Sunday, 18 August 2013
Top-heavy U.N.: Bureaucrats ’r us
When Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks of reform and better efficiencies at the United Nations, it's a tad difficult to take him seriously because he's increased the number of top Turtle Bay executives by 35 percent.
Between June 2006 — six months before Mr. Ban's start date — and March 2013, about 50 U.N. bureaucrats, with the rank of assistant secretary-general (ASG) and higher, have been added to the payroll, notes U.N. watchdog Brett D. Schaefer of The Heritage Foundation. At $172,301 per ASG and $189,599 per undersecretary-general (USG), the cost quickly adds up.
By comparison, the U.S. government is downright frugal: “On average, the U.N. has one USG equivalent for every 759 employees while the U.S. executive branch on average has one cabinet official for every 91,391 employees,” writes Mr. Schaefer, based on data from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
This bloat suggests an unprecedented level of politicization and patronage. All of which explains why the excessively top-heavy U.N. is not known for its expediency in responding to world crises — or anything else.
Far more's the pity that the U.S. gets stuck paying the largest share of the U.N.'s tab among member nations.
The U.N.'s executive excess is outrageous. And contrary to the insistence of the Obama administration, the U.S. cannot realistically reform that which stubbornly resists change.
UN supresses report on MDG failuers but author releases it anyway
STUDY: United Nation's Millennium Development Goals Did Not Accelerate Progress
The research, done by a U.N. statistician, was published independently after the U.N. declined to release it
Charity boss 'earning more than £100,000'
Charity boss 'earning more than £100,000' a year says six-figure salaries 'aren't an issue for donors'
Astonishing outburst came as pressure grows on charity bosses
Figures show at least 30 enjoy salaries of more than £100,000 a year
Many organisation are taxpayer funded through government, EU and UN
Head of Charity Commission accused right-wingers of hating charities
New Report Holds U.N. Responsible for Haitian Cholera Epidemic
The United Nations inadvertently caused a deadly cholera epidemic in Haiti, and has legal and moral obligations to remedy this harm, according to new report released by researchers at Yale Law School and the Yale School of Public Health.
The UN’s Millennium Development Flop
... The deeper problem here is that the MDGs, for all their lofty aims, amount in many ways to simply a UN-repackaged version of central planning. While we can all agree that it is profoundly desirable to end poverty, the real avenue to that goal is not a set of bureaucratically defined targets, but decent government, protecting a framework of law that leaves individuals free to choose for themselves the tradeoffs with which they try to improve their lives. At a UN where the majority of the 193 member states are not free market democracies, that’s a goal much harder to promote than a set of slickly packaged MDGs. But if the aim is to make a difference, that’s what needs galvanizing. Something the U.S. ambassador could usefully contribute would be to call attention to Friedman’s study, and ask the assembled worthies, in public, why on earth the UN would have the arrogance to consider such damning findings irrelevant.
UN director in Gaza quits for new post
John Ging leaves UNRWA to take senior New York post after years as champion of Gazans' rights
GA sets up new UN Sustainable Development Forum
On July 9, the United Nations General Assembly established a new High-level Forum to focus on sustainable development. The new body replaces the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in order to catalyze efforts on global development issues.
Italian firm to provide surveillance drone for UN in Congo
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Thursday it has procured an unarmed surveillance drone from Italian defense electronics firm Selex ES, a unit of Finmeccanica, that will be deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the coming weeks.
Panel: UN reliance on private security firms grows
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — An expert panel called Thursday for more transparency surrounding the deepening reliance of the United Nations on private security companies for services from armed guards to police training.
The Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries, an independent panel mandated by the U.N. Human Rights Council, held a series of meetings and debates this week as part of its ongoing investigation into a practice that is drawing increasing scrutiny. The five-member group plans to present a report next year.
IMO - Salaries at the world body are out of control, writes a former staffer
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
April 26, 2012
By Katrin Park - Katrin Eun-Myo Park
Park is a former UN staff member. [http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/
The United Nations greatly overpays its staffers, argues the authors.At the UN in New York, I once had a boss who, whenever she had to take a personal trip back to Africa, found a conference to attend. The UN then paid for her business class flights between New York and Dakar, for instance, and gave her a travel allowance. She kept the mileage.
One Saturday, she called me on her way to the airport. She said I needed to find her another flight because she was running late. When I called her back with new flight details — 40 minutes and a thousand dollars later — she told me she managed to check in and hung up.
Knowing the pompous squandering of public resources that go on inside the UN, I cannot entirely refute the cynical comment that the UN takes money from poor people in rich countries and gives it to rich people in poor countries.
What I can say is that there are insiders dedicated to promoting the universal values of the United Nations. I can also say that the UN should do housecleaning of its own, as it urges others to up the ante in their fight against corruption.
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