text: AND THE SPECIALIZED AGENCIES AND RELATED ORGANIZATIONS: REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL (continued) (A/C.5/39/l7) (c) OTHER PERSONNEL QUESTIONS: REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL (continued) (A/39/483 and Add.l; A/C.5/39/2, 4 and Corr.l and Add.l, 6 and Corr.l, 9, 11 and 23) 1. Mr. HEPBURN (Bahamas) reaffirmed the importance of a Secretariat characterized by integrity, competence and demonstrable fairness for attaining the differing and coinciding priorities of Member States. With regard with the third attribute, it must be borne in mind that the apparent political advantages to individual Governm~nts of being able to influence staff directly tended to be counterbalanced and even reversed in the long run and that long-term stability was enhanced by a balanced, independent Secretariat in which the sole purpose of secondments and fixed-term contracts was to permit flexibility in recruiting scarce, highly specialized technical expertise, in recruiting from Member States with a small reservoir of adequately qualified nationals, and in allowing room for individual career choices. 2. Turning to specific aspects of current personnel policy, he noted that the reports in documents A/39/453 and A/C.S/39/9 illustrated the continuing internal and external constraints that militated against adequate representation in the Secretariat of unrepresented and under-represented Member States, women, States below the m1dpoint of their desirable ranges and developing countries not represented at the senior and policy-formulating levels. 3. The external constraints 1dentif1ed by the Secretary-General included the danger of a "brain drain" from certain priority States, the failure of Member States to present women candidates in sufficient numbers, and the apparent lack of interest on the part of some priority States. His delegation believed that, if the lack of interest among some States was genuine, the statistics should take account of that situation. As for the presentation of women candidates, tables 7A and 11 
analysis: The text discusses the composition of the United Nations Secretariat and the representation of different groups of countries and individuals within it. It touches on issues of recruitment, staffing, and representation, but does not specifically mention economic development, natural resources, or environmental issues.