By NNN-KUNA
United Nations : Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the Security Council to allow the transfer of USD 900,000 from the Iraq escrow account to pay for the future activities of the UN high-level coordinator for the issues of Kuwaiti detainees and stolen property.
In a letter Tuesday to council president Vitaly Churkin of Russia, Ban said the expenses undertaken by the former coordinator, the late Yuli Vorontsov, during the last eight years amounted to about USD 2 million transferred from the Iraq escrow account.
He wrote that the coordinator’s mandate “has not yet been fulfilled and the activities of the high-level coordinator are expected to continue. In light of this expectation, projections of the future resource requirements have been made. They exceed the presently allotted funds.”
A UN official told KUNA that the UN is still looking for a successor to Vorontsov.
For the coordinator’s activities to continue, Ban suggested in his letter, “it would be necessary to identify additional resources. It is suggested that funds in the amount of USD 900,000 be earmarked” from the Iraq escrow account to fund the coordinator’s activities during the next four-year period — Jan 1, 2008 to Dec 31, 2011.
The UN allocated 2.2 per cent of the Iraqi oil revenues under the oil for food programme of 1995 to be deposited in the escrow account to pay for administrative and operational costs, including the coordinator’s activities.
Ban gave the council until Thursday morning to say whether the council members agree or not with his proposal.