It
may be recalled that, in accordance with GA resolution 49/233, items
relating to the financing of peacekeeping operations and all peacekeeping
related matters, which are on the agenda of the Fifth Committee,
are considered at a resumed session in the spring of the following
year. Nevertheless, the Fifth Committee considered and recommended
for adoption by the General Assembly draft resolutions on the financing
of the following peacekeeping operations, UNIFIL; UNTAET, UNMIK
and UNMEE. It also recommended to the Assembly a draft decision
on the reform of the procedure for determining reimbursement to
Member States for contingent owned equipment.
Programme budget for the biennium 2000-2001
Under this agenda item, the
Committee recommended to the General Assembly the adoption of draft
resolution A/C.5/55/L.24 on the first performance report for the
biennium 2000-2001. In that draft resolution, the Assembly would
approve a net decrease of $34,642,200 in the appropriation approved
for the biennium 2000-2001 and a net decrease of $19,097,000 in
the estimates of income for the biennium, to be apportioned among
expenditures and income sections, as indicated in the report of
the Secretary-General. The Assembly would note the higher realized
vacancy rate compared with the budgeted rate approved by the GA
in its resolution 54/249, and would request the Secretary-General
to take all appropriate measures to rectify this situation in an
expeditious manner.
The Committee also considered
a number of issues relating to programme budget for the biennium
2000-2001, including the report of the Panel on UN Peace Operations
and the safety and security of UN personnel. As regards the question
of the Panel on UN Peace Operations, the Committee recommended draft
resolution A/C.5/55/L.32 to the General Assembly. In that resolution
the General Assembly, inter alia, would approve the support account
post and non-post requirements in the amount of $9,190,200 dollars
gross ($8,741,600 dollars net) for the period from 1 July 2000 to
30 June 2001. It would agree with paragraph 36 of the report of
the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations relating to proper
representation of troop-contributing countries in the Department
of Peacekeeping Operations and it would underscore the importance
of consultation with troop-contributing countries from the early
stages of mission planning.
As regards the question of the
safety and security of UN Personnel, the Committee recommended draft
resolution A/C.5/55/L.30 to the General Assembly whereby, the Assembly,
inter alia would decide to establish, effective 1 January 2001,
eight additional Professional posts in the Office of the UN Security
Coordinator at Headquarters, eight additional security officer posts
and sixteen additional local level posts for use in the field. Furthermore,
the General Assembly would request the Secretary-General to develop
in coordination with executive heads of the UN specialized agencies,
funds and programmes an effective mechanism for cost-sharing arrangements
and, in this connection, to ensure that in future the costs of the
security management system be included in the regular budget, to
be managed by the United Nations, contingent upon a formal arrangement
with the concerned agencies, funds and programmes for participation
in the funding for security arrangements and reimbursement to the
United Nations for services provided, under income section 2, General
income of the programme budget, and to submit proposals thereon
to the General Assembly at its 56th session through the Advisory
Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions; also decides
that, in the meantime, the established cost-sharing arrangements
between the United Nations and its specialized agencies, funds and
programmes will remain in place until the General Assembly decides
otherwise.
Back
to top
Programme Planning
Under this agenda item, the
Committee endorsed the conclusions and recommendations of the Committee
for Programme and Coordination on the proposed medium-term plan
for the period 2002-2005 and recommended the narrative of programme
19: Human rights as agreed during informal consultations held on
that programme.
Back
to top
Financial reports and audited
financial statements and reports of the Board of Auditors
The Committee recommended to
the General Assembly the adoption of draft resolution (A/C.5/55/L.12)
whereby it would approve all the recommendations and conclusions
of the Board of auditors and endorse the observations and recommendations
of ACABQ. In the draft resolution, the Assembly would request the
Secretary-General to review the question of the term of office of
the Board of Auditors and to report to the General Assembly at its
resumed fifty-fifth session under agenda item 116: entitled Review
of the efficiency of the administrative and financial functioning
of the United Nations.
Back
to top
Pattern of Conferences
The
Committee considered this item extensively. At the end of several
rounds of consultations, the Fifth Committee recommended to the
General Assembly the adoption of draft resolution (A/C.5/55/L.13).
The Assembly would approve the draft revised calendar of conference
and meetings of the United Nations for 2001, as submitted by the
Committee on Conferences. It would note with deep concern the low
rate of compliance with the six week rule for the issuance of documentation,
and would encourage the Secretary-General, in view of the impact
of late submissions on the timely issuance of documents to intensify
recent efforts with respect to planning meetings and forecasting
documentation. It would reaffirm its request on the elements to
be included in the preparation of documentation and publication
of related matters.
