VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS' COST INFO FOR CONFERENCES

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000245 SIPDIS IO/EDA FOR CCHANG; IO/MPR FOR GABRAHAMS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAID UNICEF UNFPA UNDP ECON SUBJECT: VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS' COST INFO FOR CONFERENCES AND MEETINGS REF: 08 SECSTATE 134959 ¶1. In follow-up to reftel's requests, Mission has emailed to IO/MPR George Abrahams and IO/EDA Charles Chang scanned copies of the following letters from UNICEF, UNDP and UNFPA: -- January 19, 2009 letter from UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis to Deputy Permanent Representative Wolff; -- January 23, 2009 letter from UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Omar Badi to Deputy Permanent Representative Wolff; -- March 2, 2009 letter from UNFPA Under Secretary General Thoraya Ahmed Obaid to Deputy Permanent Representative Wolff. ¶2. While the letters provide core resource figures for all three organizations, they do not provide specific amounts each agency spends to travel to and attend and participate in international conferences. UNICEF and UNFPA claimed that their accounting systems did not specifically track such expenses, and extrapolating them would be cost prohibitive. UNDP also noted that it did not track such expenses, but promised to try to extrapolate them. All three agencies provided assurances that decisions to send staff to international conferences were weighed carefully and based on potential gains to the organizations. ¶3. Mission regrets delays in the completion of this tasker but notes that, in spite of repeated reminders, UNFPA only recently responded to our January 8 inquiry. Mission POC for this issue is Toby Glucksman (GlucksmanTH@state.gov). Wolff