Think-tank UNCTAD suffers from a "lack of leadership" and a clear corporate strategy, a United Nations audit said in a damning draft report seen by AFP Wednesday. "The UN Conference on Trade and Development secretariat lacks a clear corporate strategy to successfully carry out its mandate," said inspectors in a report.
"While the divisions work quite independently from each other, a perceived lack of leadership from top management negatively impacts on the co-ordination of work in the secretariat," they added. UNCTAD conducts research, analyses public policies and collects data on issues surrounding trade and development. Inspectors found that the organisation, whose first conference was held in 1964 in Geneva, was becoming "more and more bureaucratic."
Employees of the organisation were "highly dissatisfied, frustrated and demotivated" with their human resources management. Headed by former World Trade Organization chief Supachai Panitchpakdi since 2005, UNCTAD employs 400 people at its Geneva headquarters. It draws an annual budget of $68 million from UN funds while an extra $30 million comes from technical assistance funds.