Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
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United Nations Finance and New York City/Clyde Haberman "Squeeze U.N. And the City Feels the Pain"
by Clyde Haberman
The New York Times
November 8, 1996
page B1
During the Presidential campaign -- in fact, because of it -- a prominent foreign resident was mugged on the East Side of Manhattan. At least, that is how some observers of this scene describe what happened, people who usually know what they are talking about.The mugging, you should know, was political in nature. The victim: Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary General of the United Nations. Months ago, the Clinton Administration let it be known that it would rather walk barefoot over hot coals than allow him to continue working in Turtle Bay after his present term ends on Dec. 31. No Secretary General has ever been denied a second term, but the American threat to veto attempts to extend Mr. Boutros-Ghali's tenure means that he will probably spend Christmas packing his bags.
With the election behind us, the struggle over who will lead the United Nations is expected to get intense in a hurry. And many foreign diplomats and commentators consider this a political mugging, because they see no good reason to give the boot to Mr. Boutros-Ghali. These people are convinced that the Administration beat up on him only to outflank the Republicans among voters ready to blame the big building on the East Side for everything that ails us, including fallen arches.
By now you may have been wondering what this has to do with New York City. The short answer is: Plenty.
Outrage at Washington is running high among foreign nations, which resent being pushed around on this issue by a country that is a chronic deadbeat, running up a debt to the United Nations that now stands at $1.5 billion. Any New Yorker knows that deadbeats do not get pushing-around rights. They're the ones who have to worry about being visited by those fellows whose nickname show up in the tabloids wrapped in parentheses.
Not surprisingly, some resentful member states of the United Nations are asking why nearly half the organization's procurement contracts -- by far the largest share -- go to the United STates. Those contracts involve more than dry-cleaning striped pants. They cover everything from ball-point pens to window washing.
Whom do you think the United Nations people turn to when hallways need painting and lightbulbs replaced? They do not haul out the Jakarta Yellow Pages. They call, obviously, on contractors in and around New York City. Should the prevailing hostility to the United States be translated into concrete action, it would inevitably come at New Yorkers' expense.
"There's a feeling among some states that if you don't pay your dues, why should you get our contracts?" said Sylvana Foa, the spokeswoman for the Secretary General.
A few diplomats in town have been heard muttering privately that the United Nations ought to just pick itself up out of the United States -- lock, stock, and pork barrel. But this comes from a tiny minority. There is no campaign to flee New York. As one city official put it: "Honestly, for the U.N. to move, it would cost an awful of of money. Where would they go?"
But scaling back on local contracts is a distinct possibility, and indeed it is already under way, a result of general belt-tightening and the budget crunches created by Washington's debt. Repairs have been delayed, construction plans are on hold and existing office equipment is stretched to the limit. Much of this affects the pockets of New York contractors and suppliers.
According to the United Nations Secretariat, procurement agreements with businesses in the New York region were worth $104.4 million last year. The 1996 figure, through September, is way down, to a mere $28.6 million. "No contracts are being awarded in many ares," an official at the Secretariat said, "and that has a domino effect. You may not want to hire an architect, and that affects his hardware suppliers, which may not hire as many workers, and so on."
Required cutbacks have led the United Nations to encourage 425 headquarters employees to take early retirement since Jan. 1, 1995. Their jobs have been left unfilled. And while most were foreigners, all lived here and spent money in local shops and restaurants.
Sometimes, New Yorkers become distracted by stories about foreign envoys racking up parking tickets or stiffing some store owner, and they forget that the giant diplomatic community here generates an estimated $3.3 billion in overall economic development and more than 15,000 jobs.
They might keep that in mind, especially when the numbers shrink, however slightly, because of the perceived mugging in Turtle Bay.
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