Japan, United States dissociate themselves from adopted budget outline - General Assembly 53

UN Chronicle, Spring, 1999

The United Nations will begin the twenty-first century with about $2.545 billion at its disposal, according to the budget outline for 2000-2001 that was adopted by the fifty-third General Assembly. Two Member States - the United States and Japan, whose combined assessments amount to some 45 per cent of regular budget contributions-disassociated themselves from the consensus, saying the figure was too high.

According to another text out of 25 adopted without a vote on the recommendation of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), $1.261 billion is to be appropriated for 1999. Of that amount, nearly $1.218 billion will be assessed from Member States. That text also endorsed Secretary-General Kofi Annan's proposal to include provisions within the budget outline for special political missions that were expected but not yet mandated. The United Nations programme budget for the 1998-1999 biennium will be reduced from $2.532 billion to about $2.527 billion, according to another resolution, to reflect revised cost estimates and the cost of resolutions adopted by the Assembly during the current session.

On the newer issue of "results-based budgeting", the Committee recommended that the programme budget proposal for 2000-2001 should still be prepared according to currently existing procedures, but that the Secretary-General also should submit prototypes using results-based techniques. Mr. Annan was asked to furnish the Assembly at its next session with a proposal comparing the two budget formats and justifying his recommendation to change the existing procedure.

By a resolution on the Integrated Management Information System (IMIS), the Assembly approved an additional appropriation of $3.3 million, while requesting that the Secretary-General take action to ensure that related activities are performed efficiently and economically, and that adequate and qualified staff are assigned to implement and operate IMIS in all user departments.

On the scale of assessments, the Committee agreed, as an exception, to recommend exemptions to Article 19 of the United Nations Charter-which strips Member States of voting rights when their arrears equal or exceed the amount of contributions due from them for the past two years - to two Member States, Georgia and Guinea-Bissau.

After receiving three additional requests for exemption, it approved a resolution asking the Contributions Committee to hold a special session in early 1999 to consider those requests. On the pattern of conferences, the Assembly noted with appreciation that the two holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha would be observed as official holidays.

Also approved by the current session were two resolutions on financing the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda in 1999, with the Assembly deciding to appropriate approximately $102.5 million and $75.8 million for the Tribunals, respectively. The session also appropriated funds for several peacekeeping operations, including the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT), the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) and the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA).

Human resources management and the Development Account were two key issues that the Fifth Committee decided to defer until its first resumed session. The first and second resumed sessions will be held from 8 to 26 March and from 10 to 28 May.