The Humpty Dumpty Institute's 14th Congressional Delegation to United Nations Headquarters

House and Senate Foreign Policy Advisors

February 2005

Executive Summary

The Humpty Dumpty Institute (HDI), a New York-based non-profit organization "dedicated to putting the pieces together again," sponsored its 14th Congressional Staff Delegation Visit to United Nations Headquarters on February 25, 2005.

The bipartisan delegation, which comprised of sixteen senior foreign policy advisors from the U.S. House and Senate, concentrated on the Oil-for-Food scandal, U.N. management and reform, the U.N. Budget, the upcoming U.N. Millennium Summit, relief efforts to Tsunami-affected countries and other issues relevant to the U.S.-U.N. relationship.

For more than six years, the Humpty Dumpty Institute has been responsible for sponsoring bi-partisan visits to U.N. Headquarters by more than 240 Congressional offices on issues ranging from terrorism, U.S. arrears, landmines, humanitarian emergencies, peacekeeping, sustainable development, and post-conflict reconstruction. The Institute's purpose for organizing these Congressional Visits is simple: we believe that direct engagement leads to more informed and effective decision-making.

The Briefings

Ambassadors Anne Patterson, Acting U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Stuart Holliday, Alternate U.S. Representative for Special Affairs, and Patrick Kennedy, U.S. Representative for U.N. Management and Reform, discussed U.S. initiatives in the Security Council on Iraq and Sudan. Ambassadors Patterson and Kennedy spoke at length about the ongoing Oil-for-Food Program (OFFP) investigation, stressing that the U.S. Mission had been instrumental in getting the 59 Office of International Oversight Services (OIOS) audit reports finally released by authoring a General Assembly Resolution making all U.N. audit reports available to all member-states.

The discussion also centered on the need for the Secretary-General to be given greater hiring and firing power, and also greater flexibility in moving resources from one area to another, when the need arises. With regards to reforming the Security Council, proposals to include new permanent members or semi-permanent members have been made and as a result, there has been much infighting within the regional groups as to who should be selected.

HDI's Fourteenth Congressional Staff Visit offered a unique opportunity for open dialogue on the Oil-for-Food investigation between congressional staff and representatives of the Independent Inquiry Committee. Reid Morden, Executive Director of the IIC, and Susan Ringler, Counsel to the Committee, presented key findings from IIC's interim report, released 3 February 2005, and progress on the investigation. The event marked the first time that the IIC had ever hosted congressional staff for a briefing on the investigation. Mr. Morden discussed four major topics of the investigation. These included the procurement of U.N. contractors responsible for the inspection and management of OFFP, administrative expenditures of the program, the internal audits of the program, and allegations against Benon Sevan, the former director of the Office of Iraq Program and the chief administrator of OFFP.

The meeting featured a robust discussion concerning the results of the interim report, notably in regard to the disclosure of audit results and the scope of the on-going investigation. The briefing also focused on some of the peculiar challenges of launching a probe of this size and scope. In particular, they noted that the investigation involved many different countries, which often made it difficult to coordinate the investigation consistently from one national context to another.

The Staff delegation then met with Mr. Mark Malloch Brown, Chef de Cabinet to the Secretary-General. Mr. Malloch Brown briefed the delegation on the challenges for the U.N. in the year ahead. Despite early differences over Iraq, Mr. Malloch Brown stressed that the recent elections have allowed for a fresh start and the U.N. sees this as an opportunity to play a much larger role in Iraq over the coming year. Mr. Malloch Brown spoke about the organization's work in helping Iraq draft a new constitution, stating that the U.N. has teams in place offering advice and experience to the Iraqis. He also noted that the U.N. is seen as an honest broker and that this has helped the U.N. foster inclusiveness in the political process.

Mr. Malloch Brown ended his presentation by stating that there is still much to do in terms of reaching the U.N. Millennium Development Goals and reforming the UN. Some of the reforms envisaged include having closer follow-up on policy implementation and creating a more executive style structure surrounding the Secretary-General.

The delegation also met with Dr. Bob Orr, the Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning and Senior Advisor to the Secretary-General. Mr. Orr briefed the delegation on the challenges ahead and goals for 2005. He spoke of the upcoming U.N. Millennium Summit taking place in September 2005 in New York City, where heads of state will be reconvening to measure the progress made since the signing of the Millennium Declaration in 2000.

One of the main topics of the Summit this year will be how to operationalize the commitments that were made back in 2000. Mr. Orr noted that terrorism would be another important issue and stressed the importance of agreeing on a definition for terrorism. He cautioned that although there had been increased cooperation since September 11th, the basic architecture of the world system had not changed.

Another priority for the coming year is improving outreach efforts to the U.S. Congress. Although he acknowledged the importance U.N. reform, Mr. Orr stressed that the U.S. Congress must be sensitive to the fact that U.N. needs to walk a fine line on this issue. The U.S. Congress cannot appear to play too large a role. He noted that at the UN, U.S. pressure is good in some regards but can be very counter-productive in others. He also mentioned that the U.N. is not supposed to deal with national legislatures and that this is a very contentious issue with the on-going Oil-for-Food investigations.

As part of the event, HDI hosted a working luncheon at the U.N. for Congressional and U.N. staff. The event featured presentations by Margareta Wahlström, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Ed Tsui, the Director of OCHA's New York Office, and UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Rima Salah. All three addressed their remarks on the tsunami disaster.

Closing the day's events, Warren Sach, the Director of Planning and Budget Division in the Department of Management, gave a very concise and informative presentation on an otherwise complicated issue: the U.N. budget.

Mr. Sach devoted most of his remarks to components of the $3.6 billion, biennial U.N. operating budget for 2004-2005, as well as the one-year, $3.9 billion peacekeeping budget. He talked at length about the process that determines which peacekeeping missions and operating needs take priority over others, and how resources are allocated in a commensurate way. The Director also covered U.N. procedures for drafting and implementing the budget and explained the consensus process that led to a budget acceptable to all Member States. In addition to budget design, Mr. Sach also talked about the reasons for changes in the budget, as well as sources of U.N. funding, budget cycles and timelines, and finally, individual peacekeeping estimates for 2005-2006.

The issue of U.N. budget-management generated keen interest among congressional staff, which contributed to a lively question and answers session following the presentation. There was particular interest in the process of fiscal and audit oversight, as well as U.S. budget contributions to the UN. A number of congressional participants wanted to know in particular how revelations of malfeasance in the Oil-for-Food Program would affect the Department's management and oversight of the U.N. operating budget. This issue is especially relevant given current congressional debate on U.S. contributions to the U.N. budget.