The UN General Assembly approved limited UN management reforms on Friday as several delegates lamented that the UN membership had been unwilling to do more to modernize the world body. A more ambitious reform package put forward by Secretary-General Kofi Annan was defeated by the assembly in May in a bitter showdown between wealthy nations pushing for major changes and developing nations worried about losing their voice in UN operations. Adopted by consensus as part of a compromise on Friday were decisions to replace the UN computer system and allow the secretary-general, on an experimental basis, to shift up to $20 million a year to new programmes in order to respond to changing priorities without prior assembly approval. The reform resolution also orders the United Nations to adopt international public sector accounting standards and strengthen its procurement system after a series of scandals.
Put off for future action were governance, oversight, openness and accountability reforms, improved personnel management and further procurement improvements. In a move that surprised some delegates, the United States did not formally distance itself from the assembly decision, as it did last week when member-nations lifted a budget ceiling meant to put pressure on governments to go along with reforms.