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While not precisely comparable with governmental institutions, the entire UN system worldwide, serving the interests of some 5,500,000,000 people in 184 countries, employs no more workers than the civil service in the American state of Wyoming, population 545,000.[1]
Its staff is actually smaller than the number of public-service employees of the city of Stockholm in Sweden, with a population of 672,000. It is less than the staff of the District Health Services of the Principality of Wales in Britain.[2] The reality is that, even though the administrative structure and personnel and management practices can be legitimately criticized, the international community employs astonishingly few people to handle the enormous workload that its governments perennially demand of the UN system. This, of course, places an even higher premium on the quality and productivity of the staff so far made available. But the aging canard so routinely and so damagingly repeated-often by many intelligent people claiming to be well-informed-should be put to rest.[3] The worldwide expenditure of the organizations in the UN system against both its regularly assessed and voluntarily contributed budgets is less than the annual expenditure of the British Government on Public Administration and Police. The UN-proper's portion of the total (including the vastly expanded current peace-keeping) is scarcely more than the budgets of the fire and police departments of New York City. The citizens of the United States spend approximately the same amount on cut flowers and potted plants each year.[4] Late Membership Payments & the United States The United States, which accounts for about 30 percent of the global economy, in 1995 unilaterally decided to limit its contributions.[5] The United States generated $145 million in new UN peacekeeping arrears during the fiscal year 2005 and was expected to accrue another $376 million by the end of the 2006.[6] A number of UN financial crises were caused by late payments of the organization's largest contributor, the United States. However, that country is by no means alone: For 2006, only 40 member states have paid their dues entirely and on time. As a result of the financial impasse, the Secretary-General often has to cross-borrow money from peacekeeping operations, thereby postponing remuneration for troop providing countries. This has a cascading effect on the budget for peacekeeping: in 2005 member states' arrears amounted to 62 percent of the assessed budget.[7]
Of the 80,000
active UN peacekeepers, the U.S. has contributed a mere 307 to the United
Nations. As of March, 2007 the U.S. ranked 43rd among the world's nations in
providing peacekeeping support, right after Togo and Rwanda.[8]
[1] Kommunal Personal 1991, Svenska Kommunforbundet (Swedish Association of Local Authorities), Stockholm, 1992.
[2] Data provided by the Government of Manitoba Civil Service Commission and the City of Winnipeg Personnel Office, May 1993. The City of Winnipeg employs more civil servants (9,917) than the regular staff of the UN-proper at New York, Geneva, Vienna, and the regional commissions. [3] Childers, Erskine & Brian Urquhart. "Image and Reality: A Vast, Sprawling Bureaucracy?" 1994. Accessed 14 Feb 2008 <http://www.globalpolicy.org/reform/topics/general/1994/childersurquhart.htm> [4] Childers, Erskine & Brian Urquhart. "Image and Reality: "A Vast, Sprawling Bureaucracy?" 1994. Accessed 14 Feb 2008 <http://www.globalpolicy.org/reform/topics/general/1994/childersurquhart.htm > [5] Lehmann, Volker and Angela McClellan. Diaologue on Globalization: Financing the United Nations. Global Policy. April 2006. 14 Feb 2008 <http://www.globalpolicy.org/finance/docs/2006/04factsheet.pdf > [6] UNA-USA Fact Sheet United Nations Association of the United States of America. May 2006. Accessed 15 Feb 2008 <http://www.unausa.org/site/pp.asp?c=fvKRI8MPJpF&b=667579 > [7] Lehmann, Volker and Angela McClellan. Diaologue on Globalization: Financing the United Nations. Global Policy. April 2006. 14 Feb 2008 <http://www.globalpolicy.org/finance/docs/2006/04factsheet.pdf >
[8] United
Nations. "Contributors to United Nations Peacekeeping Operations."
July 31, 2007.
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