COMMENT: Sha Zukang's October Surprise

If indeed it is true that Mr. Sha is embarking on early retirement of a large number of Senior but incompetent staff, then this is a clear sign that he has made up his mind to tackle the most difficult of all tasks - cleaning of DESA of human garbage, the main impediment to change! 

It is well known within DESA that many of the non-performing but self-seeking staff who other than promoting their own personal agenda have had little or no intetrest in advancing the cause of DESA, have been at the centre of the mess that the organization has currently plunged itself into. 

Mr. Sha ought to be congratulated for this bold step. At the same time, I only hope that he and his colleagues who have embarked on this most difficult challenges of all do it astutely and strategically and most importantly, take the member states into confidence, especially the group of 77. In the past, unbeknown to the Group of the real reasons, many non-performing and scheming staff of DESA when faced with job threats or other initiatives that appear to risk curtailing their personal agenda, made it a habit of manupulating G77either to protect them from an impending job loss or curtailment of an activity that mey affect their personal interest. Therefore, it is absolutely key that Mr. Sha and his advisers brief fully the member states before the axe starts to fall.

Mr. Sha also needs to be equally astute in filling up the forthcoming vacant posts with the very best - here also he needs the blessings of the member states, especially those of the developed countries. In the past in more than one occassions, lobbying from developed countries seemed to have caused distortions to quality recruitment in DESA.

Furthermore, filling up of vacant posts will have to go hand in hand and be relevant to what DESA will ultimately be reformed into, as a substantive organization. It is the new subtantive portfolio of DESA that should determine who its staff would be.

In the area of technical cooperation, an important DESA activity, not only that the content of technical cooperation products will need to be redefined, preferably through a survey of developing countries (presently, technical cooperation in DESA has become by and large a condiut for holding, with some exceptions, useless meetings and workshops, thus providing free tickets for DESA staff to travel and opportunities of patronage distribution through recruitment of friends as consultants), but also its method of delivery.

I wish Mr. Sha and his reforming colleagues of DESA the very best in their reforming endeavour and look forward to seeing DESA emerge as a world class organization devoted to providing, through their normative, analytical and technical cooperation works, helpful guidance in tackling the most difficult of challenges - economic, social and governance related- that the world is facing these days, both in developing as well as in developed countries. After all, DESA is the only apex organization in UN that has the mandate to do so. Given the right people and structure, I have no doubt that DESA will rise and prove its worth.