Financing the future; Fifth Committee: Administrative and Budgetary - GA 57 Session

UN Chronicle, March-May, 2003

The Fifth (Administrative and Budgetary) Committee considers any action of the General Assembly that necessitates a budget, and is the "bank" authorizing other Main Committees to draw their cheques. Sometimes, resolutions call for expenses unforeseen in the regular budget, known as the "Programme Budget Implications" or PBIs. They are mandated by the Main Committees and can range from research on fresh water to disarmament, to digging up landmines, to aiding the girl child.

In the Assembly's fifty-seventh session, PBls amounted to some S3.5 million, and to spare money for these, a contingency fund was established last year--some $18.9 million was placed in it. However, most was spent in the past year and $1.52 million remained at the beginning of the session.

"It was a key issue for us", Thure Christiansen of Denmark, who also spoke for the European Union, told the UN Chronicle. "The initial estimates for covering all the needs of PBIs was $3.5 million but only $1.5 million was available. In a good dialogue with the Secretariat and other Member States, we gave $1.49 million out of the fund." These extrabudgetary expenses, among others, included $44,700 in connection with the Economic and Social Council's 2002 resolutions and decisions; $250,000 for future operations of the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women and $455,800 for the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (Third Committee resolutions); $286,500 for strengthening the terrorism prevention branch of the Secretariat; and $203,200 for ensuring effective secretarial support for the follow-up to the International Conference on Financing for Development (of the Second Committee).

"'The PBIs were subject to a very tough consideration", Eva Silot of Cuba told the Chronicle. "There were attempts to prioritize among PBIs, which is contradictory with the fact that when you adopt a resolution in other Committees, you should also provide the correspondent money.

The delegate of Japan, Shinichi Yamanaka, told the Chronicle that it was "important to adjust the UN budget to the new agenda that has emerged through the Millennium Declaration and recent major international conferences". He added: "In order for the UN to address this new challenge, and mindful of the overall level of the budget, it is necessary not only to abolish obsolete activities but also to terminate lower-priority activities." In response to a question regarding Japan's UN contribution, Mr. Yamanaka said: "At this juncture, Japan has not decided on a negotiating position regarding the scale of assessments for contributions to the regular budget, to be negotiated towards the end of this year. Japan will continue to strive for a fairer and more equitable scale of assessments so that the resulting burden for our country would be appropriate."

According to Assembly resolution 41/213, in the years when the budget is not authorized, the Secretary-General submits an outline of the proposed budget for the following years. In the fifty-seventh session, after consideration of the Secretariat's proposal for $2.69 billion, the Committee recommended that the budget proposals for 2004 and 2005 be prepared on the basis of an estimated $2.89 billion. Also, at the end of the first year of a two-year budget, the Secretariat submits a report that adjusts the numbers for inflation and exchange rate variations, as well as additional mandates of the General Assembly and the Security Council. This is part of the budget preparation process. For 2003/2004, the Secretariat asked for an additional $300 million, of which some $176 million were mandated.

"On this issue, the European Union and other delegates expressed concern for the $300 million proposed by the Secretariat", Mr. Christiansen told the Chronicle. "We asked the Secretariat to thoroughly review it. We were happy to see that we were able to lower the proposal to $176 million. It's a good development from the Union's standpoint. We managed to mitigate the pressure on the current budget."

Earlier in his presentation before the Committee, Under-Secretary-General for Management Joseph E. Connor said that only 105 Member States had paid their regular budget assessment in full, 39 had made no payment whatsoever in 2002, while 45 had made partial payments or had received a credit as a result of a reduction in the rate of assessment.

In an interview with the Chronicle, Committee Chairman Murari Raj Sharma of Nepal said: 'Most of the budget comes from a few developed countries, and most of the developing countries chip in part of that cost. It is quite a small amount compared with what a few rich countries contribute. Apparently, it is very clear on the part of advanced nations to try to minimize the UN expenditures. But that does not preclude the fact that both the developed and developing groups are equally interested in common, shared goals."

The Committee recommended to the Assembly a total of 16 texts on issues ranging from UN personnel and assessing dues of Member States, to financing the UN Mission in Sierra Leone and the international tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, all of which were adopted without a vote.