MANAGERIAL REFORM AT UNITED NATIONS TO SAVE $100 MILLION IN 1997, SAYS REPORT OF MANAGEMENT REFORM GROUP ISSUED TODAY
Press Release
ORG/1234
MANAGERIAL REFORM AT UNITED NATIONS TO SAVE $100 MILLION IN 1997, SAYS REPORT OF MANAGEMENT REFORM GROUP ISSUED TODAY
19970421
Streamlining of Administration, Modernization of Information Services, Integration of Managerial Reform into UN Work, Accountability Issues Addressed
Managerial reform in the United Nations will yield savings of $100 million this year and improve the world body's effectiveness, according to a report released at United Nations Headquarters today.
The report was prepared by the Management Reform Group of the Department of Administration and Management under the direction of Under-Secretary- General Joseph E. Connor. The Group, along with corresponding groups in each United Nations department, fund and programme, was established by Secretary- General Kofi Annan to serve as a network of innovators and to support broad organizational reform and the Steering Committee for Reform, chaired by Maurice F. Strong, Executive Coordinator for United Nations Reform.
Among reforms cited in the report are those that have helped make the United Nations Home Page a top-rated Internet site, consulted more than a million times a week as of February, up from about 200,000 a week in June 1996. The Home Page, along with a newly installed optical disk system (ODS) and new e-mail connections, have put the Organization on track to achieve a 25 per cent reduction in the volume of paper documents by 1998, while improving its capacity to service Member States.
"I believe that this report makes clear that managerial reform is well under way in the United Nations", Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a 21 April letter transmitting the report to the President of the General Assembly.
The Secretary-General had set out four goals as part of reform measures announced on 17 March. They were as follows: to complete 400 efficiency projects with combined savings of $100 million by the end of 1997; to reduce non-programme costs from 38 per cent of the Organization budget to no more than 25 per cent by 2001, with the savings to be allocated to economic and social programmes; to connect all Permanent Missions electronically to the Secretariat by June and reduce the quantity of paper documentation by 25 per cent by the end of 1998; and to upgrade responsibility of programme managers while establishing a new, streamlined Department of Management.
In his introduction to the first-quarter 1997 report, "UN 21: Accelerating Managerial Reform for Results" (document A/51/873), Under- Secretary-General for Administration and Management Joseph E. Connor says that "there is an excellent basis" for achieving each of the goals, and that reform efforts are laying the groundwork for "keeping within a 'no-growth' budget, living with reduced staff levels" and "for future savings".
Highlights of the report follow.
Accelerate and Integrate Managerial Reform
Out of 450 efficiency projects already under way, 213 have been completed as of March, the report states. Accomplishments include the following: United Nations documents were linked to the Organization's Home Page via the ODS; the United Nations Office at Geneva automated its security services and saved $1.197 million; and the Treasury of the United Nations saved $501,000 in the first eight months of a cash management project to buy foreign currency more competitively.
Noting that efficiency is not just cost-cutting, the report also describes how the Treaty Section of the Office of Legal Affairs, despite a 15 per cent staff reduction, was able to use new computer and desk-top publishing capacity to greatly reduce an eight-year backlog of volumes awaiting publication -- yearly publication was doubled -- and to make the 30,000 treaties of the United Nations Treaty Series available on the Internet by April this year.
Other examples of the many organizational efficiency gains listed in the report include a Department of Political Affairs saving of $188,000 by a reduction of meetings, a $1.7 million savings by the Department of Peace- keeping Operations through improved selection and training of Police Monitors, as well as a revitalized Commission on Population and Development which, with no additional resources, met a doubled demand for services.
Streamline Administration
The report states that the challenge of reducing administrative and other non-programme costs from 38 per cent to 25 per cent of the budget is to achieve those savings without detracting from implementation of mandated programmes and activities. Some offices have already achieved required budget reductions for 1996-1997 and laid the basis for 1998-1999 savings through enhanced efficiency. For example, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) automated cheque-writing, shifted to electronic processing of travel authorizations and took other steps to streamline administrative support and save $1.68 million. The Economic Commission for
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Africa (ECA) and the Office of Human Resources Management were also among those reporting savings through automation and simplified clerical processes.
