Poor UN

 From the AFP:

“UN may run out of money by end of the month: Guterres”

The United Nations is running a deficit of $230 million, Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, and may run out of money by the end of October. In a letter intended for the 37,000 employees at the UN secretariat and obtained by AFP, Guterres said unspecified "additional stop-gap measures" would have to be taken to ensure salaries and entitlements are paid. "Member States have paid only 70 per cent of the total amount needed for our regular budget operations in 2019. This translates into a cash shortage of $230 million at the end of September. We run the risk of depleting our backup liquidity reserves by the end of the month," he wrote. To cut costs, Guterres mentioned postponing conferences and meetings and reducing services, while also restricting official travel to only essential activities and taking measures to save energy. Guterres had asked member states earlier this year to up contributions to the world body to head off cash flow problems, but they refused, a UN official said on condition of anonymity. "The ultimate responsibility for our financial health lies with Member States," Guterres said. Not including what it pays for peacekeeping operations, the UN's operating budget for 2018-2019 is close to $5.4 billion, with the United States contributing 22 percent.

^ There is much more going on here then meets the eye. The UN is running out of money and the reasons why need to be looked into. Member states contribute money to the UN, but who (besides the UN itself) checks that the UN isn’t wasting that money? I know of programs - like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)  - that need to be independently investigated. The UNRWA employs 30,000 with 99% of the employees being local Palestinians. It is the largest agency and also the only one solely dedicated to one region or conflict. UNRWA allows refugee status to be inherited by descendants of male refugee, including legally adopted children which only helps add to the number of refugees (around 5 million today) rather than to reduce the refugee numbers. Many people and countries believe that UNRWA has that policy to keep the situation the same 70 years later. The main UN refugee program: the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has a mandate to protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people, and assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. The UNRWA has no such mandate and so rather than work to fix the refugee situation they want to keep the people refugees and dependent on the UN. This has led to numerous international criticisms being made that the UNRWA has become too big (more like it’s own nation than a relief agency.) UNRWA has also been accused of hiring known militants, perpetuating Palestinian dependency, demonizing Israel, and funneling money from Western governments to line the pockets of the Palestinian Authority and purchasing arms for terrorists. That has led the US to stop contributing to the UNRWA in 2018. The UNRWA is just one – albeit the largest and longest-run – program of the United Nations, but it helps to show how the UN needs to be independently investigated and the member states need to be given the findings. Then maybe the member states would be more willing to give up their money rather than simply give it to the UN with no checks or balances made. ^

https://www.yahoo.com/news/un-may-run-money-end-month-guterres-010549254.html