By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unnine4budget122309.html
UNITED NATIONS, December 23 -- In nighttime UN budget talks on Tuesday, Western countries faced off with the Group of 77 and China as to whether Bahrain and Bahamas should pay a lesser assessment for UN peacekeeping missions.
Meanwhile, despite talk of "zero growth" budgeting at the UN, sources tell Inner City Press that the regular budget will rise, it is only a question of how much. The much hyped scale of assessments appears set to remain the same.
The reformers, as they call themselves, who want to shift assessment to reflect the rising power of China and India and others, now only want to change the review process. But the G-77 wants that to remain the same.
Special Political Missions, including the ever more controversial UN Mission in Afghanistan, are another bone of contention. An attempt is being made to forestall any targeted cuts. Click here for draft SPMs draft, exclusive to Inner City Press.
At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Inner City Press greeted the UN's head of Management as she left the building, with shiny Christmas gift bags. While she said she is "on call," delegates of member states remained milling around by the Vienna cafe. That will shut down 2 p.m. on Thursday. "We'll finish by then," a delegate told Inner City Press.
Click here for draft scale of assessements for the apportionment of expenses of the UN peacekeeping operations. Bahrain and Bermuda want to drop from B to C, but C is strictly defined.
Footnote: Up in the Delegates' Lounge, slated to close "for two years" at 7 p.m. on Thursday, there was grumbling about pretextual cost cutting by the UN, particularly in Publishing. As Inner City Press asked at Tuesday's noon briefing, ASG Franz Baumann has declared an end to paper copies of the UN Journal, which lists daily events.
Many representatives of member states like the paper Journal, to tell them where to go. In meetings with staff, Baumann has claimed that 3.5 tons of paper is wasted each day. But workers say he's included cafeteria waste in the figure. The cafeteria will close, also with layoffs, on Thursday. There is advocacy for Bahrain and Bermuda, but little for those who do manual labor in the UN. And so it goes.
And see, www.innercitypress.com/unnine4budget122309.html