Staff' Call for United States to withhold contributions to UN until U.N.D.E.S.A. Cleanup

For years the US Congress has called for Turtle Bay to fix itself pronto — or lose a big chunk of the U.S. dollars that fund its operations.

Such threats should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following the United Nations and its Funds and Programmes recently. The world's premier international institution has been wracked by widespread scandal and mismanagement.

The exposure of the corrupt Public Administration Programme (DPADM) and shocking accounts of procurement and contracts by U.N DESA's Executive Office and Technical Cooperation Unit (TCMS) in far too many places would be enough to close down most organizations — but not the United Nations's DESA.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon as well as USG Sha Zukang admit there are serious problems — and have promised change. But with the United States taxpayers contributing the lion's share of the U.N.'s bloated budget — $2 billion a year — promises of change aren't good enough.

Time has come to address the U.N.'s legendary bureaucratization, billions of dollars spent on multitudes of programs with meager results, and outright misappropriation and mismanagement of funds.

And there's a stick: If the UN DESA doesn't implement — and certify — the changes stipulated in many OIOS and Procurement Task Force Reports — including budget, human resources overhauling, Executive Office and Technical Cooperation cleanup — the U.S. government should withhold its U.N. dues payment.

UN Staff believes that without applying appropriate "leverage," such as withholding up to half of America's assessed dues or mandating cuts in specific U.N. programs, that reforms "will fail or be incomplete at best." Considering the U.S. pays 22 percent of the U.N. budget, a cut of that magnitude would be a painful dose of "tough love."

The only way to improve UN-DESA's effectiveness and efficiency is to cut its resources and oblige its management to rethink the way it does business, and deal with its growing cancer.

The UN Staff recognizes that U.N. reforms need to be kick-started. With Ban Ki-moon leaving his post at the end of his term in 24 months, many see him now as a lame duck, and woefully incapable of implementing any meaningful reform agenda.

As it stands now, without serious US congressional pressure and leadership, reforms are likely to languish until a new and more energetic secretary-general is in place — at best. At worst, reform will be frustrated and infinitum by the U.N.'s (DESA) entrenched bureaucracy.

It is outrageous the spending that DESA does on conferences and useless meetings. 70% of DESA's budget goes to meaningless meetings and round tables which produce nothing and does nothing to alleviate poverty and help the poor around the world.

Since the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs can't—or won't — reform, US Congress will have to step in and save the world body from itself.

UN Staff call on all media to turn their attention to UN-DESA and its growing corruption and miss management. We need to scrutinize and held accountable DESA's management while inform the public of what is happening inside this UN institution.