By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, February 7 – When the directive went out within the UN to cut $100 million dollars, as first reported by Inner City Press, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon mandated that at least 70% of the cuts had to be to personnel costs, or jobs.
Since then, Inner City Press has run internal memos and minutes from, this morning for example, the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management.
Now comes the following from Navi Pillay, for her Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, on “heated debates among Member States delegations in New York at present regarding the budget reduction decision, and the matter is not considered closed.”
Pillay writes that, “there is thus a possibility that the resumed session of the General Assembly could reverse its decision - which of course we would welcome.”
Dear Colleagues -
As you are aware, the General Assembly decided last December to reduce the overall 2014-2015 regular budget target by $100 million, and requested the Secretary-General to ensure fair, equitable and nonselective treatment of all budget sections in complying with that decision. OHCHR's share of this reduction was approximately $4.5 million, of which at least 70% should be taken from post resources, according to instruction from the Controller. This meant that we were obliged to find savings of approximately $3.2 million by abolishing posts. We were advised that this should be done as far as possible by using upcoming retirements and vacancies.
This instruction came on top of an earlier demand from the Controller to reduce our original submission by some $4.3 million. Insofar as our initial budget planning target (given to us by the Controller) had not included provisions for the new mandates established during 2012 by the Human Rights Council and Third Committee, we prepared our submission on the basis of the full costs of all those mandates. In the end, the revised target did not fully account for all the new activities we have been charged to implement, as we were once again required to absorb many of the new tasks without additional resources. Therefore, between these two instructions, we had to trim more than $8.8 million in total from our projected 2014-2015 requirements, and submit this within a matter of less than two weeks.
Given the short timeframe, it was not possible to take undertake a full prioritization review across the Office. For the requisite post reductions, the PBRB met to review the list of upcoming retirements and vacancies, and asked Division Directors to consult with their managers and staff to determine whether/how the loss of those posts could be accommodated, or to make alternative proposals to meet the required $3.2 million target. The proposals were discussed with the Staff Coordinating Council and were then submitted to me, and I held a meeting with the Deputy, the Directors and Chief of PPMES to arrive at the final configuration of the posts to be abolished over the course of the next two years. For the most part this will be done following the retirement of present incumbents, with the others following redeployment of incumbents to other vacant posts. As a result, I am pleased to confirm that no OHCHR staff member will lose their job from these cuts. Nevertheless, in my covering memorandum to the Controller, I placed on record and expressed dismay over the serious risk to our programme of work from the cuts forced upon us.
You will have seen the message that was circulated by the UNOG Staff Coordinating Council regarding their meeting with Kyle Ward on this issue. I am pleased that they were able to hold a constructive and cordial discussion of these issues, in the interests of safeguarding our staff. These discussions are very important for transparency and to reassure everyone involved that we are united and consistent in facing the difficult financial situation.
I understand that there are heated debates among Member States delegations in New York at present regarding the budget reduction decision, and the matter is not considered closed. The Secretary-General has also expressed concerns regarding the application of budget reductions while the Member States continue to increase mandates for the Organization. There is thus a possibility that the resumed session of the General Assembly could reverse its decision - which of course we would welcome. I will continue to make the point to Member States at every opportunity that the demands they continue to place on this Office cannot endlessly be met without corresponding resources. The fact that we receive barely half of the new requirements, and have still been obliged to reduce further, leaves us with no capacity to undertake new mandates within existing resources. And with another Human Rights Council session starting later this month, that message must be underscored by everyone, regardless of our enthusiasm for new initiatives.
I want to keep you abreast of developments relating to these financial constraints facing the Office, and will continue to do so. I thank you for your understanding during these trying times, and for the hard work that you continue to do in the service of human rights around the world.
Best regards, HC
