Date: March 30, 2005
Letter to MAXIMS News Agency Regarding an Article published on Kofi Annan
Despite your disclaimer on your Web site that, “The views expressed are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of MaximsNews® LLC.” , by reflecting on the tone,direction and substance of the selected articles on
your web page, the readers could be led to an understanding of your position on issues.
Let me back up this statement by exemplifying today’s selection of articles about the UN Secretary-General and his sense of having been cleared from all wrong doings by the Volcker report. Well, good for the SG and good for his far reaching PR capability to drum up such a unanimous support from all concerned. In my school of thought, however, there is something which is called ” Ultimate accountability” where the “buck
stops at the top”! If this is not the case, a demonstrable lack of managerial integrity could give rise to a number of assumptions:
a) the Chief does not know what is going on in the village, so he delegates responsibility to all those who can take the “heat” and ultimately nobody is
“Accountable”! Under this chaotic circumstance, one can say, WHO NEEDS A CHIEF!
b) The Chief is aware of some but probably not All wrongdoings. This may very well be the case in the United Nations! A responsible Chief, however, should assume the utmost responsibility when things go wrong and to provide managerial and moral support to his underdogs, otherwise, one can say THE CHIEF DOES NOT
POSSESS LEADERSHIP QUALITY!
c) The Chief knows it All, but for personal gains and self-preservation pleads innocence and instead, points finger at the weakest possible links in the chain and administers the cheapest possible punishment to his underlinks (mainly for public consumption), in order to save himself. In this case shouldn’t we all say DO AWAY WITH THE CHIEF!
So, while I agree with the principal of remaining faithful to the Organization and hail its Chief, I do not, at the same time, believe in keeping a blind eye on the exigency of adhering to the Charter driven responsibility assigned to the Secretary-General.The Chief Executive Officer of the UN Secretariat has the utmost responsibility for running the Organization with efficiency and integrity and ensure that the ultimate responsibility rest with him. After all the UN was not created for any other purpose but to
serve as a role model for good governance and integrity.