The report announces that there will be a thorough review of all non- programme-related costs in the Organization. Travel administration costs, for example, could be reduced by use of the electronic Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) and through increased accountability and authority of programme managers. Currently an emphasis on compliance with redundant paperwork requirements and excessive reviews impedes use of discount fares and slow reimbursement claims. The report foresees the possibility of cutting the current cost of administering a single travel request from $66 to no more than $44.
Additional savings would result from reduction of internal management reporting by half. That goal could be achieved by discontinuing unnecessary reports, by merging related reports and by reducing report frequency from biannual to annual, from monthly to quarterly and from periodic to ad hoc. Reform in that area is designed to reduce time and cost of administration by one third and increase to 75 per cent the proportion of the budget going to economic and social programmes by the 2000-2001 biennium.
Modernize and Enhance Information Services
The process of modernizing information services thus far has entailed a strengthened United Nations Home Page, making available full access to the complete Treaty Series and allowing for full-text searching of Security Council resolutions, Department of Public Information (DPI) press releases and other organization-wide pages. The United Nations Home Page has been rated by Lycos, a search engine which also provide reviews on World Wide Sites, in their "Top 5 Per Cent Sites" review. Another of those services, Hyperspace, has named it one of the "Top 10" government sites, and Excite Reviews rated the Home Page as a "must see" and went on to say that "this site should serve as an example to other government entities as to how to make a site appealing and useful". The Cyber School Bus has received a number of honours, including a NetGuide Platinum Site Award. The estimated number of "hits" per week on the Home Page has risen from a total of 210,000 in June 1996 to 1,100,000 in February. (The United Nations Home Page can be accessed on the Internet at http://www.un.org)
In the future, the goal is to dramatically expand electronic dissemination of information in the 185 countries members of the Organization while eliminating 25 per cent of paper-based, small circulation newsletters and publications. Resources are to be reallocated to promote electronic dissemination of documents and publications. In order to reduce unnecessary documentation it will be necessary to assure 100 per cent electronic access for all missions in New York and Geneva to documents via the Internet and the
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optical disk system, as well as for all concerned staff in main centres to internal documents via the Intranet.
Document distribution procedures will be reviewed in consultation with Member States and other recipients, the report states. All bureaus and secretariats will be asked to work with their intergovernmental bodies to reduce the length of documents, consolidate related documents and eliminate those which are unnecessary. Other target dates include 100 per cent connectivity for all missions in New York by June this year, for all missions in Geneva and Vienna by December, as well as a 50 per cent goal by December for connectivity for all concerned staff members in main centres.
Align Responsibility and Accountability
According to the report, the Office of Internal Oversight Services has revised its programme evaluation guidelines to place greater emphasis on output and outcome. Common-service arrangements are being extended as in the case of consolidation of United Nations Information Centres, which saved $600,000 in 1996-1997. Those arrangements in the future will see the pursuit of far-reaching streamlining and consolidation in administrative, financial, personnel, procurement and other services.
Recasting the Department of Administration and Management as a Department of Management could reduce layers of central administration and change its role from a highly centralized, paper-driven administrative system to a central management that empowers and supports programme managers to act decisively in their areas of responsibility, the report states. That, in turn, would lead to more effective oversight of compliance and reporting to the General Assembly and a streamlining of financial and administrative rules, regulations and procedures. The new system would also see greater delegation of responsibility and full accountability with the goal of empowering managers across the Organization. Greater use of information technology would simplify and speed up administrative processes and help reduce resources devoted to administration across the Organization.
According to the report, a number of management pilots are being launched in 1997. For example, Conference Services in New York will integrate and streamline support for intergovernmental bodies and test how greater flexibility in financial and human resource management can more effectively respond at short notice to highly variable demand with high-quality, more timely documents and services. A pilot scheme in Vienna will transform Administration and Common Services there into an executive agency to provide administrative and common services functions to all United Nations programmes and offices in that city. It will also test the use of charge-backs for common services and the feasibility of moving to true-cost budgeting.
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A significant challenge ahead, the report points out, concerns the opportunity and need to renew and revitalize the international civil service during a period of substantial turnover. Accelerating attrition will make it necessary to plan for the retirement of 5,000 staff members over the next 10 years. It will lead to a period of expanded recruitment and career development to support the vision of the new United Nations. Classifications, skills and occupational mixes need review to support new directions, says the report.
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