UNITED NATIONS: A Cash-Strapped U.N. Drops Its Defences

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 7 1996 (IPS) - A cash-strapped United Nations is being forced to cut back on its security.

“U.N. security is an area which needs to be expanded, not cut,” says Rosemarie Waters, President of the U.N. Staff Committee.

Waters was reacting to reports that an ongoing budgetary crisis has forced the U.N. Secretariat to ax its security staff of about 200 by almost 10 percent.

“The United Nations should not be compromising on its security at a time of increased bombings and terrorist attacks,” Waters told IPS. “Everybody needs more protection these days, including the U.N. staff and the Secretary-General.”

In June 1993, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) claimed it had uncovered a plot to blow-up several landmark buildings in New York city, including the United Nations. The United Nations tightened its security only to make sharp cutbacks later because of a shortage of funds.

The cash crunch that is causing the cuts has been triggered in large part by unpaid dues. The United States owes the lasrgest amount — more than 1.3 billion dollars.

U.N. spokeswoman Sylvana Foa says the budgetary crisis has forced cuts on all sections of the organisation.

“The reduction of security personnel by about 10 percent means less overtime and fewer patrols,” she said, noting that U.N. security personnel had expressed their concerns.

“Unfortunately, nothing much could be done about the situation barring a big chunk of change coming into this place,” said Foa. “You can’t take away from one (U.N.) department and not another.”

In a letter to the Assistant Secretary-General in charge of security, two representatives of the Staff Committee say that security patrols are being curtailed because squads are under- staffed.

“General safety concerns are treated with disdain,” the letter says. “The entire security and safety programme now functions on an ad hoc basis from day to day.”

Waters argues that even though it may be more expensive for the United Nations to strengthen existing security, “in the long run, it benefits everybody.” She said the U.N. security administration was doing its best with limited resources. “But you can stretch only so far.”

Last December, the United Nations abandoned a proposed state-of- the-art security system, absorbing a 1.3-million-dollar loss in the process. Called the U.N. Access System (UNACS), it was jettisoned because it was found to be flawed.

The proposed system included identification cards, imaging systems, computerised data-collection technology, and turnstiles at all of the entrances to the Secretariat building in New York.

The responsibility for the system was so diffused that the United Nations was unable to hold any staff member or any U.N. department accountable for the bungled project.

The one-year warranty ran out even before the system was tested. The Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) said the million-dollar project was not only botched-up from the start but also plagued by blatant irregularities.

“The audit revealed management deficiencies, serious weaknesses in internal controls and flaws in procurement,” the OIOS said in a report released last year.