Back
to top
Scale of assessments for the apportionment
of the expenses of the United Nations
The
Committee held 22 rounds of informal consultations on this item.
The Committee encountered difficulties in arriving at an agreement
on the elements for the methodology of the scale of assessments
for the period 2001-2003. After a series of high-level consultations,
the Committee finally agreed to establish the ceiling at 22% subject
to a series of conditions and complicated arrangements. Draft resolution
A/C.5/55/L.36 was adopted without a vote.
Back
to top
Scale of assessments for the apportionment
of the expenses of the United Nations peacekeeping operations
The
Committee held 15 rounds of informal consultations on this item
and a number of high-level bilateral negotiations, which sets the
ceiling roughly at 27%, and the expansion of the groupings for determining
the assessments of countries. The Committee recommended to the General
Assembly the adoption of two draft resolutions on the item, A/C.5/55/L.37
and A/C.5/55/L.38. The former would reaffirm the principles set
out in GA resolution 1874 (S-IV) of 27 June 1963 and 3101 (XXVIII)
of 11 December 1973. In the draft resolution, the Assembly would
agreed on a number of elements and parameters in assessing rates
of member states, as well as the special responsibility of the 5
Permanent members of the Security Council. The Assembly would request
the Secretary-General to expand the current composition of four
Groups to ten levels and setting their contributions on a triennial
basis, in conjunction with the regular budget scale of assessment
reviews. The latter contained a number of decisions for those member
states that voluntarily expressed their desires to move to the upper
level in connection with the apportionment of expenses of the UN
peacekeeping operations. The new scale of assessments will take
effect on 1 July 2001 to confirm to the provisions of GA resolution
49/233 on the cycle of peacekeeping financing budget.
Back
to top
Financing of the United Nations Interim Force in
Lebanon (UNIFIL)
For the past three sessions
of the General Assembly, the draft resolution recommended to the
General Assembly had been adopted by a vote. The same procedure
was again requested for draft resolution A/C.5/55/L.11 on the Financing
of UNIFIL, which was adopted by a recorded vote of 109 in favour
and 3 against.
Back
to top
Financing of the two International
Criminal Tribunals (Yugoslavia and Rwanda)
The Committee recommended the
adoption of draft resolutions A/C.5/55/L.15 on (ICTY) and A/C.5/55/L.16
on (ICTR) respectively without a vote. On both draft resolutions,
the Assembly decided that the budgets of ICTY and ICTR shall be
biennialized, on an experimental basis, for the period 2002-2003,
and to keep the matter of the biennialization under review. The
Assembly requested the Secretary-General to report to the GA at
its 58th session on the results of the experiment and the impact
on the functioning of the Tribunals. The Assembly also requested
the Secretary-General to provide in his proposed budget, with the
involvement of all organs of the Tribunal, workload data for the
budget period in order to give more justification for its resource
requirements, and to include in his budget presentation information
on budgetary requirements, including targets for recruitment, training,
judicial scheduling and performance standards for support activities.
Back
to top
Review of the efficiency of the
administrative and financial functioning of the United Nations
The Committee considered a number
of issues under this agenda item, such as, the question of procurement
reform and outsourcing practices, report of the Joint Inspection
Unit, results-based budgeting, capital master plan, proposed programme
budget outline for the biennium 2002-2003, to name a few.
The Committee recommended to
the General Assembly the adoption of draft resolution A/C.5/55/L.19
on the question of results-based budgeting. In the draft resolution,
the Assembly would note that the measures proposed by the Secretary-General
and recommended by the Advisory Committee were intended to provide,
in essence, a management tool that should enhance responsibility
and accountability in the implementation of programmes and budgets,
and it would decide that these measures, as approved by the General
Assembly in the present resolution should be implemented in a gradual
and incremental manner, in full compliance with the Regulations
and Rules Governing Programme Planning, the Programme Aspects of
the Budget, the monitoring of Implementation and the Methods of
Evaluation and the Financial Regulations and Rules of the United
Nations.
As regards outsourcing practices,
the Committee recommended to the General Assembly the adoption of
draft resolution A/C.5/55/L.20, whereby it would request the Secretary-General
to continue to ensure that programme managers are guided by the
following four basic reasons for outsourcing (a) To acquire technical
skills not readily available within the Organization, including
accessing state of the art technologies and expertise or acquiring
needed flexibility to meet quickly changing circumstances; (b) To
achieve cost savings; (c) to provide a source more effectively,
efficiently or expeditiously; and (d) to provide an activity or
service not needed on a long-term basis. The Assembly would affirm
that at least the following three significant goals must be considered
with regard to the use of outsourcing by the United Nations (a)
to respect the international character of the Organization (b) To
avoid a possible negative impact on staff; (c) To ensure appropriate
management and/or control over the activities or services that have
been outsourced.
