US threatens to delay UN budget unless reforms okayed
Reuters, United Nations
The United States has threatened to delay the two-year United Nations budget unless reforms are approved by the end of the year, a move that could cause havoc for UN operations.US Ambassador John Bolton Tuesday said Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his staff have acknowledge they might not have all management and other reform proposals until February, after the Dec. 31 budget deadline. Although a UN summit document calls on Annan to provide "recommendations to the General Assembly for decision" during the first quarter of 2006, Bolton said this was too late. "I don't think we should be in a position of losing the momentum for reform because of the budget process,"he told reporters. "The reform should drive the budget process and not the other way around." Bolton said, the UN General Assembly, in charge of the budget, could consider a three or four-month interim budget by Dec. 31, instead of approving the full two-year budget. "I've proposed this three-to four-month interim budget as one possible mechanism to accommodate our desire to get the reforms fully implemented in the longer-term budget," he said.
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