Budget Committee Approves Seven Texts as It Concludes First Part of Resumed Sixty-Ninth Session
Members Tackle Accountability, Recosting, Capital Master Plan, among Other Topics
Taking action without a vote, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today approved seven draft texts relating to, among other things, oversight, accountability, procurement, and nine items from the programme budget for the current biennium, as it concluded the first part of its resumed sixty-ninth session.
Stressing the practical and action-oriented recommendations of the Joint Inspection Unit and its important oversight functions towards improving and strengthening the governance of the United Nations as a whole, the draft on that body’s report also called for the heads of participating organizations to make full use of its web-based system to provide in-depth analysis of how its recommendations were being implemented.
Another draft, on accountability, emphasized the importance of promoting a culture of accountability, results-based management, enterprise risk management and internal control at all levels in the Secretariat through the leadership and commitment of senior managers. The Secretary-General would be asked for concrete measures to ensure that the compacts system would become a meaningful and powerful instrument of personal accountability and to take actions to address systemic issues that prevented managers from meeting their targets, particularly those related to compliance with the recruitment timeline.
Among the items addressed from the programme budget for the 2014-2015 biennium was a text on the recosting study and options for the United Nations to deal with fluctuations in exchange rates and inflation — moves intended to make the Organization’s budgets more predictable. By the text, the Assembly would decide to use forward exchange rates in preparing future budget estimates, commencing with the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2016-2017.
In another draft, the Assembly would note the Organization’s progress in implementing a flexible workplace at Headquarters, ask the Secretary-General to review the costs involved, and provide information on the arrangement for staff to work in remote locations, including from home.
Also addressed in the draft resolution on the programme budget for the current biennium was a text on the Capital Master Plan, whose final cost, as presented by the Secretary-General, was $2.3 billion. By that text, the Assembly would recognize the need to fund the project’s final shortfall of $154.85 million and decide to appropriate that amount from the General Fund. Of the $154.85 million, Member States would contribute $85.24 million.
The Committee, in a text on procurement, also stressed that best value for money; fairness, integrity and transparency; effective international competition; and the interest of the United Nations remained the four general principles for procurement, and requested the Secretary-General to ensure that they were adhered to in the Organization’s procurement activities. By that text, the Assembly would ask the Secretary-General to explore innovative ways to promote procurement from developing countries and countries with economies in transition and to report on concrete measures taken in that regard.
In closing remarks, speakers expressed satisfaction that the Committee had concluded so many consequential items on time and with such a responsible and accommodating spirit, despite a loaded March agenda. The representative of the United States said that the Committee had closed the Capital Master Plan 10 years after its start with responsible burden-sharing arrangements for financial costs, and had provided the Secretary-General with the funding needed to make the Organization more efficient and effective through Umoja, the enterprise resource planning system.
Also noting the constructive atmosphere, cooperative spirit and trust that had been built during the first resumed session, Committee Chair František Ružička (Slovakia) said that it created a very good perspective for future sessions. In the same vein, Yukio Takasu, Under-Secretary-General for Management, thanked delegates for their timely decisions on crucial projects and said that the Secretariat would continue its efforts to enhance effectiveness and coordination of Committee sessions.
Also speaking today were the representatives of Japan and the European Union.
Action on Drafts
The Committee first considered the provisional draft resolution on questions relating to the programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015 (document A/C.5/69/L.36), consisting of nine parts.
By the terms of the text in Part I, on the subvention to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the Assembly would authorize the Secretary-General, as an exceptional measure, to enter into commitments of up to $12.1 million to supplement the voluntary financial resources of the international component of the Extraordinary Chambers for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2015. It would also ask the Secretary-General to report on the use of commitment authority in the context of the second performance report of the programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015.
The text in Part II, on the strategic capital review, would have the Assembly welcome progress in developing long-term capital maintenance programmes under the review, and ask the Secretary–General to better assess such a programme’s potential costs and benefits as well as to entrust the Office of Central Support Services to ensure that lessons learned and best practices from the review were disseminated among duty stations. The Assembly would also emphasize the importance of ensuring the availability of appropriate in-house expertise in the context of the implementation of the review and ask the Secretary-General to continue his efforts in that regard.
