UN
Budget Fight
Starts Up,
Mobility With
Ban Away,
Union
Lock-out?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 20 --
As the UN
Fifth (Budget)
Committee
enters the
weekend before
Christmas,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon is out
of
town and US
Ambassador Joe
Torsella
has barely
been seen. The
big
issues,
sources tell
Inner City
Press, concern
for example
Ban's
"mobility"
proposal,
re-costing in
the budget,
and the
perennial
"Common
System."
Inner
City Press
checked with
Ban's chief of
staff Susanna
Malcorra --
she is on call
-- and this
year's Fifth
Committee
chief the
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
of Finland,
Janne Taalas,
who told Inner
City Press to
get ready for
a long weekend
and hopefully
no long
knives.
Other
sources
predicted it
extending, "as
usual," right
to
Christmas Eve.
On Friday
evening, a
break meant to
go to 6:30 was
extended to
7:30; people
were settling
in.
Earlier
in the day
they heard of
the budget for
the UN's
mission in
Mali, MINUSMA.
Inner City
Press has been looking
into just how
much France is
getting paid,
under a
non-public
Letter of
Assist, for
airfield
services to
MINUSMA in
Kidal. French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
has refused to
say.
At
the day's noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press asked UN
acting deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
about Ban's
proposal to
begin paying
Advisory
Committee on
Administrative
and Budgetary
Questions
officials with
UN
money, while
others
including Security
officers face
lay-off on
December 31.
This was the
response, on
ACABQ:
Subject:
your
question on
the ACABQ
From: UN
Spokesperson -
Do Not Reply
[at] un.org
Date: Fri, Dec
20, 2013 at
1:57 PM
To:
Matthew.Lee
[at]
innercitypress.com
The
Secretary-General
has expressed
the view that
the General
Assembly
may wish to
give
consideration
to the service
of the members
of the
Advisory
Committee
becoming
available full
time.
Given
the
volume and
complexity of
the issues
before it,
consideration
could be given
as to whether
the present
working
arrangements
of the
Advisory
Committee are
any longer
optimal to
enable the
Committee to
maximize its
utilization of
the expertise
of its members
in support
of the
requirements
of the General
Assembly and
other
governing
bodies.
However,
the
decision is a
matter for the
General
Assembly.
Is
Ban coming
back? What
will happen on
his mobility
plan, now that
the
staff union is
in chaos with
the incumbent
trying to stay
in and
Ticket Two
threatening to
simply occupy
the union
office on
January
2?
Inner
City Press
asked Haq on
Friday who the
UN now
considered the
Staff
Union. Haq
said the UN
would not get
involved --
even as it
props up
a
correspondents
group which
represents
less than ten
percent of the
journalists
accredited to
cover the UN,
and erases
even the name
of
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
@FUNCA_info
from
its
transcripts,
for example
from that of Deputy
Secretary
General Jan
Eliasson's
December 19
briefing on
UN's post Sri
Lanka failure
Rights Up
Front plan.
But
where,
as the budget
fight started,
were Ban's
supposed
journalist-partners?
All noon
briefings were
canceled for
next week.
Call it
Banning or
blacking out
the UN Budget.
Watch this
site.
, 
