Who manages the UN?
You may be under the impression that the administration
is managing the UN. You are mistaken.
When a problem appears, when a question is raised
instead of using some in-house grey cells, the best
solution is to call for a consultant. And not just any
consultant! One of those half dozen big consultancy
firms that advise most of the enterprises and governments
of the world.
It is interesting to note how things have evolved. A
few decades ago, faced with a problem the immediate
reaction was to create a working group, a commission,
or a subcommittee. The results were very
slow and negotiations sometimes painful. But at
least the people involved in the process knew what
they were talking about. Then came the fashion of
hiring individual consultants. Lonely men and
women travelling around the globe who had a hard
time making a living. Today as time is pressing the
UN administration calls upon international consultancy
firms who know nothing about the context,
nothing about the problems but whose name and
prices are sufficient for even the most unacceptable
decisions to be accepted.
Take the example of the pension fund. A big consultancy
firm prepared a report on the investment
management. Most of its recommendations were
immediately accepted by the UN administration
without any type of discussion. Whenever a question
is posed on the report the answer is always the same:
“Who are you to dare to contest the recommendations
of this Big Company?” The name of the company
alone is sufficient to justify anything.
Furthermore, if tomorrow something happens,
nobody will be responsible. The UN administration
can always say that it took all possible precautions by
hiring an enterprise that is well known on the international
market. As for the consultant, he is only
here to advise and it is well known that it is never the
adviser that pays.
What is even more depressing is that very often the
reports prepared by the famous consultants are the
same for all their clients. Our problems are like
those of other big enterprises, which means that consultants
are in some cases copying the report from
one client to another, changing the names, the figures
and sometimes the location. Anyhow the seriousness
of the report is not linked to its content but to its
price. The more expensive the report, the better it is.
It is well known that for less than $500,000 you get
friendly advice, while for a million you start to have
an expert view.
© 2006 UN Special |