By the text in Part III, on the conclusions of the High-Level Working Group on Programme Criticality, the Assembly would encourage the Secretary-General to continue consistent implementation of the programme criticality framework as an operational tool allowing informed decisions on acceptable risk to United Nations personnel.
By the terms of the text in Part IV, on standards of accommodation for air travel, the Assembly would note with concern the lack of transparency on system-wide travel data and that, notwithstanding its previous request to limit the use of exceptions to the standards of accommodation, their frequency and costs continued to increase. It would ask the Secretary-General to take immediate action to limit the use of exemptions, to strengthen internal controls in that regard, to conduct an analysis of the trends in the use of exceptions and to report thereon in his next report to the Assembly. It would also emphasize the importance of implementing all the recommendations in the report of the Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) on the comprehensive audit of all air travel activities and related practices.
By the text in Part V, on operational arrangements and conditions of service of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), the Assembly would ask ACABQ to carry out a comprehensive assessment of arrangements and formulate on that basis recommendations for improving the current conditions of service of its members, particularly their health insurance coverage, privileges and immunities, and conditions of remuneration, and steps to strengthen the efficiency of its working practices, by reviewing internal procedures and establishing a code of conduct. Afterwards, the Assembly would authorize ACABQ members to enrol in the United Nations health insurance plans at their own expense.
By the terms of the text in Part VI, on the sixth progress report on the enterprise resource planning project Umoja, the Assembly would accept the Board of Auditors’ reports and approve its recommendations therein on progress in implementing Umoja. It would stress the centrality of the leadership and oversight of the Secretary-General and of the senior management, as well as of the commitment of all departments to completing the Umoja project, in order to avoid a recurrence of the mistakes and delays in implementation to date. It would also note with concern the significant increase — totalling $54.3 million in the 2016-2017 biennium — over the initially approved budget of the project, and ask the Secretary-General to make every effort to eliminate cost overruns. The Assembly would decide to appropriate $5.54 million under section 29A, Office of the Under-Secretary General for Management of the programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015.
By the text in Part VII, on the comprehensive business case for the application of flexible workplace strategies at the United Nations, the Assembly would note progress in implementing a flexible workspace at Headquarters, and ask the Secretary-General to review the related costs, provide information on the arrangement for staff to work in remote locations, including from home, under the guidance of the interdisciplinary working group, and to incorporate workplace strategies in the ongoing design of the Strategic Heritage Plan. The Assembly would authorize the Secretary-General to enter into commitments of $5.82 million for projects through 2015, and make every effort to seek efficiencies aimed at reducing costs.
Through the text in Part VIII, on the Capital Master Plan, the Assembly would accept the Board of Auditors’ report on the Plan for 2013 and approve its recommendations therein, and ask the Secretary-General to present future proposals relating to the renovation of the Dag Hammarskjold Library and South Annex buildings as separate projects outside the Plan’s scope. The Assembly would ask the Secretary-General to ensure a proper mechanism of accountability as well as clear reporting lines after the closure of the Plan’s Office and to report thereon. It would note that the Plan’s final cost as presented by the Secretary-General was $2.3 billion, recognize the need to fund the final shortfall of $154.85 million and decide to appropriate that amount on the General Fund. Of the $154.85 million, Member States would contribute $85.24 million. A credit of $33 million of the cancellation of prior period obligations to the biennium 2012-2013 would be applied, and the Secretary-General would be authorized to credit $36.6 million from the Special Account.
