By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 3 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday appointed Mexican Alicia Barcena Ibarra, an environmentalist, to the top administration post at the world body, which is often criticized for inefficiency.
The announcement of Barcena's appointment, and that of senior British diplomat John Holmes to oversee humanitarian affairs, prompted media questions about the level of specialist experience both brought to the jobs.
Ban, a South Korean who succeeded Kofi Annan on Jan 1, has been trying to balance jobs between permanent Security Council members, powerful states which who were instrumental in his election, and key developing nations.
U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas announced the appointments at a news conference where she was immediately questioned about the experience of both officials in their respective fields. She said they were more than qualified.
Barcena replaces American Christopher Burnham as the undersecretary-general for administration and management, a post that includes the budget, financial oversight, electronic data bases and ethical standards, areas which are central to international efforts to reform the U.N. bureaucracy.
"Ms. Barcena has wide experience at the United Nations," Montas said. "Mr. Ban values her leadership and managerial skills and has confidence that she shares his vision and philosophy to strengthen and revitalize this organization."
Barcena started at U.N. headquarters in New York in December 2005 as Annan's deputy chief of staff, and became the chief of staff in June 2006.
A biologist and environmentalist with a masters degree in public administration she had been an official with the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America.
Her new post was held for decades by an American. But U.N. sources said Washington was angling for the peace-keeping department, now headed by a French national. That department may be broken in two so that an American can have one of the posts with France keeping the other.
Holmes, Britain's ambassador in France since 2001, is known among his colleagues as an extremely skilled diplomat, whom British Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett called "one of our most outstanding public servants." He was private secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair and Blair's predecessor John Major.
But Holmes has little prior experience in humanitarian affairs compared to his predecessor Norwegian Jan Egeland, a former relief worker, who was instrumental in bringing the disaster in Sudan's Darfur region to world attention. The job involves coordinating semi-independent relief agencies and public advocacy.
Montas, in response to questions said, "Throughout his diplomatic career, Mr. Holmes has offered a proven record of strategic vision, crisis management, multilateral negotiations, dedication and hard work."
China is expected to get the department of economic and social affairs, U.N. sources said. The leading candidate is its ambassador the United Nations in Geneva, Sha Zukang.
Still not announced is the post of deputy secretary-general, which Ban said would be a woman from the developing world.
Ban over the weekend named Vijay Nambiar, a former Indian ambassador to several nations and advisor to Annan, as his chief of staff, and Montas, an award-winning Haitian broadcast journalist, to head the spokesman's division.
((Editing by David Storey))
