At UN, Ban's Budget Add-Ons Top $1.1 Billion, Criticism of Political Missions and Mandate "Alignment"

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un2budget032708.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- The UN budget committee has been asked for over $1.1 billion in "add-ons" to the over $4 billion budget adopted in December, a document obtained by Inner City Press shows. This includes $56 million for a new computer system, $100 million to construct a new UN building in Baghdad, and $1.5 million for "accountability / results-based management." According to the document, which Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson is quick to point out is only a proposal, an additional $184 million would be spent on the UN's so-called Capital Master rehabilitation plan, $6.8 million would be devoted to a controversial conference in Durban, and over $100 million would be to off set currency miscalculations.

On March 25, Inner City Press asked spokesperson Michele Montas if the "budget add-ons that the Secretariat has requested are $1.1 billion, a 25 per cent increase over the previous budget...when the presentation was made, there was only about a 2 per cent increase, how does the Secretary-General explain this over $1 billion additional request?"

Two hours after the briefing, the Spokesperson's Office responded

"in fact, the Secretariat has only provided a projection of how financing needs would evolve, if the Member States were to support a wide range of political missions and management reform proposals currently on the table. However, that projection is not the final amount, since this is a consultative process and its ultimate outcome will be determined by the Member States at large in the General Assembly, and not by the Secretariat. Also, the costs for special political missions, including Iraq and Afghanistan, cannot in any sense be considered 'administrative costs.'"

But what about the computer / "enterprise systems" in the UN's list?

The largest chunk of the add-ons concerns Special Political Missions. One of these, for Nepal, was slashed by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, which for example stated of "a position... proposed in the Medical Section for a Medical Officer" that "in view of the lateness of the proposal and the plan to maintain the operational level of the Mission only until the end of July 2008, the Committee recommends against approval of this post. The functions should be provided for from within existing capacity." The same could be said of many of the proposed add-ons.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2budget032708.html