THE PARIAHS OF THE SYSTEM

It is now official, even our chiefs don’t like their bureaucracy any more. More and more organizations of the UN system are out-sourcing some of their administrative services far from the decision-making centres. Copenhagen, Budapest, Dubai or the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur – it seems that the distance is never too great for these pariahs of the bureaucracy.
The official reason is that it is less expensive. But this is a fallacious argument, because if such an alibi can be true for Kuala Lumpur and may be Dubai, it is surely not so for Copenhagen or Budapest. It is now obvious that the bureaucracy, considered to be of prime importance in the past, has become undesirable.
On the other hand, thanks to this distancing the bureaucracy will finally be able to create its own little world even further away from reality and the problems which the departments encounter. A world made up of forms, esoteric rules that nobody will be able to dispute because it will be too far away to hear our complaints.
The risk is that one day, if there is a breakdown in communications between headquarters and these remote places, we are likely to discover that the system works very well without all its marvellous red tape.
Besides, there is a secret project which envisages putting all the administrations of all the organizations of the UN system on a boat which will sail according to the evolution of post adjustments. If wages are lower in Manila, the boat will sail towards the Philippines, if tomorrow the dollar drops this same boat would go to San Francisco. The UN would thereby save money, both on salaries and on removals costs.