Posted on 01/18/2007 2:22:04 AM PST by FLOutdoorsman
Tickets For Officials Near $18 Million Despite Crackdown; Egypt, Kuwait Top Offenders
Diplomats in New York City still have not paid a nearly $18 million tab for parking tickets despite a government crackdown four years ago and a fresh appeal from the new U.N. secretary-general to obey local laws.
“It is important for diplomatic officials who enjoy diplomatic immunities and privileges to abide by and comply with all necessary regulations in force in the countries where one is working,” Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday when asked what he would say to diplomats to get rid of the backlog.
According to the New York City Department of Finance, 99 percent of the outstanding debt by the diplomatic and consular community was incurred before a 2002 agreement between the mayor's office and the U.S. State Department to help the city collect on the unpaid tickets.
The number of tickets issued to diplomats at the United Nations and consulates in New York has been dropping since the deal and as of late December had decreased by 94.4 percent, according to the New York City Department of Finance.
Only about $250,000 of unpaid fines have accumulated since the agreement, but the department said some of these violations are new or have not gone through the courts yet.
“The secretary-general certainly encourages all member states to comply with local laws,” U.N. associate spokesman Farhan Haq said Wednesday. “Of course, it's up to each individual member state how it goes about its dealings with the host country.”
He noted that Ban has been walking to work from the midtown hotel where he is staying while the secretary-general's residence is being renovated instead of driving and adding to traffic congestion.
“So maybe some people can follow his example,” Haq said.
Topping the Department of Finance list of countries owing the most was Egypt, racking up about $1.9 million in fines, followed by Kuwait with nearly $1.3 million. The Egyptian Mission to the United Nations said no one was available for comment.
Ban's home country of South Korea, one of 177 countries that have yet to pay city fines, owes $17,000.
Delinquent countries have not gone unpunished.
As part of the 2002 agreement, the U.S. government has been withholding, in the form of aid, the amount owed by each country, plus 10 percent on fines dating back to 1997.
Part of the agreement also stipulates that the State Department can remove license plates from a vehicles if three or more tickets issued after 2002 have not been paid within 100 days.
In the four years since the deal, the city's Department of Finance said it has collected $3 million of debt owed by countries before 2002.
There is an easy solution to this...the US should redirect the next $18 Million that would have gone to the UN to clear these tickets. If the UN wants that money for some other use they can collect the fines themselves.
UNaccountable bureaucrats BUMP!
Seems like the person who incurred the fine should pay it. Never heard of an organization that paid the parking tickets of its staff / meembers. That would only encourage parking tickets. I suppose the reason that the tickets have dropped 94.4% is that the UN is now making those pay that incur the fines. I'd suggest that as much of this as possible be paid from the pension fund of those that incurred it.
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