The Committee also recommended
to the General Assembly the adoption of draft resolution (A/C.5/55/L.25)
on the question of the proposed programme budget outline for the
biennium 2002-2003. In the draft resolution, the Assembly would
endorse the recommendation of the ACABQ in paragraph 8 of its report,
that provision should be made in the budget outline for expenditures
for special political missions related to peace and security expected
to be extended or approved in the course of the biennium. It would
decide that the preliminary estimate of resources for the proposed
programme budget for the biennium 2002-2003 should therefore include
a provision for special political missions in the amount of 93.7
million dollars at revised 2000-2001 rates, which should be reflected
in the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2002-2003, and
that additional requirements shall continue to be treated in accordance
with the provisions of GA resolution 41/213. It would note that
the Secretary-General’s preliminary estimates for the proposed programme
budget did not include provision for the requirements for the biennium
2002-2003 of the implementation of the report of the “panel on UN
peace operations” nor did it include provision for the requirements
for the biennium 2002-2003 for safety and security of personnel.
The Assembly would note that these requirements pertinent to the
regular budget should be reflected in the programme budget for 2002-2003,
subject to approval by the General Assembly. It would invite the
Secretary-General to prepare his proposed programme budget for the
biennium 2002-2003 on the basis of a total preliminary estimate
of 2,515.3 million dollars at revised 2000-2001 rates. It would
also decide that the contingency fund shall be set at 0.75% of the
preliminary estimate, namely at 18.9 million dollars. And that this
amount is in addition to the overall level of the preliminary estimate
and is to be used in accordance with the procedures for the use
and operation of the contingency fund.
The Committee adopted draft
resolution A/C.5/55/L.32 on the report of the Panel on UN Peace
Operations (Brahimi report), whereby the Assembly would agree with
the views of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations and
would endorse the conclusions of the ACABQ. It would also decide
to appropriate an additional amount of $363,000 under section 3,
political affairs and $37,200 under section 27, management and central
support services of the programme budget for the biennium 2000-2001.It
would also approve the support account post and non-post requirements
in the amount of some $9.19 million gross for the period from 1
July 2000 to 30 June 2001.
The Fifth Committee recommended
to the General Assembly the adoption of draft resolution A/C.5/55/L.28
on the capital Master plan whereby the Assembly, without prejudice
to a final decision on the matter, would authorize the Secretary-General
to proceed with a comprehensive design plan and detailed cost analysis
for the refurbishment of the UN Headquarters buildings, appropriating
an amount of $8 million for the project.
Furthermore, the Fifth Committee
recommended to the General Assembly the adoption of draft resolution
A/C.5/55/L. 30 on the Safety and security of UN Personnel, whereby
the Assembly would appropriate $2.21 million for the Secretary-General
to take immediate measures to strengthen the security management
system under the regular budget for 2000-2001. It would request
the Secretary-General to develop an effective cost-sharing mechanism
for UN security in the field in coordination with the UN specialized
agencies, funds and programmes.
The Committee, in its draft
decision A/C.5/55/L.34, recommended the items/issues for deferral
to the resumed sessions.
Back
to top
United Nations Pension system
The
Committee recommended to the General Assembly the adoption of draft
resolution A/C.5/55/L.14 on the UN pension system. In the draft
resolution, the Assembly would approve changes in the pension adjustment
system, as set out in the Annex to the present resolution and would
approve amendment to article 34 regarding entitlement to survivors’
benefits for spouses and former spouses. It would also approve,
with effect from 1 January 2001, an amendment to article 67 of the
Regulations of the Fund, which would set the terms of office for
the elected members and alternate members of the UN Staff Pension
Committee at four years, instead of the current three years.
Back
to top
Future sessions of the Fifth
Committee
The Committee will hold two
resumed sessions during 2001, the first part, from 12 March to 6
April 2001, will be mainly devoted to human resources management,
the review of the functioning of the ICSC, and reports of the OIOS.”
The second part of the resumed session will take place from 7 May
to 1 June 2001 and will be devoted mainly to the financing of peacekeeping
operations, as mandated in GA resolution 49/233, and other outstanding
issues on the agenda of the Fifth Committee.
Back
to top
