The United Nations…A Colossal Failure (Part 3)

The United Nations…A Colossal Failure (Part 3)
By Tommy Franks

Let us now look at some additional UN costs. The personnel costs (including generous pension benefits) of the bureaucrats consume an estimated 70 percent of the UN operating budget. This might be even higher. That leaves only 30% of the resources for UN missions and humanitarian programs.

The salary and benefits packages of UN employees based in New York City are incredibly lucrative. Statistics compiled in 1995 (over ten years ago) revealed that the average annual salary for a midlevel accountant at the United Nations was $84,500. The salary for a comparable position in non-UN businesses and agencies was $41,964. A UN computer analyst could expect to receive $111,500 compared to $56,836 paid counterparts outside the UN bureaucracy.

An assistant secretary general received $190,250. The mayor of New York City was paid $130,000 during the same year. Now listen to this. The raw figures do not convey the extent of the disparity because the salaries of UN employees are not taxable. In addition to their bloated salaries, UN bureaucrats enjoy an array of costly perks, including monthly rent subsidies of up to $3,800 and annual education grants (also tax-free) of $12,675 per child. The UN pension program is so generous that entry-level staffers whose pay rises only as fast as inflation…can retire in 30 years with $1.8 million. What is wrong with this picture? Does the average American receive this type of retirement?

Furthermore, it is not numbers alone that should be of our concern. It is also the question of the quality of personnel. The United Nations has never developed a well-trained international civil service. It has been said that…“Only a few men and women do most of the work.” The majority are “time servers” (putting in their time until retirement). Their lethargy, slothfulness, and idleness have reached gargantuan proportions. Secretary General Boutros-Ghali once remarked that “perhaps half of the UN workforce did nothing useful al all.” Even when work is done, it is often unnecessary. It’s sort of like “make work”.

The pervasive lack of efficiency is no mystery. The bulk of UN employees worldwide are drawn from the Third World and now-defunct Soviet bloc, although bureaucrats from the West certainly are not immune to the temptations of “sloth”. Many have no particular skills other than cultivating support from their sponsoring governments. Once they are inside the UN bureaucracy, it is virtually impossible to fire them. At best, a conscientious manager…there are a few…can force the lateral transfer of an especially unsatisfactory subordinate. Most managers, however, do not even bother making the attempt.

Given the current rules, it is almost impossible to correct these problems. One reason is…the UN is in blatant disregard of sound management principles. They have no functioning system of personnel evaluation. Although employees are supposedly rated on their job performance, nearly everyone receives an excellent rating…which makes evaluations virtually meaningless. All attempts to change this non-system of evaluation have failed. Few within the UN Nations want this appalling practice to end. Ending it would challenge the decades’ “old policy” of corrupt hiring practices…which the majority of members have no interest in correcting since they directly benefit from the status quo. What we have here is…An irresponsible, unaccountable, unmanageable bureaucracy that does not even meet minimal requirements for any type of professional civil service. I have only touched the tip of the iceberg. How long are we (the American people) going to tolerate this nonsense…allowing such a bungling institution (UN) to continue to be out of control?

I have hardly even touched on the greater waste, fraud, and abuse. Let’s take a closer look. For example, the UN Children's Fund lost $10 million because of mismanagement in Kenya. Nearly $4 million in cash was stolen outright at the UN headquarters in Mogadishu, Somalia. No one seems to know what happened to it…even the wide-eyed observers! Do you remember Somalia? I hope so. (Blackhawk Down)

Consider this recent report from the New York Times: Nearly $497,000 was earmarked for a two-week conference on the topic of “Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States” in Barbados. Additionally, each representative received another $15,000 for airfare. Some of the representatives were from the "National Liberation Movement" which is nothing more than a front for “Polisario” (a terrorist group from Algeria, Mauritania, and Western Sahara).

The corrupt culture of the United Nations could be multiplied almost endlessly. Just how much waste, fraud, and abuse are there in the United Nations? Who really knows? They have refused to keep accurate records of anything. The question has been asked by UN apologists, “Are we any worse than other public bureaucracies?” Absolutely!

Let us back up for a moment. The United Nations purports “to be the conscience of the international community”. Oh yeah! If they believe that, then they should be held to the highest ethical and moral standards.

How much corruption exists within the UN cannot be answered with any precision. Why? Because the United Nations has never been subjected to a thorough, top-to-bottom audit. The UN Secretariat's Internal Audit Division has long been a toothless lion. Its small staff has no jurisdiction over the autonomous agencies. Its powers over the Secretariat itself are minimal. The auditors rely totally on information supplied by managers; the guilty are never identified by name; and the results are kept confidential. It is no wonder that the Internal Audit Division usually discovers only the pettiest fraud.

Until last year, the UN had no Inspector General, despite repeated urgings of supporters and critics alike. Moreover, the under secretary general for administration and management had been replaced seven times in eight years. Do you see any kind of trend here?

In 1993 Richard Thornburgh, former U.S. attorney general, issued the Thornburgh Report which advocated the establishment of an Inspector General with real powers, because the existing auditing system under the General Assembly's Joint Inspection Unit was found to be "totally lacking" in effectiveness. It had just spent $4 million on a dubious project…studying "Managing Works of Art in the United Nations." It turned out to be “useless” and of no value.

Thornburgh recommended creating a "strong" inspector general's office as a common set of accounting principles and standards. This would be a code of conduct that would "compel full financial disclosure by senior management" to prevent conflicts of interest, and an "overhaul of the performance evaluation process."

None of these elementary principles of sound management had ever existed in the UN before. However, most of the reforms proposed by Thornburgh were totally ignored.

The UN eventually conceded to allow the creation of an inspector general's office largely because the US Congress withheld $420 million until they did so. The congressional requirement called for an independent IG with wide-ranging powers whose reports could not be censored by the secretary general. Moreover, whistle blowers were to be provided ample protection…correcting another weak point in the alleged system of UN accountability.

Unfortunately, later, the General Assembly re-crafted the congressional requirements and diluted the potential effectiveness of the new post. The General Assembly was able to weaken the reform effort because of the refusal of the Clinton administration negotiators to stay the course. The General Assembly finally created an inspector general with less than autonomous and sweeping powers. The IG would eventually look more like a manipulated pawn.

Even with the dilution of authority of the IG, his first report indicated a grave concern over duplication and inappropriateness of efforts and overall accountability. He uncovered fraud and waste to the tune of $16.8 million. For example, in Somalia, $369,000 was paid for fuel distribution services that the contractor never provided. Second, a project director for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which helps Palestinian refugees, kept $100,000 of agency money for his own private use. Third, in Nairobi, a staff member of the UN Center for Human Settlements arranged loans worth $98,000 for a company in which she had been a partner, and with whose director she was "closely associated." Fourth, a travel assistant working in New York for the special commission that supervises the dismantling of Iraq's nuclear weapons program… misappropriated $28,000 in traveler’s checks. (MORE TO FOLLOW IN PART 4)