Asia Times: New Unesco chief plans to clean house



	November 16, 1999	atimes.com

Japan

New Unesco chief plans to clean house
By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS - The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) Friday confirmed the appointment of Koichiro Matsuura of Japan as head of the Paris-based agency.

Matsuura, who already has indicated plans to radically restructure Unesco, is the first Asian director-general in the agency's 53-year history. Since it was formed in 1946, the top job at Unesco has been held by John Huxley (UK), Jaime Bodet (Mexico), John Taylor and Luther Evans (US), V Veronese (Italy), Rene Maheu (France) and Amadou M'Bow (Senegal). The current incumbent Federico Mayor of Spain, who was elected in 1987, is expected to complete his stay in office by the end of this month.

The 62-year-old Matsuura has served as Japan's Ambassador to France since 1994 and is a former Director-General of the Economic Cooperation Bureau of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Educated at the University of Tokyo and Haverford College in the United States, he has been a career diplomat since 1959.

Currently, Japan not only pays about 25 percent of the Unesco's $550 million biennial budget but also accounts for nearly 40 percent of all voluntary contributions to the cash-strapped UN agency.

Citing mismanagement, corruption and nepotism, the United States, Britain and Singapore left Unesco in 1985-86. Last year, Britain returned but the other two countries have refused to rejoin the UN agency.

In 1996, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, then US Ambassador to the United Nations, said Washington would not rejoin because ''we have been concerned about some reports about irregularities in the way that some Unesco's business has been carried out.''

Mayor was elected to head Unesco in 1987 primarily to bring about major reforms and ''clean up the mess.''

Both in 1992 and 1994, however, the General Accounting Office, a US government watchdog body, said ''very little management reform had occured'' since 1987.

Matsuura, who has indicated to the Unesco Executive Board that he plans to radically restructure the organization, takes office at a time when there are renewed charges of mismanagement. In a series of articles last month, the Guardian newspaper of London refered to family members and ''mistresses'' of Unesco staff members who had been put on the organization's payroll and a widespread ''culture of cronyism.''

The Guardian said ''the vast majority of Unesco's budget - exactly how much no one knows - goes on huge tax-free salaries for political appointees who are bosses of nothing at all.'' The newspaper also quoted a Canadian government audit which says that ''cronyism seems all but endemic, with about 40 percent of the organization's appointments and promotions failing to meet Unesco's own criteria for fair competition.''

According to the Guardian story, the Unesco office in Brasilia handled activities costing about $20 million last year but was unable to account for as much as a third of its budget.

''Unesco is now so mired in corruption, misrule and nepotism that despite its vast budget, it cannot afford to hire the professional staff it needs to implement its programs,'' the newspaper said.

Somar Wijayadasa, a former Unesco staffer who worked for nearly 14 years in the agency's New York office, told IPS that the Guardian article was ''dead on target.''

The US refused to return to Unesco because the organization not only failed to reform itself, but also went ''from one disaster to another.''

''If Matsuura is to succeed in cleaning up Unesco, he has to fire all the unqualified cronies who have been living off the organization for years now,'' Wijayadasa said.

He said that Matusuura should also immediately appoint a fact- finding commission to investigate past mismanagement, and establish safeguards to prevent mismanagement and corruption in the future.

Additionally, the new Unesco head should also strengthen the Inspector-General's Office along the lines of the Office of Internal Oversight Services at the United Nations in order to probe waste and mismanagement.

Wijayadasa said that Unesco should ''come clean'' with greater transparency in all financial and personnel matters.

(Inter Press Service)

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