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POLITICS: Is UN Reform a Platform for Media Profiling?
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 30 (IPS) - The 132-member Group of 77, the largest single coalition of developing nations, has lambasted the U.N. Secretariat for holding press briefings on sensitive management issues, and selectively leaking information on allegations of fraud and corruption in the world body.
Ambassador Xolisa Mabhongo, the deputy permanent representative of South Africa, says that reports requested by the 191-member General Assembly are being leaked to the mainstream news media even before they are released to member states.
Speaking on behalf of the Group of 77, Mabhongo said: "These actions and allegations made to the press have seriously undermined the oversight role of member states and by extension the General Assembly," the highest policy-making body at the United Nations.
"They are counter-productive to our efforts to ensure trust and an open channel of communication between member states and the Secretariat," he told delegates Monday.
An Asian diplomat told IPS that inspired press leaks were also "subtle attempts" to discredit the world body, thereby bolstering the ongoing attacks by U.S. neo-conservative groups that have been gunning for the United Nations.
"What some of these newspapers don't realise is that they are being used by Secretariat staff to promote an anti-U.N. agenda," he pointed out.
Last week, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Management Christopher Burnham told reporters that "potential abuse", mostly in U.N. procurement, "could go into tens of millions of dollars".
The 200 different reports of abuses relate mostly to U.N. supplies and services, said Burnham, a former U.S. State Department official.
Last year, the General Assembly asked the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) to conduct a management audit of U.N.'s peacekeeping operations.
Since the General Assembly requested the audit, the report should have been first released to the General Assembly before some of its contents were selectively released at U.N. press briefings, the Group of 77 points out.
The criticism of the Secretariat has been triggered by news stories in the Financial Times, the New York Times and the Washington Post, which apparently were given access to some of the contents of the U.N. audit report - besides quotes from senior U.N. officials.
Ambassador Vanu Gopal Menon of Singapore was equally critical of the leaks. He said the media had a field day with the story as yet another example of "the same old badly-run U.N."
Striking a note of sarcasm, Menon told the General Assembly Monday: "The last time I checked - and the Secretariat can doubtless correct me - the Financial Times, New York Times and Washington Post are not member states."
"Shouldn't such reports be given to member states as a matter of course and priority?" he asked. "I understand that only now are copies of the finalised report making their way to us upon request. This is days after the draft report was seen by the media and the under-secretary-general for management had his day in the spotlight as the champion of reform," Menon said.
"Dare I say that he did so at the expense of the General Assembly as the most important oversight body in the United Nations," he added.
Menon also criticised "the dash to the media by certain U.N. officials, who have publicised cases of alleged transgression before we have had a chance to discuss or assess them".
"Is this a result of over-zealousness or an urge for self-promotion? Whatever it is, these moves undermine member states and the reform process. U.N. reform should not be used as a platform for media profiling," he added.
Egypt's Ambassador Maged Abdel Aziz told the General Assembly: "We believe that the briefing to the media by senior officials of the Secretariat is intentional rather than accidental."
"We are concerned that they reflect a deliberate tendency to portray the organisation, falsely, as corrupt and mismanaged at a time when the entire membership is seized with the issue of reform," he added.
"Moreover, we do not appreciate being lectured about ethical conduct as it is the virtue of few and not of the entire membership. We all adhere to ethical principles, which should be applied to all officials of the Secretariat not to a few," Aziz added.
Meanwhile, the Group of 77 has also appealed to Secretary-General Kofi Annan to help "control this unhelpful trend".
Mabhongo said that existing regulations and rules of the organisation have established a framework for proper conduct and greater accountability by its entire staff, regardless of their seniority or country of origin.
"It is within this framework that we expect the Secretariat to first submit reports requested by the General Assembly to it before any of its officials begin quoting aspects of it in media briefings," he added.
(END/2006)
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