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United Nations Renovation
By Thomas P. Kilgannon and Gregory S. Foster Â*Â*
Saturday, 16 June 2007
The UN is embarking on a multi-billion dollar project to renovate its dilapidated New York City headquarters and the timing could not beÂ*better for those who like to waste taxpayer dollars.Â* Liberals have taken over the Appropriations Committees on Capitol Hill, and John Bolton — the most effective UN watchdog ever — is out of the picture.Â* In addition, the UN’s top fiscal office, which used to be managed by a qualified American, is now being run by a Mexican biologist with little financial management experience.Â* It is no surprise that what started out as a $953 million project has now turned into a $1.88 billion project — nearly doubling in cost.Â* By any standard, the UN headquarters building is in sore need of repair. However, the UN’s solution to their problem is an extravagant, luxurious renovation with U.S. taxpayers footing a substantial part of the ballooning bill. Initially, the UN said it would borrow and pay back the cost of the renovation from the United States; however, once UN delegates learned the loan’s 5.5 percent interest rate was not as sweet of a deal as they expected, the UN decided to just take much of the money from the U.S., without repayment, by levying an assessment on the U.S. for $413.6 million. The Bush Administration and congressional Democrats’ response to this additional levy is acquiescence to the UN’s demand. At a time when U.S. officials should be debating the utility of the United Nations, they are transferring wealth from hard working American taxpayers to the bureaucrats at Turtle Bay. New York real estate professionals say the UN renovation is costing at least two or three times more than it ought to due to incompetence or corruption. In 2005, a FOX News investigation uncovered that a former senior UN procurement official, who has pled guilty to his part in the $10 billion Oil-for-Food scandal, helped get a small, inexperienced architectural firm in Italy a very lucrative, $44 million contract for the UN renovation project. Americans are opposed to giving $413 million towards the UN renovation. A national poll has found 60 percent of Americans oppose the UN’s renovation project and 73 percent of Americans oppose any U.S. funding for it.Time and time again the UN has proven its incompetence and downright disregard for ethical standards. Thus, Congress needs to place safeguards on the millions of dollars we are going to give to the UN by making four demands before releasing the money:1) The United Nations must become accountable and transparent.
2) U.S. payments towards the UN renovation should be capped at $210 million — 22 percent of $953 million, the original budget for the renovation and more than what commercial real estate experts say it should cost.
3) Since the United States is paying 22 percent of the cost, at least 22 percent of contract work done on the UN complex should be done by American contractors.
4) Background and security checks and U.S. visas should be required of all foreign contractors working on the UN building.

Freedom Alliance - Waste, Fraud and UN Headquarters
http://www.freedomalliance.org/fa/index ... &Itemid=16

Waste, Fraud and UN Headquarters
By Thomas P. Kilgannon Â*Â*
Monday, 12 March 2007

Dulles, Virginia – Tax day is approaching and those of you who still owe Uncle Sam money had better send it in. That’s because the free spending Bush administration has teamed up with the pork dispensers on Capitol Hill to send more of our money to the corrupt regime at the United Nations. The UN is embarking on a multi-billion construction project and the timing could not be better for those who like to waste taxpayer dollars. Liberals have taken over the Appropriations Committees on Capitol Hill, and John Bolton – the most effective UN watchdog ever – is out of the picture. In addition, the UN's top fiscal office, which used to be managed by a qualified American, is now being run by a Mexican biologist with no financial management experience. The project is the renovation of the United Nations headquarters in New York City and the building is a metaphor for the UN itself. It is outdated, falling apart, and no longer useful. It has never had a major renovation, is full of asbestos, and is energy inefficient. And while it won’t pass a fire inspection, it is one of the only buildings in New York where smokers are still allowed to light up.The architecturally compassionate thing to do would be to introduce the building to a wrecking ball and have Ban Ki-moon secure office space in a strip mall in Senegal. Instead, the UN plans a major renovation with U.S. taxpayers footing most of the ballooning bill. At a time when U.S. officials should be debating the utility of the United Nations, they are helping it build a cathedral of anti-Americanism. A brief history:In 2003, two New York-based construction managers presented the United Nations with renovation blueprints – the Capital Master Plan (CMP) – which would cost $953 million. Engineering, planning, and consulting firms were then hired by the UN for additional advice – and paid $7.8 million – only to provide an estimate that then amounted to $1.2 billion.
Satisfied with the higher amount, then Secretary-General Kofi Annan presented an invoice for the full amount to the Bush administration.Not wanting to offend any of the 191 other countries that make up the General Assembly, the State Department offered the UN the full amount by structuring a 30-year loan with a modest 5.5 percent interest rate. Foggy Bottom’s financial whiz kids must have actually believed the taxpayers would see that money again. But Kofi Annan was so offended that interest payments were tacked on, that he rejected the deal even though no other nation offered as much as coffee and donuts for the construction crew.
Three years later, the cost of refurbishing the UN now stands at $1.9 billion – double the original estimate. In the last three years alone, the cost has escalated almost $20 million per month. In 2005, New York developer Donald Trump offered to complete the project for one-third of what it will now cost. Kofi Annan refused to discuss the matter with Trump. With the price tag spiraling out of control, the UN has cooked up a scheme whereby member countries will add the construction cost to their annual "assessments." As the largest UN contributor, the United States will not only pay 22 percent of the regular UN budget, and 25 percent of all peacekeeping costs, we now get to pay 22 percent of the $1.9 billion construction project – or $413.6 million.
By contrast, China, with whom we have a $232 billion trade deficit will pay only $38.6 million to the UN reconstruction. Russia, which had one of its own citizens convicted this week for accepting bribes on UN contracts, will be billed $20.6 million. Venezuela, whose dictator is the UN’s most effective anti-American propagandist, gets the bargain price of $3.2 million. Iran will only have to pony up $2.9 million for the UN headquarters, since its cash is needed for its nuclear weapons program. Finally, Sudan, which prefers to apply its resources to its on-going genocide, will help defray a whopping $150,000 of the UN’s $2 billion project.
The $413.6 million provided by the United States is more than any other nation will provide. But if you think U.S. costs will be capped at that amount, guess again. In December, the General Assembly adopted a resolution requiring that in the “unlikely eventâ€