United Nations : Regular Budget Documentation

UN Regular Budget

Introduction


Budget Documents

Planning documents

Proposed programme budget

Programme budget

Performance reports

Programme Performance report

Financial report, statements, and Auditors report

Scale of assessments


Principal Budgeting Bodies

Secretary-General and Secretariat

General Assembly

Fifth Committee

ACABQ

Committee for Programme and Coordination

Board of Auditors

Committee on Contributions


Note on Budget Cycle

Availablity of Documents


Introduction

The Charter of the United Nations gives responsibility for approving the budget to the General Assembly (Chapter IV, Article 17) and for preparing the budget to the Secretary-General, as “chief administrative officer” (Chapter XV, Article 97). The Charter also addresses the non-payment of assessed contributions (Chapter IV, Article 19).

The planning, programming, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation cycle of the United Nations has evolved over the years; major resolutions on the process include General Assembly resolutions: 41/213 of 19 December 1986, 42/211 of 21 December 1987, and 45/248 of 21 December 1990.



Budget Documents


Planning Documents

As requested by General Assembly resolutions 58/269 of 23 December 2003 and 63/247 of 24 December 2008, the current planning cycle follows a two-year pattern with the draft planning document called Proposed strategic framework and the final document called Strategic Framework, formerly called the Biennial Programme Plan (list of symbols).

The planning document is prepared by the Secretariat and issued in multiple parts. After consideration by the Committee for Programme and Coordination, Economic and Social Council, Fifth Committee, and the plenary, the General Assembly adopts a resolution on the plan.

Currently, the planning documents follow the pattern shown below.


Proposed Strategic Framework

The Proposed Strategic Framework is issued in several parts: Part one, the plan outline, is issued in one document. Part two consists of many documents, one document for each Programme.

Currently, the Programmes are issued as follows:


Strategic Framework

After General Assembly approval, the Strategic Framework, the final version of the planning document, consolidates the proposals into one document.


Budget outline

The Budget outline provides a preliminary estimate of needed resources, priority expenditures by sector, real growth compared to the previous budget, and the size of the contingency fund as a percentage of the overall budget. After consideration of the Secretary-General's report by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, Fifth Committee, and the plenary, the General Assembly adopts a resolution on the Budget outline.


Proposed Programme Budget

The Proposed programme budget for the biennium is issued in multiple parts (list of symbols). After consideration by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, Fifth Committee, and the plenary, the General Assembly adopts one or more resolutions on the Proposed programme budget.

Currently, the Sections are issued as follows:


Programme Budget ("Regular Budget")

After General Assembly approval, the Programme budget is issued as Supplement 6 to the Official Records of the General Assembly (list of symbols).


Performance Report

At the end of each year of the biennium, the Secretary-General submits a report on the performance for the biennium. The First performance report identifies adjustments needed to account for inflation and other variables. The Second performance report provides an estimate of the anticipated final level of expenditures and income for the biennium.


Programme Performance Report

At the end of the biennium, the Secretary-General submits a report on the programme performance for the biennium (list of symbols).


Financial Report, Audited Financial Statements and Report of the Board of Auditors

The Financial Report and Audited Financial Statements for the Biennium and the Report of the Board of Auditors is issued in several volumes as Supplement 5 to the Official Records of the General Assembly. Each volume addresses a particular area of expenditure and includes the financial report and audited statements, prepared by the Secretary-General, as well as the report of the Board of Auditors (list of symbols).

For activities on an annual budget cycle, this document is issued with the same volume number each year. For example, financial reports for the Capital Master Plan are consistently A/[session]/5 (Vol.V), despite the fact that during even-numbered sessions, Vol. I, on the United Nations programme budget, is not issued. Hence, it is possible to find A/62/5 (Vol.V), but there is no document A/62/5 (Vol.I).


Scale of assessments

The regular budget of the United Nations is apportioned among Member States according to the scale of assessments approved by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Committee on Contributions. The scale generally covers three years (list of symbols).

There is a separate scale of assessments for funding of peacekeeping operations (list of symbols); for more information, please see the Peacekeeping Research Guide.



Principal Budgeting Bodies


Secretary-General and Secretariat

The Secretary-General and the Secretariat prepare the Proposed Strategic Framework, Proposed Programme Budget, First and Second Performance Reports, Programme Performance for the Biennium, and Financial Report and Audited Financial Statements, for consideration by the General Assembly and its subsidiaries.


