UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan presented a report to the
General Assembly Tuesday recommending sweeping reforms of the UN
Secretariat's management in the areas of human resources, budget
and administration.
The 33-page much-awaited report sets out 23 reform proposals,
including outsourcing some administrative services, a one-time
buyout of employees at a cost of some US$100,000 per staff member
and a strengthened information system.
"The earlier reforms addressed the symptoms, more than the
causes, of our shortcomings. It is now time to reach for deeper,
more fundamental change," said Annan in an address to the
191-member assembly.
"What is needed, and what we now have a precious opportunity to
undertake, is a radical overhaul of the entire Secretariat -- its
rules, its structure, its systems -- to bring it more in line with
today's realities, and enable it to perform the new kinds of
operations that the member states now ask and expect of it," he
stressed.
(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2006)
