UN rejects Guterres plan to close Entebbe centre

KAMPALA. United Nations (UN) member states have rejected a proposal by secretary general Antonio Guterres to relocate key functions at the Regional Service Centre Entebbe to Nairobi, Kenya.
In a resolution passed in New York on Thursday following days of tense negotiations, the world body’s 5th Committee, which is responsible for budget and administrative issues, directed the secretariat to prepare and submit new Global Service Delivery Model (GSDM) reforms.
It also endorsed “the conclusions and recommendations in the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Question (ACABQ)” and asked the secretary general to “ensure the full implementation of their relevant provision”.

Flaws in recommendations
ACABQ is a 16-member committee of experts that examines budget and administrative proposals by the UN secretariat and in turn makes recommendations for consideration by the 5th Committee.
In a 14-page report dated June 13, its members cited various flaws in the secretary general’s reform recommendations based on a consultant’s report, and concluded that the UN General Assembly tasks Mr Guterres, during its 73rd session in September, to submit a “new proposal for Global Service Delivery Model”.
The committee noted that the revised GSDM proposal “reflects higher costs with lower savings and a longer break-even period”.
The UN secretariat revised the reform’s 2018-19 budget upwards by $4 million (Shs15billion) to $52 million (Shs198 billion) and cut back expected savings by roughly $5 million (Shs19 billion) while raising the transition costs by $2 million (Shs7.6 billion).
ACABQ’s appraisal showed that the ambitious project would break-even in the fifth year, rather than the third as originally envisaged, and cumulatively save just one-quarter of the projected $39 million (Shs148 billion).
“The (Advisory) Committee reiterates that the proposal for a Global Service Delivery Model should focus both on achieving improvements in the delivery of administrative services and on reducing the related cost,” the committee noted.
It said only two Global Shared Service Centres be established, instead of the proposed three, one of which should be in Africa where approximately 50 per cent of UN personnel are located.
The choice of location should be opened to other competitors along new evaluation criteria to be developed by the UN General Assembly and executed in consultation with current or prospective host countries.
UN secretary general Guterres on May 1, 2018 recommended that backend UN administrative functions be consolidated in three dispersed locations --- Nairobi, Budapest and City of Mexico.
Highly-placed sources told this newspaper that Ugandan diplomats worked through the G77 and China, a grouping that developing countries use at the UN for better negotiation, to fend off Europe’s support for Guterres’s original proposals.
Proponents, intent on salvaging the secretary general’s report, wanted the 5th Committee to “take note” rather than adopt the ACABQ recommendations. Intense lobbying by Ugandan diplomats followed, according to sources familiar with the negotiations, until member states “endorsed” the report.
Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa did not answer our repeated telephone calls and neither Permanent Secretary Patrick Mugoya nor State International Affairs Minister, Mr Oryem Okello, was available to comment on the development.
Uganda’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Adonia Ayebare, told this newspaper from New York that “member states have decided [and the] process of reform is now more predictable”.

Uganda’s case
The reforms first initiated six years ago during Ban Ki-Moon’s tenure, are intended to reduce costs and increase responsiveness of field staff while promoting a round-the-clock operational efficiency hinged on a “follow-the-sun” support model.
Uganda argued that Entebbe, as separately confirmed by an ad hoc committee, is cheaper than Nairobi and transferring key functions of the Entebbe Centre to Kenya would be illogical.
Kenya had been favoured because of its perceived stability and democracy as well as elaborate rail and other infrastructure, including a plan by Kenya Airways (KQ) to start direct Nairobi-New York flight.
The country, according to sources, rated higher than Uganda on health and educational institutions that meet international standards.
Thursday’s 5th Committee resolutions mean the Entebbe Centre will continue to exist and national staff there will enjoy better job security following a recommendation to change their employment terms from fixed contracts, renewed annually, to open-ended “continuing contracts”.
Some 290 employees at the Entebbe Centre had been listed to lose their jobs if the UN adopted the initial reform proposals, according to details in a leaked United Nations internal briefing paper.
The confidential document showed that Ugandans number 205 among staff to be sacked when finance, human resources and administrative functions would be relocated to Nairobi.
UN member states on Thursday instead tasked the secretary general to “present proposals on strengthening the role of regional procurement hub, in particular the Regional Procurement Office in Entebbe, in the context of his next report on procurement”.
“The resolution is a big win for Uganda,” said a UN employee on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to media. “It is a good thing for today, tomorrow and the future.”
According to sources, President Museveni who formally protested to Mr Guterres over the plan to shift core Entebbe Centre functions to Nairobi, remained engaged and placed personal telephone calls to counterparts to make the case for staying the centre.

Adopted recommendations

Piecemeal reports: “The (UN) secretariat should have submitted one consolidated revised or re-issued document for the consideration by the General Assembly.”
Re-work proposal: “...the General Assembly request the secretary general to submit, during the main part of (UN) 73 session, a new proposal for the establishment of two Global Shared Service Centres.”
Cost control: “The Global Service Delivery Model should result in increased efficiencies and cost savings...and new proposal [should] clearly reflect [this].”
Management: “The Advisory Committee is not convinced that the global service delivery model requires a separate management structure overseeing the management of the individual centres.”
Address dissent: “[Ensure] continued close consultations with member states, including potential host countries, of the project and current hosts of UN entities which may be impacted by [reforms].”