A New UN Secretary General and Controversy Is Already In The Air

Now that Ban Ki-Moon is the new Secretary General of the UN after taking the oath of office, it appears that controversy is already in the air as he gets ready to announce his choice for under-secretary-general for administration and management as well as the head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The former position--under-secretary-general for administration and management--has usually gone to an American:

The appointment of a non-American to the job would be a "disaster" for the U.S.-led effort to reform the U.N., according to one U.N. official.

On the other hand, it's not all that clear that the reform effort has been chugging right along. But at issue is also the ability of the US, which provides almost 25% of the UN budget, to oversee where that money is going and what it is being used for.

Currently, there are unconfirmed reports that Ban might choose Alicia Barcena of Mexico as head of the administration and management office. Barcena is Kofi Annan's former chief of staff.

But she has other ties as well:

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.

Barcena also has ties to Mark Malloch Brown, who gave a speech in June last year that was very critical of the US, decrying its lack of support for the UN, and claiming that the US kept the achievements of the UN secret from Americans

Bolton was so incensed over what Brown said that he said the next day:

"I spoke to the secretary-general this morning, I said 'I've known you since 1989 and I'm telling you this is the worst mistake by a senior U.N. official that I have seen in that entire time,"' Bolton told reporters on Wednesday.

With one simple appointment, Ban would be sending a message on what to expect from him and the UN in the coming years.

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