U.N. Overhaul Plan May Not Satisfy Critics

Secretary-General Kofi Annan will unveil much-anticipated reforms for this world body next week, but his plans for realigning and reorganizing some U.N. agencies may not satisfy the organization’s toughest critics, including influential members of Congress.

Sources familiar with the proposal said it would probably merge some agencies and dismember others, recommend the appointment of a second in command and consolidate sprawling administrative, financial and purchasing practices. Details still were being worked out Friday.

The proposal builds on changes already made by Annan since he took office in January. As Annan had previously promised, his plan would eliminate 1,000 vacant jobs, hold the overall budget at about $1.3 billion a year, enact a code of conduct and tougher evaluation procedures for employees and cut paperwork 25% by the end of next year.

The document, scheduled for release Wednesday, will not call for the additional, drastic personnel and budget reductions favored by some critics. Part of the savings--at least $200 million, according to one source--will be plowed back into a new fund for the economic development of poor countries, a proposal already endorsed by the United States.

“The theme of the report is unity of purpose, coherence of effort and agility of response,” one source said. “That’s because the U.N. is perceived to be inefficient, dysfunctional and slow.”

The proposal emphasizes humanitarian aid, economic development, international security and human rights, as well as Annan’s attempt to increase managerial accountability and efficiency, sources said.

It also will invite the General Assembly, which will have to approve many of the changes, to go even further by reviewing the missions of agencies that the secretary-general does not directly control. That could open the door to reform of the powerful Security Council and a variety of sometimes controversial U.N.-affiliated organizations, such as the International Labor Organization.

U.N. officials involved with the reforms repeatedly describe them as “bold,” but they acknowledge that the plan is far less radical than some had hoped. And they concede that many, if not most, of the proposed changes will be meaningful mainly to those intimately familiar with the United Nations’ inner workings. To outsiders, including members of Congress, it may appear to be merely a reshuffling of the U.N. offices scattered around the globe.

“Even some people inside [the U.N.] are asking, ‘Where are all the big changes?’ ” one staffer said. Others suggested that by emphasizing reform in his first months in office, Annan raised expectations that he cannot meet.

But one senior official, defending the plan, said it aims to change how the U.N. works rather than to remake the world body.

“It’s not a question only of how many positions are cut, how many boxes are moved or how many economies are made,” the official said. “It’s really about bringing a whole new management style to the U.N. [and] . . . a shared version of where we’re going.”

Several officials said the overriding concern is offering a reform plan that can pass the 185-member General Assembly and pave the way for more changes later.

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Annan has been squeezed between Washington, which has urged sweeping change and major cost-cutting, and developing nations, which fear that reform will reduce their U.N. economic assistance, the number of positions they hold and how much U.N. influence they wield. These nations view reform as a way to redistribute power within the organization rather than a way to save money. Because they hold a lot of votes in the General Assembly, Annan cannot ignore them, officials said.

Annan also has been caught in a cross-fire among U.N. bureaucrats defending their turf. In some instances, these officials recruited political backing from outside the organization to bring pressure on Annan, sources said.

“People were saying, ‘Yes, we want reform, but don’t you touch my favorite agency,’ ” said one person who has closely followed the process.

Bureaucratic opposition doomed the most radical plans for consolidating and eliminating U.N. agencies long before the current proposal, drafted by an aide, even reached Annan’s desk.

In June, Carol Bellamy, the politically connected executive director of the U.N. Children’s Fund, raised concerns before the UNICEF executive board about the possible adverse effects of proposed reforms on her organization. Her statement leaked out, prompting at least two members of Congress to write to Annan in support of the agency. Annan answered Bellamy’s concerns almost immediately by offering assurances that UNICEF would retain its high profile at the U.N. Bellamy is expected to support the reforms as they currently stand.

Annan is expected to group UNICEF with the U.N. Development Program and the U.N. Population Fund under the chairmanship of James Gustave Speth, the American director of the U.N. Development Program. Each agency would maintain its identity; the result would be closer coordination among the agencies rather than a merger.

Apparently abandoned was an early proposal to abolish the U.N. Department of Humanitarian Affairs, which coordinates the world body’s response to humanitarian disasters but is often characterized as ineffective. The plan was to put all responsibility for emergency aid under Sadako Ogata of Japan, the widely respected high commissioner for refugees. It generated opposition from several quarters, and instead the department will be downsized, not dismantled.

U.N. investigation of human rights abuses is expected to expand under the new plan. The Center for Human Rights will be put under the high commissioner for human rights, sources said, and Mary Robinson, whose term as president of Ireland ends this year, has been named to head the operation and will start in September.

Other administrative changes are expected to consolidate and strengthen the U.N. crime and drug control offices in Vienna and improve the administration of the U.N. conference on disarmament, sources said.

U.N. officials are counting on the reform proposal’s emphasis on management accountability and personnel reductions to carry the day with the Clinton administration and moderate members of Congress. One source in Washington suggested the reception in Congress may hinge on how persuasive Annan is in his presentation of the reforms on Wednesday.

The Senate has indicated that it will repay more than $800 million in back U.S. dues to the United Nations on the condition that the reform package is acceptable.

The Senate version of a bill authorizing the repayment includes riders, drafted largely by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, demanding that the U.N. open its books to Washington and decrease the U.S. share of its budget, among other conditions. Helms also favors much deeper cuts in the U.N. budget than have been or will be proposed by Annan.

Sen. Rod Grams (R-Minn.), a more moderate member of the Foreign Relations Committee who also sits on the U.S. delegation to the U.N., indicated in a recent interview that Congress will be watching Annan’s announcement with interest.

“We want to see tangible results, not just . . . good intentions,” he said. “If they’re saying, ‘Show me the money,’ we’re saying, ‘Show me the reforms.’ ”