The text in Part IX, on the study on recosting and options for the Organization in dealing with fluctuations in exchange rates and inflation, would have the Assembly endorse the recommendations in paragraph 54 of the report of the Expert Panel that carried out the study and decide to use forward exchange rates in preparing future budget estimates commencing with the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2016-2017. It would also request the Secretary-General to report on the impact of forward exchange rates in the context of the preparation of the proposed programme budget for the 2016-2017 biennium, provide a comprehensive assessment of the experience of forward purchasing, and provide the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) with the best estimates for inflation in order to improve forecast estimates for inflation-driven recosting. The Assembly would ask the Secretary-General not to take action on section sections 7 and 8 of the Expert Panel’s report, without prejudice to paragraph 10, which stresses the need for a comprehensive solution to the problem of recosting.
By the terms of each of the above-mentioned texts, the Assembly would endorse the conclusions and recommendations in ACABQ’s related reports.
The draft resolution was adopted without a vote.
By a draft decision (document A/C.5/69/L.31) regarding programme budget implications of draft resolution A/69/L.55 on the Statute of the United Nations Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize, the Committee would inform the Assembly that, should it adopt that draft, an additional $97,600 under section 28, Public information, would be met from within the programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015 to the extent possible, failing which the additional expenditures should be reported in the context of the second performance report for the biennium.
The Committee approved the text without a vote.
A provisional draft resolution on the report of the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) (document A/C.5/69/L.33) for 2014 and programme of work for 2015 would, among other things, have the Assembly take note of the Unit’s report and stress the importance of the Unit’s oversight functions and of providing the Assembly and other legislative organs of participating organizations with practical and action-oriented recommendations to improve and strengthen the governance of the United Nations as a whole. It would welcome the Unit’s initiative to create a roster of potential programme of work topics for the biennium 2016-2017, reiterate its request for the Unit to optimize the number of projects in its work programme through prioritization, and to issue its reports in all official languages well in advance of meetings of the legislative organs of participating organizations.
Further by the text, executive heads of participating organizations would be asked to submit their comments, including information on what they intended to do with the Unit’s recommendations, and to distribute the Unit’s reports in time for their consideration by legislative organs. The Secretary-General would also be requested to reflect the appropriate resource requirements associated with implementation of relevant portions of the medium- and long-term strategy for 2010-2019. Further, the heads of participating organizations would be requested to make full use of the Unit’s web-based system and provide in-depth analysis of how the recommendations of the Joint Inspection Unit were being implemented.
Delegates approved the draft without a vote.
By a draft on the construction of a new facility for the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, Arusha branch (document A/C.5/69/L.32), the Assembly, endorsing the related ACABQ report’s conclusions and recommendations, would reiterate its appreciation for the continued support of the Tanzanian Government in facilitating the construction. It would also encourage the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to include local knowledge and capacity in the project’s implementation and to ensure that lessons learned and best practices would be shared and applied to ongoing and future capital projects.
The Assembly would further emphasize that contingency provisions approved for construction projects served to provide safeguards against unforeseen cost overruns during project implementation and would request the Secretary-General to ensure that any future cost overruns were first met from compensatory reductions through efficiencies. It would also note with concern the higher-than-budgeted amount awarded for the architectural and engineering consultancy services as well as construction contracts, and request that the Secretary-General make every effort to seek efficiencies throughout the project’s implementation and to report on them in future progress reports.
The draft was approved without a vote.
By the text on progress towards an accountability system in the United Nations Secretariat (document A/C.5/69/L.34), the Assembly, endorsing the related ACABQ report’s conclusions and recommendations, would emphasize the importance of promoting a culture of accountability, results-based management, enterprise risk management and internal control at all levels in the Secretariat through the leadership and commitment of senior managers and ask the Secretary-General to take appropriate steps to that end. Among those were concrete measures to ensure that the compacts system would become a meaningful and powerful instrument of personal accountability, to include in his next report on accountability a detailed plan with a fixed timeframe and clear milestones for how results-based management would be implemented, and to present in detail his plans to address current weaknesses related to the Organization’s data and information needs in programme planning, monitoring and reporting. The text also asked that he take actions to address systemic issues that prevented managers from meeting their targets, particularly those related to compliance with the recruitment timeline.
The draft was approved without a vote.
