UN/CMP REVISITS SINGLE PHASED APPROACH TO UN

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000803 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ABUD ACABQ AORC UNGA SUBJECT: UN/CMP REVISITS SINGLE PHASED APPROACH TO UN RENOVATION PROJECT REF: USUN 00647 ¶1. This is an action cable see paragraph 8. ¶2. The CMP renovation project is reportedly over budget by $220 million. Over the past two weeks, senior level officers within the UN Secretariat, including the UN's Capital Master Plan Office, have told State Department officials and representatives of the Government Accountability Office the UN is once again considering a single phased approach to renovating the UN instead of a multi-stage process that the GA approved last year. ¶3. The multi-year approach, endorsed by the General Assembly in resolution 60/282, calls for the following: 10 floors of the Secretariat building would be vacated at each of the phases to allow renovation of the Secretariat building in four phases. Now, senior level officers in CMP and the Secretariat believe a single phased approach may bring the SIPDIS project back within budget and shave time off the current 2014 projected completion date. ¶4. The single phased approach, when it was first proposed, called for vacating the maximum amount of space in the Secretariat building, then moving staff to four or more SIPDIS commercial swing spaces in midtown and downtown Manhattan, and for the Dag Hammarskjold Library to a space in Long Island City, Queens. Both a multi-phased approach and the single-phased approach call for the construction of a temporary conference facility on the North Lawn to serve meetings of intergovernmental organs. ¶5. According to CMP officers a building in midtown Manhattan near UN headquarters may be coming on line that could accommodate some 2,000 UN staff members. This would make the single-phased approach feasible. The landlord is willing to offer a short term lease of 3-5 years to the UN. Such a lease would cover the anticipated renovation time of the Secretariat. SIPDIS ¶6. A change in strategy such as moving now to a single-phase approach by CMP will require approval by the General Assembly. CMP officials have quietly broached the subject of changing direction with Fifth Committee Secretariat officials to gauge the reaction of Fifth Committee delegates. ¶7. Comment: The decision to revisit the single phase approach is Michael Adlerstein's attempt to keep the project within the original scope and budget of the project and is in keeping with his stated commitment to tweak the budget wherever possible to comply with the General Assembly's approved $1.9 billion budget for the project. Adlerstein's communication skills along with those of Under-Secretary General Alicia Barcena will be tested as they brief member states and seek GA endorsement for this new plan. Inevitably of course, revisiting this GA decision will once again reopen and politicize the CMP debate which was by all accounts concluded last year. Congressional critics of the project will be emboldened by the rising costs exceeding budget projections. That said, the single-phase approach is less complicated, and might eliminate the disruptions to UN operations envisioned under the multi-phase approach. ¶8. Finally, Mission has received on confidential basis the Fifth annual progress report on the implementation of the Capital Master Plan. The plan, in addition to highlighting the hiring of both the CMP Executive Director Michael Adlerstein and the construction firm Skanska, describes the benefit of expediting the renovation of the Secretariat and conference buildings through a single phase approach. According to the report, Skanska is currently undertaking a detailed review of the project's budget and schedule. That review is expected to be completed in November 2007. The report projects the cost to complete the project has now risen to $2.96 billion. This represents an increase of $220 million over the $1.8 billion approved by the General Assembly in December 2006. Rising costs are attributed to rising renovation costs, swing space costs, and options. However, the report states that reducing the time of the renovation and reducing the number of phases would result in a project that is back within budget. A copy of the report is being pouched to the Department. ¶9. Action: US Mission to the United Nations requests guidance from the Department on whether USUN should encourage CMP to stick with the multi-phased approach or advise they revisit the single-phase approach in consultation with Skanska the construction manager. KHALILZAD