UNGA/C-5: CONSOLIDATED REPORT DRAWS STRONG

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 001100 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AORC PREL UNGA SUBJECT: UNGA/C-5: CONSOLIDATED REPORT DRAWS STRONG CRITICISM ¶1. (U) The 5th Committee met on October 18 to take up review of the efficiency of the administrative and financial functioning of the United Nations. Nancy Hurtz-Soyka, Chief of the Office of Oversight and Internal Justice, introduced the United Nations Secretariat Consolidated Report 2006. This Report was coordinated and published by the Secretariat Department of Management (DM). According to DM, the goal of the Consolidated Report is to promote transparency and accountability by providing performance and financial information in a single document. The Report includes an analysis by OIOS of the most serious management and performance challenges facing the UN. The report also contains the Executive Summary of the Board of Auditors audit report of UN peacekeeping operations for the financial period ending June 30, 2006. ¶2. (U) The ACABQ in its evaluation (A/62/352) was critical of the Consolidated Report. The ACABQ pointed out that there is ambiguity about the report's intended audience, as the information provided is somewhat technical in nature and only provides a partial picture of the UN as a whole. At the same time, the Report is incomplete and is not a good decision-making tool for Member States. The ACABQ concluded that the Report does not achieve its intended goal of improving transparency in any significant way and recommended that its publication be terminated. ¶3. (U) Discussion under this agenda item garnered very strong criticism of the Consolidated Report from the G-77, Russia, and other Member States. In their formal statements both Russia and Pakistan (the latter on behalf of the G-77 and China) called for the discontinuation of the Report. Switzerland recommended better definition of the target audience, an incremental approach to a report with a less ambitious scope, reduction of costs associated with its production, and ultimately, improvement to the publication to move it beyond the prototype stage. ¶4. (U) In the informal consultations that ensued, Pakistan, Brazil, Egypt, Bangladesh, Russia, Singapore, and Cuba took turns lambasting the Report, calling it "incomplete," "counterproductive," and "a waste of time." They criticized the hybrid purpose of the Report as lacking in clarity and focus. Egypt, in particular, cited examples from the text that they perceived to be untrue or inaccurate with respect to the accomplishments, priorities, and challenges of the General Assembly. Member States were also alarmed that over $40,000 was spent to hire an outside consultant for this Report, instead of coordinating with the Department of Public Information to use existing in-house resources. Switzerland and USUN/MR stated that they still saw value in the publication of a Consolidated Report and suggested that improvements could be achieved from "lessons learned." Khalilzad