This week, the U.N. Security Council continued the process of selecting a new Secretary General to replace the thoroughly disgraced Kofi Annan whose term expires at the end of the year.

The process proceeds by no formal set of rules or guidelines – only precedent and the whims of the membership. In practice, Security Council members select the new Secretary General and the General Assembly rubber stamps their selection. The process is dominated by the Security Council's five permanent members who each could veto the selection.

But with new scandals emerging on a seemingly daily basis and a culture of corruption that presently pervades every level of the organization – right up to the current Secretary General and his closest advisors – it is abundantly clear that it is time for bold action.

Bold action means bringing in a U.N. outsider who is equally palatable to both the United States and veto-wielding Security Council members China and Russia. As of this writing, such a candidate had begun to emerge in the person of Ban Ki-moon, the current Foreign Minister of South Korea.

Regardless of who is ultimately selected, the imperative for the new Secretary General is clear and pressing: get instantly about the business of aggressively putting in place real reforms that curtail corruption and begin to move the world body toward effectiveness.

Many excellent ideas have already been floated. But their reception to date is revealing.

For example, John Bolton, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, recently suggested that the world body's entire senior leadership submit their resignations to the new Secretary General once he or she takes the helm. This is a matter of routine in Washington, where cabinet secretaries and other senior officials submit their resignations even if the President has just been re-elected. The practice is similar in other nations.

Among other things, this ensures that the new leader can surround himself with his own people. It also guarantees that senior leaders don't become too entrenched or the bureaucracy too cowed to their long-time master. (Which, by the way, is one of the many problems afflicted the U.N. and contributing to its culture of corruption.)

Bolton's reasonable suggestion was met with shock from U.N. bureaucrats and barely muted chuckles from his fellow ambassadors who doubtless wondered if Bolton had lost his mind.

Indeed, even as Bolton advanced his common sense notion, Annan was busy naming cronies to senior U.N. posts – even as his term speeds to a conclusion. Thus, Annan continues to ensure that his legacy of theft and scandal will live on for years to come while doing no favors for the crippled world body that he is sworn to serve.

Presumably, Annan will continue to leave such carefully wrapped presents for his successor in the few weeks the current Secretary General has left.

As a result, even the most aggressive reformer is likely to struggle.

If efforts at reform continue to be fruitless in the coming year, our nation's course is clear. We must begin reducing our financial commitment to the world body until it acts. After all, control of the purse strings remains our only serious tool through which we can exercise some oversight of the world body. Continuing to sink money into a hopelessly corrupt and inept organization seems about the worst possible investment of American taxpayer dollars.

Either way, the time to act is now. And the first step is selecting a new Secretary General who is committed to rapid and meaningful improvements, regardless of what bureaucratic feathers he has to ruffle to get the job done.