inside the glass house

With UN dues still unpaid, Sri Lanka could lose voting rights
NEW YORK - When several cash-strapped nations from sub-Saharan Africa were plagued by droughts, famine and military conflicts years ago, their UN diplomatic Missions in New York were forced to leave a trail of unpaid bills because they were not receiving funds from their home countries for sustenance.

The bills, mostly for rent, electricity and telephone services, amounted to more than $2.5 million. The only thing that prevented these diplomats from seeking sanctuary in New York's shelter for the homeless was diplomatic immunity that prevented landlords from evicting them from their apartments for nonpayment of rent. But still, telephone lines to these UN missions were eventually cut and electricity shut off-- until the US intervened to help them out financially.

Although diplomatic defaulters are only a handful, they still reflect badly on the entire diplomatic community in New York. As a result, most New York landlords in the UN neighbourhood refuse to rent apartments to diplomats while banks have been reluctant to extend loans.

In one particular year, the situation was so grave that the US Mission told the UN's Host Committee that it had to deliver food parcels to some African diplomats -- perhaps to prevent them from lining up outside soup kitchens for the hungry run by the Salvation Army.

The spreading famine in countries in sub-Saharan Africa was threatening to spill over into their UN missions in New York. Last week, the General Assembly named 13 countries, including Burundi, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Liberia, Somalia, Moldova and Tajikistan, as deadbeats because they had failed to pay their UN dues for the last two years.

These are countries whose cash-starved governments are unable to pay their membership fees to the world body. Under Article 19 of the UN charter, all 13 countries have lost their right to vote in the General Assembly.

Mercifully, unlike most private social clubs in New York, non-payment of UN dues does not automatically result in expulsion. So they are holding onto their UN membership but without voting rights.

For years, Sri Lanka was on a UN "honour roll" as one of the 10 top countries to pay its dues in the first week of January each year. The names of the countries, including that of Sri Lanka, were read out at the noon press briefing putting all late comers to shame.
But no more. Sri Lanka is now on a "dishonour roll" because it has still not paid its UN dues for this year amounting to about $216,000.

Technically, a part of this payment comes out of mandatory deductions -- called staff assessments -- made every month from salaries of Sri Lankan employees in the Secretariat. But despite this "discount" in dues, Sri Lanka is still in arrears for 2003 because the UN expects all payments to be made by the end of January each year.

At a time when ministers and senior officials are on junkets every week at tax payer's expense (the last ministerial and media delegation to the UN left a $21,000 phone bill, along with a cable TV bill for porn movies viewed in their hotel rooms), why is it that the government cannot afford to pay its UN dues on time as it did in earlier years?
Sri Lanka's annual contribution is only about 0.01600 percent of the total UN budget compared with 22 percent by the US and 19.5 percent by Japan, the two largest contributors.

Sri Lanka will lose its voting rights if its total arrears exceeds the amount of contributions due from it for the preceding two full years. At a time when Sri Lanka is planning to field a candidate for the post of Secretary-General, will we face the frightening prospect of being deprived of our ballot in the General Assembly to vote for our own candidate?

At the last pledging conference for contributions to UN agencies, Sri Lanka was a notable absentee. The government also failed to make the annual $1 million pledge to the UN Development Programme (UNDP) which it has been doing over the years. Sri Lanka was one of the few developing nations to make a voluntary contribution to UNDP even while it was receiving assistance from the New York based agency.

Is the non-payment of UN dues precipitated by a cash crisis or a mix-up in our priorities back home? If and when Secretary-General Kofi Annan visits Sri Lanka in the foreseeable future, it would surely be embarrassing if he reminds the prime minister or the president that the country is in arrears of its dues-- or on the verge of losing its voting rights.

A cash problem has apparently affected even some of Sri Lanka's missions overseas where the delay in the transfer of funds from Colombo has held up payments of diplomat's salaries, rents and even massive bills left behind by visiting ministerial delegations in various capitals. Will some of our diplomats overseas be forced to go on the dole? Or will they end up soliciting for food packets from their host governments? Stay tuned.

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