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Apart from voluntary contributions (a relatively small
proportion) UNDRO is funded from the UN regular budget.
4.
Until mid-1978 the Disaster Unit at ODM had received
a fairly good service from UNDRO; thereafter the Unit
became increasingly unhappy with UNDRO's performance in
coordinating information. In July 1979 the then Permanent Representative in Geneva reported a general malaise in
UNDRO, including poor staff relations and a lack of direction,
which was even worse than usual for UN bodies. Mr Berkol,
at that time nearly 62 years old, was said by Mr Rossbrough
(a Director of UNDRO) to have a distinctly Oriental style of
administration which made for an unhealthy atmosphere
of intrigue. Dissatisfaction with UNDRO's performance was increasingly expressed at donors' meetings in Geneva, culminating in considerable public criticism of Berkol and
his team at ECOSOC in July 1980.
5. In 1980, the UN's (independent) Joint Inspection Unit chose to examine UNDRO's activities, and had completed its
report by the end of the year [G]. The report has not yet been circulated as a UN document as it awaits the comments of
the Secretary-General, but was widely leaked, It is unusually frank and hard-hitting, but in our view fair. Its recommendations fall into two categories, mandate and operations. In the case of the mandate, or terms of reference, the inspectors propose (among other things) that UNDRO's role should be confined to 'sudden' natural disasters; the Trust
Fund should be phased out; that UNDRO should be under the general authority of the General Assembly, but the UNDP Governing Council would be its governing body and submit an annual report to ECOSOC and thereafter to the General Assembly;
/and that the
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