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Emerging From Years of Red Ink, UN Looks Rosy- UN Finance - Global Policy Forum Emerging From Years of Red Ink, UN Looks Rosy
By Michael Littlejohns
Earth Times News Service
October 11, 2001After years of pinching and scraping to make ends meet, bending the rules to rob Peter and pay Paul, delaying bill payments and employing every device known to man to avert bankruptcy, United Nations finances finally are beginning to look rosy.
The US, which for years was chronically in debt to the UN -- and drew scathing comment from members who called it the Organization's richest deadbeat -- is expected to hand over about $1.67 billion, much of it by year's end. (It may be a coincidence that Washington is looking to New York for allies in the fight against international terrorism and that US unilateral policies popular among conservatives for much of this year ceased to be all that attractive after Sept. 11 and now may have to be rethought.)
President George W. Bush could have looked forward to a distinctly frigid reception if his UN debut had taken place on schedule last month, and there had been no attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Now, all is changed. When he does show up, probably in early November, for a delayed appearance as the keynote speaker at the start of a truncated six-day General Assembly debate, chances are he'll get warm applause and a standing ovation -- which at the UN is a fairly rare thing.
Many in his audience of heads of state, foreign ministers and ambassadors will be only too well aware that what terrorists did in the US last month could be replicated in some of their own countries.
Meanwhile, Joseph E. Connor, the UN's chief financial officer, reported Wednesday that the doom and gloom of his past presentations to the General Assembly budget committee did not have to be repeated this year. Member states are expected, he said, to contribute record assessed payments, with $4.72 billion already paid or expected to be delivered within the next three months. This far exceeds last year's $2.89 billion in total payments.
Unpaid assessments are down, cash is up and debts by the UN to member states (for their services to the Organization, including peacekeping) have been drastically reduced, Connor said. Financial stability and security are close at hand, he added -- words not heard in the committee in many years. For the first time in a long, long time, he added, the UN may have a secure base from which to do business.
Referring to peacekeeping, he said it was no exaggeration to report there would be a sea change in the next thre months as unpaid peacekeeping assessments, currently high, swung around and fell significantly. This would result in claims totaling $505 million being paid to 48 states (many of them very poor) for their generous contributions in personnel and materiel to 14 UN field missions. The cash will come out of $582 million cleared by the Congress for an early reduction of longstanding US arrears, which are, however, still mounting. The big check expected to be in the mail by the time Bush visits the UN.
However, lest his budget committee audience get carried away by so much unexpectedly encouraging news, the under secretary general evidently felt constrained to apply a slight dampener. He emphasized that the UN still has no reserves, no capital and no capacity to borrow. That is unlikely to change anytime soon.
Connor, the ranking American on Kofi Annan's executive team, is a holdover from the Clinton era when he was nominated by Secretary of State Warren Christopher for the UN post of head of administration and management. Connor is the first official in that job to have top flight professional credentials. A brilliant and dedicated financial manager, the Columbia graduate is a former CEO of Price Waterhouse, the accounting giant now known as Pricewaterhousecoopers.
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