Letters to the editor: Public auditing of U.N. renovations
By U.N. Under Secretary General Alicia Barcena
Washington Times
June 11, 2007
The article "U.N. renovation hit on oversight," (World, Thursday) states that Sen. Tom Coburn "said cost estimates for the proposed... project have ballooned, while U.N officials have yet to release basic audit, contracting and procurement data."
The Capital Master Plan for the first thorough renovation of the U.N. headquarters in New York is not a project "proposal." It was approved unanimously by all 192 U.N. member states last year in the General Assembly, including the United States, after six years of thorough deliberations and repeated audits. The budget of almost $1.9 billion, approved by the General Assembly, does indeed include $230 million for items going beyond a mere renovation, mostly for vital security upgrades for a building complex designed before present-day challenges posed by new security threats.
The United Nations is well aware how important transparency is for a project of such financial magnitude, for which the U.S. covers 22 percent of the costs. That is why the Capital Master Plan continues to be audited, internally, externally, as well as by independent auditors like the U.S. Government Accountability Office. And that is why we put audit, contracting and procurement data relating to the Capital Master Plan where Mr. Coburn wants them to be — in the public domain. This information can be easily accessed through the Web sites of the U.N. Capital Master Plan (www.un.org/cmp), and the U.N. Procurement Division (www.un.org/depts/ptd/). Audits of the CMP are also publicly available on the website of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (www.gao.gov.)
ALICIA BARCENA
Under-secretary-general
for management
United Nations
New York
