The United States says UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan should have more management flexibility as well as authority for closer scrutiny as part of a package of reforms inspired by mismanagement and corruption in the UN oil-for-food program.
US Ambassador John Bolton said world leaders gathering at a mid-September summit in New York should give the UN leader "adequate authority and flexibility" for effective management.
At the same time, "we want to stress our firm belief that better oversight, including a strong and more independent Office of Internal Oversight Services, is absolutely critical in reforming the UN," Bolton told member nations in a letter.
Management reform is among the main goals of an ambitious UN program initiated by Annan to overhaul how the world body tackles security, human rights and development issues. A reform blueprint is to be adopted at the close of a September 14th-16th summit, to be attended by more than 170 world leaders.
UN members have been working on the text of the reform blueprint for six months. But just weeks before the summit, Bolton unveiled hundreds of proposed amendments and demanded they be negotiated in talks which began this week among a core group of 32 countries.
Washington, angry over mismanagement of the $67-billion oil-for-food program for Iraq, has made management reform a top priority. Bolton's letter spelled out where he felt the UN draft blueprint fell short of US goals.
"For the sake of the rest of the work that the UN does, it is important that we get this management portion of the UN reform effort right," he said.
As the world body's chief administrative officer, Annan needed "adequate authority and flexibility to carry out these responsibilities" rather than be fenced in by micromanagement by UN members, Bolton said.
Annan required broad powers to shift resources on his own from low- to high-priority needs and to review programs, policies and budget and hiring rules to ensure they still served the world body's best interests, he said.
The focus in UN hiring should be on "efficiency, competence and integrity" rather than on the equitable geographical distribution of jobs, as the draft blueprint suggested, "which is of lesser importance," Bolton said.