Kofi Annan takes steps to reform UN management
Pressing his campaign to improve United Nations management, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today named Rajat Kumar Gupta, Senior Partner Worldwide and former Managing Director of the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company as his special adviser. Mr. Gupta "will help to ensure that the overall management reform programme is in line with best global practice and provide focused, specialist assistance on key issues of concern," the spokesman said.
His senior management chief laid out an immediate two-track policy of whistle-blower protection and financial disclosure, including the establishment of an ethics office. Under the new system, the worth of gifts that UN officials will be required to disclose will drop from $10,000 to $250, and financial disclosure forms will be required from a far broader spectrum than the current range of assistant secretary-general and up.
These reforms, long in the making, have gained added momentum in light of the independent inquiry into charges of mismanagement and corruption in the UN-administered Iraq Oil-for-Food Programme.
Under the new system, the worth of gifts that UN officials will be required to disclose will drop from $10,000 to $250, and financial disclosure forms will be required from a far broader spectrum than the current range of assistant secretary-general and up.
The UN is seeking out a wide spectrum of views on the issue from the staff council, the global accounting and consulting firm Deloitte Consulting LLP, and the World Bank, which has gone through an even more lengthy process and review than the UN Secretariat, Christopher Burnham said. "I think it is very important that we share what they have learned and what best practices they have identified," he said. "The United Nations does not presently have a functioning whistle-blower protection system. We have an organizational culture whereby staff members do not come forward to report wrongdoing owing to fears that their careers will be on the line or some other retaliation." More