A draft titled procurement (document A/C.5/69/L.35) would have the Assembly, endorsing ACABQ’s related conclusions and recommendations, stress that best value for money; fairness, integrity and transparency; effective international competition; and the interest of the United Nations remained the four general principles for procurement, and would also request the Secretary-General to ensure that they were adhered to in the Organization’s procurement activities. It would further ask the Secretary-General to continue to explore additional innovative ways to promote procurement from developing countries and countries with economies in transition and to report on concrete measures taken in that regard. Among other measures in the text, it would also request the Secretary-General not to proceed with a pilot project on sustainable procurement at this time.
The draft was approved without a vote.
By a provisional draft decision on questions deferred for future consideration (document A/C.5/69/L.37), also approved without a vote, the Assembly would defer until the first part of its resumed seventieth session consideration of eleven reports of the Secretary-General. Among those were several reports on the overview of human resources management reform, including those touching on: a global, dynamic and adaptable workforce for the United Nations (document A/69/190); mobility (document A/69/190/Add.1); performance management (document A/69/190/Add.2 and Corr.1); the young professionals programme (document A/69/190/Add.3); and assessment of the system of desirable ranges (document A/69/190/Add.4).
Also deferred would be consideration of two reports on the composition of the Secretariat: staff demographics (document A/69/292); and gratis personnel, retired staff and consultants and individual contractors (document A/69/292/Add.1), as well as his reports on: the practice of the Secretary-General in disciplinary matters and cases of possible criminal behaviour, 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014 (document A/69/283); amendments to the Staff Rules (document A/69/117); and the activities of the Ethics Office (document A/69/332). ACABQ’s report (document A/69/572) would also be deferred.
Other Matters
The Committee also considered a letter to its Chair from Yukio Takasu, Under-Secretary-General for Management, dated 27 March 2015, on the Secretary-General’s proposed establishment of a United Nations Partnership Facility to strengthen the Organization’s capacity to leverage partnerships in support of mandates. By that letter the Committee was informed that as negotiations among Member States on the establishment of such an entity reflected significant differences and a lack of consensus, the Secretary-General no longer wished the Committee to consider or take action on proposals relating to it.
Closing Remarks
FRANTIŠEK RUŽIČKA (Slovakia), Committee Chair, thanked everyone for creating a constructive atmosphere and showing diplomatic skill and a spirit of cooperation during the first part of the resumed session. That created a very good perspective for future sessions, and constituted a small step towards a new and better functioning United Nations, as the Organization prepared to celebrate its seventieth anniversary. Indeed, the Committee provided the “oxygen to the bloodstream” of the United Nations.
ISOBEL COLEMAN (United States) expressed satisfaction that the Committee had concluded so many consequential items on time and with such a responsible and accommodating spirit. She hoped that spirit would continue through the remainder of the year in the interest of making the Organization better and stronger for years. On the Capital Master Plan, the Committee closed the project 10 years after its start with responsible burden-sharing arrangements for final costs. On Umoja, it provided the Secretary-General with the funding needed to make the Organization more efficient and effective. On recosting, the Secretary-General was given new tools to make budgets more predictable, and in procurement, he was given guidance to continue modernizing and increasing competition in procurement processes for the first time in seven years. In flexible workspace strategies, the Organization was given the ability to improve productivity and to use office space more efficiently.
SHO ONO (Japan) said the many agenda items before the Committee had required difficult negotiations and delegates had reached consensus on time by exhibiting necessary flexibility. While acknowledging differences, members were respectful in their search for common ground. He hoped that good practice would continue in the upcoming sessions.
CARMEL POWER, a representative of the European Union Delegation, praised the conclusion of a constructive session on time. Despite the most loaded March agenda, the Committee had met its schedule through the support and cooperation of everyone.
On behalf of the Secretariat, Mr. TAKASU, Under Secretary-General for Management, thanked delegates for their timely decisions on crucial projects. The Secretariat would continue its efforts to enhance effectiveness and coordination of Committee sessions.