ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 22, 1997 TAG: 9704220095
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: UNITED NATIONS
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
The U.S. owes more than $1 billion in back dues, but warns that payment depends on reform.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan's cost-cutting campaign will save the United Nations $100 million this year through such measures as streamlining procurement and using the Internet, according to a U.N. report to be released Tuesday.
The report describes a long list of changes involving big-ticket items, such as saving more than $21million in bringing U.N. troops out of the former Yugoslavia by hiring boats for specified periods rather than per voyage.
It also covers new techniques such as disseminating information through an Internet home page, which receives more than 1million hits a week, rather than by putting data on paper. It notes efficiency moves such as reducing the number of signatures required to authorize a U.N. staff member's business travel from 12 to one.
These steps are being taken in response to the goal set by Annan last month to make more money available for social and economic programs by reducing non-program costs from 38 percent of the U.N. budget to no more than 25 percent.
Annan, who became secretary-general Jan.1, is under heavy pressure from the U.S. Congress to put the world body through a wringer of far-reaching reform that will enable it to do more with less money.
Failure of the United States to pay more than $1billion in back dues and peacekeeping costs has brought the United Nations to the brink of bankruptcy, and the conservatives controlling Congress have warned that payment of these arrears depends on successful reform.
The most significant restructuring is expected to come through substantial reduction of the U.N. bureaucracy and budget cutbacks.
The anticipated savings outlined in the latest report involve what Joseph E. Connor, undersecretary general for management and administration, called ``changes that can be made immediately by doing things differently.''
In an interview, Connor noted that the majority of changes stem from 400 ongoing efficiency projects assigned to veteran U.N. bureaucrats with instructions to find simpler and cheaper ways of doing things.
``It's straight Management 101, but political and other considerations haven't always permitted the U.N. to operate the way they do at General Motors or AT&T,'' Connors said.
The 51-page report is crammed with examples of the changes that have resulted so far from this exercise. For example, instead of sending officials on costly, trips to interview prospective employees in foreign countries, the interviews are now done through video teleconference hookups with New York headquarters.
But the one that Connor cited with particular pride involves the U.N. home page on the Internet, which makes almost all of the organization's worldwide offices easily available to member governments, other international organizations and everyday computer users everywhere.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 linesby CNB