, odds are that in a few short decades, we will return to square one and the United Nations will again come hat-in-hand asking for billions to cover its inability to regularly maintain its house.
Why? The U.N. decision-making process is a 1950s state-of-the-art system trying to function amid 21st-century realities. Like the 1970s refurbishing plan, all U.N. reforms failed to detect — let alone repair — fundamental flaws in the organization's political structure. Instead, they enlarged the bureaucracy.
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Mr. Ban sounds like a man who understands some of these flaws. Placing his hand on the U.N. Charter last week, he vowed to restore trust. A good team could help him achieve that, but will he be able to assemble it?
Mr. Ban conducted a key meeting last week with Secretary of State Rice. But much of Washington's hopes to place Americans in key U.N. positions were lost when America's ambassador, John Bolton, who had Mr. Ban's ear, was driven out of Turtle Bay by the U.S. Senate.
Meanwhile, among the prospective candidates for the position as Mr. Ban's deputy are a Saudi woman, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, and a former Jordanian deputy prime minister, Rima Khalaf. Both women are Asian, like Mr. Ban. Their appointment would violate unwritten regional quota rules.
As part of a struggle with top U.N. powers, India and Pakistan are leading, in a rare show of cooperation, a drive to institutionalize the General Assembly as an appointment confirmation body. As India's ambassador to the United Nations, Nirupam Sen, explained, it would be akin to having the Senate approve of presidential appointments in Washington.
Given Mr. Bolton's experience, perhaps Mr. Ban should try a recess appointment of his deputy.