INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
$52,701 last year on customised and mechanised curtains for the official residence of US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley at a time when the
department was undergoing deep budget cuts and had frozen hiring, according to a media report.The report in The New York Times said Ms Haley
is the first US ambassador to live in the residence, located in a new building just blocks away from the UN headquarters in New York.A
spokesman for Ms Haley said plans to buy the curtains were made in 2016, during the Obama administration and that Nikki Haley had no say in
the purchase.The curtains themselves cost $29,900, while the motors and hardware needed to open and close them automatically cost $22,801,
the report said, citing contracts
Installation took place from March to August last year, during Ms Haley's tenure as ambassador.Ms Haley, 46, is the highest ranking
Indian-American in the Donald Trump administration.The NYT report said that Ms Haley's curtains are more expensive than the $31,000 dining
room set purchased for the office of Ben Carson, the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.Following the
controversial $31,000 purchase, US President Donald Trump had even considered firing Mr Carson."While Haley's curtains were being ordered
and installed, Rex W Tillerson, the administration's first secretary of state, had frozen hiring, pushed out many of the department's most
senior diplomats and proposed cutting the department's budget by 31 per cent
In embassies around the world, projects were eliminated, jobs were left unfilled and the delegation to last year's United Nations General
Assembly meeting was slashed," the report said.The report quoted White House official in the Obama administration Brett Bruen as saying that
how could more than $50,000 be spent on a customised curtain system for the ambassador to the UN when "youtell diplomats that basic needs
cannot be met."Patrick Kennedy, the top management official at the State Department during the Obama administration, however, defended the
purchase, saying that it would probably be used for years and that it was needed for both security and entertaining purposes."All she's got
is a part-time maid, and the ability to open and close the curtains quickly is important," Mr Kennedy said.Ms Haley's predecessors had for
decades lived in the Waldorf Astoria hotel near the UN but after the hotel was purchased by a Chinese insurance company, the State
Department decided in 2016 to find a new residence for its top diplomat due to security concerns.The NYT report said the government leased
the apartment with an option to buy, according to Mr Kennedy."The full-floor penthouse, with handsome hardwood floors covering large open
