Italian Restaurant goes bankrupt while UN member states are offered pre-cooked chinese food

at its 60th anniversary of the UN's Public Administration and Development Programme, and on the 12ve anniversary of the GA Resolution 50/225 on public administration and development which recognized that the mandate of DPADM and DESA on public administration should ensure that:

... efficient, effective and transparent public administration, at
both the national and international levels, has pivotal role to play in the
implementation of the key objectives of the United Nations Millennium
Declaration, and in that context stressing the need to strengthen national
public-sector administrative and managerial capacity-building, in particular in
developing countries and countries with economies in transition....

while the same resolution appointed CEPA (Committee of Experts in Public Administration) to oversee and direct the work of DESA/DPADM in achieving the UN's goal in this field.

Today we at DPADM (soon to change) became testimony to a real travesty of our own system. Under Secretary General, thru Ms. Haiyan Qian is attempting to reverse cource from the OFFICIAL MANDATE - resolutes from our lawmakers (UN Member States) and instead......he want the whole Division to change into a big database on e-government and e-projects.

All the above seems to be built in order to justify the appointment of Haiyan Qian into the leadership of the Division. And since she has no background nor any substantial experience in Public Administration, the only way to catapult her there is ......change the scope of the division and its mandate.

From now on - Branches will have to change their programme, shut down their projects, and retool their job description into (e-) ......Yes everything will have to start with an (e-) :

Lets see how it will look :

- e-public administration;
- e-local governance;
- e-transparency;
- e-ethics;
- e-post conflict rehabilitation;

eeeeeeeeeeeee- WHAT ?

Mr. Sha - If you don't like the current structure and performance of the Division (who does) why you don't call for an urgent meeting of CEPA? Consult with them and than propose to ECOSOC a formal re-arrangement and re-alignment of the Division's work.

• Do you know Mr. Sha that currently in the UN there is an Office of IT FOR DEVELOPMENT within UN Secretariat (41 staff)?
• Do you know Mr. Sha that UN Agencies like UNDP, with direct on-the-ground presence in more than 160 countries - and thus better equipped - spend in the range of $200 Million in IT FOR DEVELOPMENT and have already committed themselves into e-Governance in partnership with private and non-profit sector (381 Staff) ?
• Do you know that UN as a whole (specialized and non-specialized agencies) spend $800 Million USD a year in the same areas of e-Governance where you are trying to lead DPADM?

This overlap instead of supporting UN goals will destroy them. Instead of lifting people from poverty and making their governments more accountable, will increase the gap (read UN/OIOS report on IT for Development).

Finding a job for Haiyan Qian should not be an impediment for real change. Haiyan Qian might not have experience in substantive policy advise and real on-the-ground formulation within the mandated areas of our Division, but Haiyan has shown tremendous leadership in turning UNPAN into a fantastic outreach tool for the Division, Department as well as United Nations as whole in the area of Public Administration. UNPAN has become a real focal point for many governments, NGOs and political actors out there, whom have been using its info, databases and more importantly the fantastic on-line training tool (introduced recently).

Her operational, coordination and IT skills should and can be useful to our Division. Frankly - compared to Bertucci, she can do a much better job. But all this should not come at the expense of our main Mandate, the one that UN Member States expect us to deliver for.

At this moment Mr. Sha - we need a leader who knows how to take tough decisions and translate and implement to-the-letter the constitution of the United Nations (in-form of individual mandates). If you have a problem with the constitution/mandate, go back to the parliament (General Assembly/ECOSOC/CEPA) they are the real constituency with whom you should deal and find appropriate grounds deciding on what will be our future work.

We are UN employee and work for the UN Member States to achieve their goals - not for ourselves.