(Reuters) – The U.N. General Assembly on Saturday approved a 5 percent decrease in the United Nations’ budget for 2012-2013 over the previous two-year period, only the second time in 50 years that the world body has slashed its spending.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the 193-nation General Assembly for reducing costs at a time when governments around the world are cutting expenditures and implementing austerity measures in response to the global financial crisis.
“I am here to thank you for solidifying, with me, our compact to make the most of our resources … to cut fat … and to continue fulfilling every one of the critical global mandates entrusted to the United Nations,” Ban said in the written text of a speech distributed by his press department.
Indeed there is a huge possibility of savings in the United Nations, however, it remains to be seen whether they will save at the right places…