VZCZCXYZ0036
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUCNDT #1100 3341937
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 301937Z NOV 07
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 3233

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 001100 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: AORC PREL UNGA
SUBJECT: UNGA/C-5: CONSOLIDATED REPORT DRAWS STRONG 
CRITICISM 
 
¶1. (U) The 5th Committee met on October 18 to take up review 
of the efficiency of the administrative and financial 
functioning of the United Nations.   Nancy Hurtz-Soyka, Chief 
of the Office of Oversight and Internal Justice, introduced 
the United Nations Secretariat Consolidated Report 2006. 
This Report was coordinated and published by the Secretariat 
Department of Management (DM).  According to DM, the goal of 
the Consolidated Report is to promote transparency and 
accountability by providing performance and financial 
information in a single document.  The Report includes an 
analysis by OIOS of the most serious management and 
performance challenges facing the UN.  The report also 
contains the Executive Summary of the Board of Auditors audit 
report of UN peacekeeping operations for the financial period 
ending June 30, 2006. 
 
¶2. (U) The ACABQ in its evaluation (A/62/352) was critical of 
the Consolidated Report.  The ACABQ pointed out that there is 
ambiguity about the report's intended audience, as the 
information provided is somewhat technical in nature and only 
provides a partial picture of the UN as a whole.  At the same 
time, the Report is incomplete and is not a good 
decision-making tool for Member States.  The ACABQ concluded 
that the Report does not achieve its intended goal of 
improving transparency in any significant way and recommended 
that its publication be terminated. 
 
¶3. (U) Discussion under this agenda item garnered very strong 
criticism of the Consolidated Report from the G-77, Russia, 
and other Member States.  In their formal statements both 
Russia and Pakistan (the latter on behalf of the G-77 and 
China) called for the discontinuation of the Report. 
Switzerland recommended better definition of the target 
audience, an incremental approach to a report with a less 
ambitious scope, reduction of costs associated with its 
production, and ultimately, improvement to the publication to 
move it beyond the prototype stage. 
 
¶4. (U) In the informal consultations that ensued, Pakistan, 
Brazil, Egypt, Bangladesh, Russia, Singapore, and Cuba took 
turns lambasting the Report, calling it "incomplete," 
"counterproductive," and "a waste of time."  They criticized 
the hybrid purpose of the Report as lacking in clarity and 
focus.  Egypt, in particular, cited examples from the text 
that they perceived to be untrue or inaccurate with respect 
to the accomplishments, priorities, and challenges of the 
General Assembly.  Member States were also alarmed that over 
$40,000 was spent to hire an outside consultant for this 
Report, instead of coordinating with the Department of Public 
Information to use existing in-house resources.  Switzerland 
and USUN/MR stated that they still saw value in the 
publication of a Consolidated Report and suggested that 
improvements could be achieved from "lessons learned." 
 
Khalilzad