  UN chief Kofi Annan and US Ambassador John Bolton have sparred over the stalled UN budget and the slow pace of planned reforms amid fears that the impasse could lead to a "financial crunch." | "Plus this so-called 'reform' might result in my incarceration, which naturally is inconceivable." |
"There has been suggestion by some governments, or a government, that we should not be given the two-year budget but maybe a temporary three-month or so budget," Annan told UN staff, referring to a Bolton proposal. "This doesn't work for the United Nations," said Annan, who cancelled an overseas trip this weekend to deal with the budget challenge. Last month, Bolton, the US envoy to the UN, suggested that the world body adopt an interim budget only for three or four months pending the resolution of a stalemate over management reforms which Washington strongly backs. But Annan Friday said not adopting a full budget for 2006-2007 would lead to "a financial crunch." "The business of the UN is not reform, the business of the UN is carrying on the mandates that the General Assembly, ECOSOC (the Economic and Social Council) and Security Council have given us, so that business must continue," the UN secretary general noted. "We should not take any initiative that will not only risk the reform but also the ongoing activities, and that's one of the reasons I decided to stay here," he added. Annan called off a planned two-week Asian tour, including visits to China, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam, that was to have started this weekend. "We are at a critical stage of the budget process... So I decided that it was important for me to work with member states to ensure that we get the budget approved."| Hmmm. The threat to Kofi's Kleptocracy must be real. Come to think of it, Kofi's had to stay at his desk a lot this year. I wonder why that is? |
Asked whether he was hopeful the two-year budget could be adopted by the end of the year, he replied: "Most of the member states understand the need for the budget."| "Yass, yasss. An unaccountable, unelected global bureaucracy has needs. Evr'ybody knows that." |
In response, Bolton told reporters Friday: "There has never been a suggestion that we would not approve a budget. Reform should drive the budget process, not the other way round. And what we proposed in order not to disrupt the work of the UN was an interim budget, of three to four months," Bolton said.
The management reforms demanded by Washington, and pushed strongly in the wake of the Iraq oil-for-food scandal, include giving the secretary general greater powers in exchange for greater accountability, creating a new ethics office and establishing a whistle-blower program to root out corruption. The broader reforms agreed at the UN world summit in September include setting up a more effective human rights council and a peacebuilding commission to assist countries emerging from conflicts. But the reform package is bogged down over a perceived power struggle between Annan's secretariat and the 191-member General Assembly.
Annan stressed the urgency of establishing the new human rights council and management reform. "I put forward proposals I expect states to endorse to show movement on that track," Annan said.
Japan's UN envoy Kenzo Oshima, whose country is the second largest contributor to the UN budget after the US, said he shared some of the concerns expressed by Bolton. "We think it's very important that the next (budget) should reflect at least some of the conclusions or implementations" of the reforms agreed in September," he said. The UN General Assembly's budgetary committee is currently debating a proposed regular budget totaling 3.8 billion dollars, including around 73 million dollars for reform activities decided at the UN world summit. Warren Sach, a UN assistant secretary general and controller, told reporters early this week that Bolton's proposal would cripple the UN's cash flow, forcing the world body to draw on reserves, cut back on expenditures and borrow from peacekeeping-type operations. | "Hand over the cash or we'll be forced to defund the Global Partnership for Fluffy Baby Bunnies." |
 Meanwhile The New York Times on Friday said Bolton's "threat to block the next UN budget is likely to be counterproductive. John Bolton has been all muscle and no diplomacy as the United States ambassador to the United Nations," the daily said. "Just as the (US) Senate feared when it declined to confirm Mr Bolton in the job, his blustering unilateral style is turning him into one of the biggest obstacles to achieving changes that had been within reach before he appeared on the scene." |