At
US
Budget Bash
for UN
Diplomats,
Meatballs
&
Dreamers,
Reform on
Calendar?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 12 --
With the Obama
administration
under pressure
to cut costs,
the US Mission
to the UN on
Wednesday
night threw a
reception for
members of the
UN General
Assembly's
budget
committee.
US Ambassador
for Management
Joseph M.
Torsella --
his new
Twitter
handle is more
colloquial --
told the well
dressed crowd
that every
dollar wasted
is a lost
opportunity
for the
world's poor.
He saluted
budget
committee
chairman Tomo
Monthe of
Cameroon for
saying this
session will
not, as the
ritual has it,
extended right
until
Christmas eve.
Inner
City Press
afterward
spoke with
Monthe, who
has said he
aims to finish
December
10. (Torsella
said that
December 20
would still
give him time
to
prepare an
Italian-American
Christmas Eve
dinner of the
seven fishes,
which he said
he does since
his wife is
Irish -- rim
shot.)
Monthe
also
shepherded
through the
Durban III
review, which
the US
boycotted
or chose not
to participate
it. But so it
goes at the
UN.
Amid
the veal
meatballs and
pasta there
was some
serious talk
of management
change.
A longtime
staff expert
lobbied two
members of the
Advisory
Committee
on
Administrative
and Budgetary
Questions that
jobs that are
given
out
politically
should be
disclosed as
such, so that
sham
recruitments
are not held.
This would
apply, for
example, to
the new
head of UN
Peacekeeping,
Herve Ladsous,
who was in the
house. Admit
that these
jobs are given
out by
nationality,
the reformer
pleaded,
but let the
others be
given cleanly.
An ACABQ
member nodded,
then
extensively
greeted
another Under
Secretary
General. The
reformer
shook his
head: it is
this
incestuous
world that
stops reform.
One
wonders where
Torsella will
take it. He
inveighed
against delay
and waste in
the
UN's UMOJA
project - but
Under
Secretary
General for
Management
Angela
Kane, also
present, has
said that is
all on track,
or only
delayed due to
changing
accounting
rules.
ACABQ will
apparently
consider the
matter on
Friday.
There is an
emerging
question of
how US demands
for UN cost
savings will
impact UN
peacekeeping
missions, for
example in
Sudan.
Torsella
preaches
reform on Oct
12, Susan Rice
& Abyei
not shown -
watch this
site
On
the margins
there was more
only at the UN
material: the
Permanent
Representative
of Equatorial
Guinea, for
example,
saying that
his president
Obiang
has the votes
to put his
name on a
UNESCO prize.
A
Slovak
diplomat
bragged how
his country
broke from the
Eurozone's
bailout of
Greece,
which he said
has a higher
standard of
living that
Slovakia which
is
supposed to
pay for it.
The
reformer was
still
preaching, how
Fifth
Committee
members, and
those leaving
ACABQ, are
given jobs in
the UN system
to make them
vote for the
budget. Will
Torsella get
into this?
We'll see --
watch this
site.
, 
