UN
Budget Goes
Into Christmas
Eve on Salary
Freeze,
"Grinch" Who
Squeezed Oman
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 24,
updated below
-- As it
passed noon on
Christmas Eve,
still the UN
budget
resolutions
had not been
passed. The
session for
adoption had
been scheduled
for 10 am in
the General
Assembly Hall.
But even two
hours after
that, the
action was
still in the
UN's North
Lawn Building.
Representatives
of
the Group of
77 and China
marched down
to Conference
Room 3, where
formal
meetings are
held, meetings
that US
Ambassador Joe
Torsella brags
about
televising and
making
transparent.
Now,
however, the
US is not
speaking out
about its
position.
Others tell
Inner City
Press at issue
is "Paragraph
124, a salary
freeze."
Others call
this, more
technically,
freezing
post-adjustment
in New York,
and ask how
much US
government
employees by
contrast make.
There
are still
complaints
about
Torsella's
"squeeze play"
on Oman's
budget
representatives,
and his
complaint that
Oman had dared
share his
"non-paper." Click
here for
Inner City
Press'
exclusive
report.
"It was a
power play," a
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
told Inner
City Press.
Another called
Torsella "the
Grinch Who
Stole
Christmas."
In the lull
there was some
talk of Inner
City Press' December
23 expose of
scam
recruitments,
cover-ups and
buy-out
packages,
click here to
view.
Much
had been
agreed to,
including the
scales of
assessment and
Ban Ki-moon's
mobility plan.
Still Ban's
close adviser
Kim Won-soo
worked the
crowd on
Christmas Eve.
Budget
committee
chairman
Miguel Berger
ambled around
with Algeria's
Permanent
Representative,
the chair of
the G77.
"There's going
to be a deal,"
a long time
budget expert
predicted.
Christmas was
approaching.
Watch this
site.
Update
of 1:20 pm --
Inner City
Press is told
the deal
involves a
salary freeze
until January
31, then
increases
continue "at
rate of
February,
68.4, 68.5" --
so the US can
claim victory.
The Vienna
Cafe will
close at 3 pm
- but leave
the coffee
urns full.
Watch this
site.
, 
