Red tape ravaging work of UN, warns Annan

BUREAUCRACY is threatening to overwhelm the UN as it struggles to process hundreds of thousands of pages worth of reports each year, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned.

In 2005, the UN delivered 1,200 reports on issues ranging from Guinea-Bissau to women’s rights in the developing world.

Its human rights office alone produced 44,000 pages of documents - which had to be translated into six official languages.