Deadlock at UN over Annan's management reforms

United Nations, Apr 28: UN members called in Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday to avert a showdown between wealthy and developing nations on management reform that could precipitate a cash crisis at the world body this summer.

A divisive meeting of a powerful UN General Assembly committee, which controls the budget, was adjourned until later in the day so that Annan could mediate on a resolution from developing nations that the rich countries oppose.

The resolution opposes some key provisions in Annan's management reform plans that would give him more flexibility to move around jobs and resources, fearing that without their control the West would dominate the bureaucracy.

The United States, the European Union, Japan and about 40 other countries back Annan's proposals and say the resolution would delay or kill key reforms.

The Bush administration and others have tied progress on management reforms to their approval of refinancing the UN budget on June 30, following a bitter fight in December that led to a new polarization between rich and poor countries. The amount involved is 0 million.

Representatives of some 50 nations, including US Ambassador John Bolton, wrote an urgent letter to Assembly President Jan Eliasson, now in Sweden where he also serves as foreign minister, asking for his immediate help.

''We are concerned that a vote under these circumstances could entail considerable disadvantage for the United Nations, for this proposal and for the budget process,'' they said yesterday.

If the resolution is put to a vote, the developing nations will win, for they constitute a majority of UN members as well the world's population. The resolution was put forward by 132 countries organized in the ''Group of 77.'' ''This is a very serious situation,'' Austria UN ambassador, Gerhard Pfanzelter, said at the meeting on behalf of the European Union that pays 38 percent of the budget.

''If we have a vote, this will have consequences which no one would like,'' he said, appealing to the committee's chairman, Ambassador John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda.

UN member vote

But South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, chair of the Group of 77, said it was unacceptable that the secretary-general would carry out his duties without the consent of the majority of UN members.

Annan last month introduced a 33-page blueprint on overhauling the UN bureaucracy, in part an outcome of scandals in the now-defunct Iraq oil-for-food program.

He sought more financial oversight, simplified hiring and firing procedures, career planning, staff buyouts, a modern information system as well as flexibility in assigning staff and resources. The changes are estimated to cost 0 million.

Annan suggested the General Assembly's workload be divided into groups of ''manageable size,'' which could then bring ''agreed recommendations'' before the full budget committee.

The wealthy nations do not want any final decisions now on Annan's plans but prefer to wait for detailed reports he promised in May and June and then again in September.

Opposing the resolution are nations, such as Japan, the United States, the EU, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, who collectively pay over 80 per cent of the budget.

But Kumalo has argued that every country was assessed by its ability to pay and for many poor nations, the dues were a burden and that the rich countries already dominated the UN bureaucracy Annan ran in all key positions.

Reuters