General Assembly

Chapter IV, Article 17 of the Charter of the United Nations gives the General Assembly responsibility for approving the budget. The substantive deliberations about the budget are generally delegated to the appropriate entities, the Fifth Committee, Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, Committee for Programme and Coordination, Board of Auditors, and Committee on Contributions.

Resolutions and decisions about the budget are adopted by the plenary of the General Assembly and may touch on any aspect of the planning, programming, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation cycle. In general, the General Assembly takes action on the budget on the basis of the recommendation of the Fifth Committee. Resolutions and decisions offer citation to the documents considered by the General Assembly in its deliberations and reflect the final action of the organization on budgetary matters.


Fifth Committee

The Fifth Committee is one of the six Main Committees of the General Assembly with responsibilities for administration and budgetary matters, in accordance with Chapter IV, Article 17 of the Charter of the United Nations, a function reaffirmed by General Assembly resolution 45/248 B, Sect. VI, of 21 December 1990.

The Committee meets during the main part of the General Assembly session (September to December), and in resumed sessions in March and May of the following year. The second resumed session in May deals exclusively with administrative and budgetary aspects of UN peacekeeping, but the Committee may consider urgent matters relating to the financing of a peacekeeping mission authorized by the Security Council at any of its sessions.


Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions

The Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) was established by General Assembly resolution 14 (I) of 13 February 1946; its membership increased by resolution 32/103 of 14 December 1977. The ACABQ’s functions are described in rules 155 to 157 of the Rules of procedure of the General Assembly (A/520/Rev.17). These functions include preparing reports on the proposed programme budget and on the accounts of the United Nations for consideration by the General Assembly.

The ACABQ reports to the General Assembly on specific topics relating to the budget and finances of the organization.


Committee for Programme and Coordination

The Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC) was established by Economic and Social Council resolution 920 (XXXIV) of 3 August 1962, as the Special Committee on Co-ordination, and was renamed by Economic and Social Council resolution 1171 (XLI) of 5 August 1966. The Committee’s terms of reference appear in Economic and Social Council resolution 2008 (LX) of 14 May 1976.

The Committee for Programme and Coordination, a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly for planning, programming and coordination, reviews the programmes of the United Nations defined in the strategic framework and assists the Economic and Social Council on coordination within the United Nations system. The Committee meets annually and reports to the General Assembly.


Board of Auditors

The United Nations Board of Auditors, established by the General Assembly resolution 74 (I) of 7 December 1946, performs the external audit of the accounts of the United Nations and its funds and programmes and reports findings and recommendations to the General Assembly.


Committee on Contributions

The Committee on Contributions, established by General Assembly resolution 14 (I) A of 13 February 1946, recommends the scale of assessments of Member States’ contributions and advises the General Assembly on assessments for new members, appeals by members for change of assessment, and application of Article 19 in cases of arrears in payment. The Committee on Contributions’ functions are described in rules 158 to 160 of the Rules of procedure of the General Assembly (A/520/Rev.17).


Note on Budget Cycle

Budget deliberations begin two years before the biennium to allow time for the preparation of the documents and consideration by the bodies. For the 2010-2011 programme budget, the planning documents were issued in 2008 and the proposed budget was issued in early 2009. The Fifth Committee completed its deliberations and the General Assembly adopted its resolution on 24 December 2009 (A/RES/64/244, not yet issued).


Availability of Documents

The United Nations began publishing documents in electronic format in 1993. Most documents issued prior to 1993 are not yet available in electronic format. However, all General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, and Security Council resolutions have been digitized and are available through the Official Document System (ODS), the Library's catalogue UNBISnet, and through various websites, including the UN Documentation: Research Guide.

Older documents, including budget-related materials, are being scanned and added to the ODS and UNBISnet on a daily basis. UN-I-QUE provides citation to the symbols for documents throughout the history of the organization: each record within UN-I-QUE is comprehensive historically. The Basic Research Tools and Indexes sections of the Research Guide provide more information related to historic research. Documents that are not available online may be consulted in hard copy at a United Nations Depository Library; please contact your nearest depository for details about its collection.



Prepared and maintained by the Department of Public Information (DPI), Dag Hammarskjöld Library (DHL) . Comments as well as suggestions for further additions/enhancements may be directed to the Dag Hammarskjöld Library.
>