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Annan gathering team to begin work on UN reform
UNITED NATIONS. Jan 18: Under pressure to move quickly on reform UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is turning to three prominent figures who have called for sweeping changes including consolidation of UN operations, reports AP.
Annan will meet Saturday with newly appointed reform coordinator Maurice Strong, chief financial officer Joseph Connor and James Gustave Speth, head of the UN Development Programme, "to begin work on the reform agenda," UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said Friday.
Reform has become the major item on Annan’s agenda since taking office January 1. The United States vetoed a second term for his predecessor,
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, complaining he was sluggish in pressing reform.
Annan visits Washington next week to meet some of the leading congressional critics who have refused to pay the 1 billion US dollars debt until they are convinced the United Nations is serious about reform.
Eckhard gave no further details about what Annan has in mind for reforming and restructuring the financially troubled world organisation.
But the choice of- the three advisers — two Americans and a Canadian — offers insights irtto the philosophy that the new UN administration may pursue.
Strong, a self-made Canadian millionaire and environmental champion, was appointed Thursday as the chief
coordinator for UN reform. Strong streamlined Canadian utilities he once headed and was a member of a panel that recommended in 1995 that UN organisations that can "no longer be Justified” be closed.
They include the General Assembly’s Economic and Social Council, the UN Conference on Trade and Development and the UN Industrial Development Organisation.
US critics also have called for disbanding those UN organisations.
Speth was embroiled last year in an internal UN controversy because of his recommendations for sweeping UN reforms.
In a memorandum to Boutros-Ghali. Speth suggested grouping all UN humanitarian and development organisations
under a single body, a move that would eliminate half of the 10 UN departments.
Sources on Speth’s staff, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Speth, who has close ties to Vice President Al Gore, never intended the recommendations to go beyond Boutros-Ghali.
But the proposals were leaked to some journalists and have created turmoil at UN headquarters and agencies worldwide. Critics complained that Speth’s recommendations were a power play.
Connor, former chief executive officer of Price-Waterhouse, is highly regarded by the Clinton Administration for his efforts to eliminate financial waste.
US sources, speaking on
condition of anonymity, say Connor has complained privately that the UN bureaucracy is top heavy with senior officials whose positions are difficult to eliminate because of political pressure from member countries.
So far. most of the steps toward streamlining the United Nations have focused on the Secretariat, the headquarters staff that supports the work of the major political bodies — the 185-member General Assembly and the 15-member Security Council.
The Secretariat is moving to eliminate about I OQO of Its 10.000 posts. But some critics say much waste and duplication lies in the network of Independent agencies which collectively employ about 40.000 peo-
ple.
Those agencies operate independently with their own budgets and executive commissions. Any moves to consolidate or reduce them would require broad support among the 185 member countries, many of which use those agencies as employment for ti<^ natlon-
But support for taking a critical look at those agencies is growing aftiong the major pow
Last June, the leaders of the world's seven major industrial powers — the United States. France. Britain. Canada. Italy Japan and Germany — called for consolidating all UN devel opment agencies and appoint Ing a deputy secretary-general to oversee the new body