By Liza Porteus
NEW YORK — New Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday announced his picks for two of the top posts at the United Nations this week — and one of those choices is controversial.Ban, the former foreign minister of South Korea who started his new job Tuesday, named Mexican Alicia Barcena — Kofi Annan's former chief of staff — to the key post of administration and management, a job previously held by American Christopher Burnham. The administration and management job traditionally has gone to an American.
Before the announcement was made, one U.N. official told FOX News the appointment of a non-American to the post would be a "disaster" for the U.S.-led effort to reform the United Nations.
Burnham, the last person to hold the post, was previously the chief financial officer in the U.S. State Department and had been state treasurer of Connecticut. He was appointed by former Secretary-General Annan in 1995 and spearheaded the institutional reform efforts that were promised by Annan and resisted by a large number of developing countries. Burnham left in December to take a job in the private sector.
Barcena's career has focused not on management expertise but on public policies for sustainable development and the linkages between environment, economy and social issues. According to the United Nations, she focused her work on financing for sustainable development.
Prior to being named chief of staff to Annan, she served as deputy executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) where she promoted the implemented the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Barcena was the founding director of the Earth Council in Costa Rica and served as director-general of the National Institute of Fisheries and the first vice minister of ecology while working for the government of Mexico. She also taught and researched on natural sciences.
Barcena also is a onetime protégé of Maurice Strong, the former special adviser to Annan who resigned his last U.N. post after it was revealed he had received about $1 million for a family-owned firm that originally came from Saddam Hussein and had ties to the Oil-for-Food scandal. She also has ties to outgoing Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown.
It will be interesting to see what Burham has to say about all this. Needless to say is smacks of lack of reform, of any kind.