U.S. Presses U.N. On Reform
The United Nations should not conduct "business as usual" and adopt its standard two-year budget by the end of December if member states can't agree soon on a raft of promised reforms, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Tuesday.
In blunt comments to reporters, Bolton intimated that the United States might look elsewhere to solve global problems if the U.N. doesn't carry out the management and other reforms agreed to at a September summit of world leaders.
"Americans are a very practical people and they don't view the U.N. through theological lenses," Bolton said. "They look at it as a competitor in the marketplace for global problem-solving and if it's successful at solving problems they'll be inclined to use it."
Bolton's remarks suggested a brewing dispute in what could foreshadow a financial crisis at the United Nations with just over a month remaining before the 191 member states have to hammer out the next two-year budget. But Bolton said the United States would not leave the United Nations.
The United States pays 22 percent of the U.N.'s regular budget. It argues that by deciding the budget now, many reforms that it wants — including the elimination of some programs and creating new ones — would essentially be frozen.
At a September summit, world leaders agreed to a series of U.N. reforms, including a peacebuilding commission and a new body to replace the discredited U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Key for the United States were a host of management reforms that include a new ethics office, eliminating old mandates and initiatives to make managers more accountable.
The agreement said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan should submit his proposals for management reform during the first quarter of 2006. As a result, Bolton said the United States had proposed adopting an interim budget that would carry the U.N. through February while the reforms are enacted.
"Business as usual has gotten us to the state where we need a revolution in reform and business as usual isn't going to accomplish that revolution," Bolton said.
Bolton would not say whether the United States would threaten to block the budget and force a showdown. But Republicans in the U.S. Congress who must approve the spending might consider doing so. They have threatened to withhold some U.S. funding if many reforms are not carried out.
Other member nations, including the G-77 group of developing nations, are likely to oppose the idea of an interim budget and have even accused Annan of caving to the demands of some nations — an obvious reference to the United States — and circumventing the General Assembly.
Egyptian Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz, a leading advocate of the G-77 position, said member states should go ahead with their normal two-year budget, and adopt a supplemental document if necessary for any additional reform expenditures.
"To put the whole budget on hold to make it hostage for reform process, we don't think that this is the right approach to follow," Abdelaziz said.
On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that not adopting a budget could "create a serious financial crisis for the Organization." That's because the budget determines how much money each member state must pay, and the United Nations has only a small cushion of cash that would last before it would have to shut down operations.
The United Nations has projected that the 2006-2007 budget will be about $3.6 billion for the two-year period. That doesn't include costs for peacekeeping, which hit some $5 billion in 2005 alone, and are assessed in a separate budget.