118. Programme budget for the biennium 2008-2009

Questions relating to the programme budget for the biennium 2008-2009

At its sixty-first session, in 2006, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to submit to the Assembly for consideration at the second part of its resumed sixty-first session if possible, but no later than by the end of its sixty-first session, reports on the following: (a) enterprise risk management and internal control framework, (b) results-based management, and (c) accountability framework (resolution 61/245).

At its resumed sixty-first session, in April 2007, the General Assembly noted the intention of the Department of Safety and Security to gradually assume a leading role in crisis response and crisis management for the United Nations system, and requested the Secretary-General to provide detailed information on the project and its related costs in the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2008-2009 (resolution 61/263).

At its sixty-second session, the General Assembly, recalling paragraph 134 (e) of the 2005 World Summit Outcome (see resolution 60/1), reiterated its request to the Secretary-General to prepare an inventory of the current activities of the various organs, bodies, offices, departments, funds and programmes within the United Nations system devoted to the promotion of the rule of law at the national and international levels for submission at its sixty-third session; and also reiterated its request to the Secretary-General to prepare and submit, after having sought the views of Member States, at its sixty-third session, a report identifying ways and means for strengthening and coordinating the activities listed in the above-mentioned inventory, with special regard to the effectiveness of assistance that might be requested by States in building capacity for the promotion of the rule of law at the national and international levels (resolution 62/70).

At the same session, the General Assembly recalled its resolution 60/1, recognized the need for strengthening of the development pillar of the United Nations Secretariat and the importance of strategic planning, and requested the Secretary-General to provide a comprehensive proposal at the first part of its resumed sixty-second session for its consideration with a view to improving the effective and efficient delivery of the mandates of the development-related activities of the Secretariat, including the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the regional commissions and the Development Account (resolution 62/236, para. 73)

At the same session, the General Assembly resolved that the Secretary-General should report to the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions and to the General Assembly at its sixty-third and sixty-fourth sessions all commitments made under the provisions of the resolution on unforeseen and extraordinary expenses for the biennium 2008-2009, together with the circumstances relating thereto, and should submit supplementary estimates to the Assembly in respect of such commitments (resolution 62/239).

At its resumed sixty-second session, in April 2008, under item 126, the General Assembly decided to defer until its sixty-third session consideration of five documents issued under this item: a report of the Secretary-General (A/62/521 & Corr.1), a report of the Advisory Committee (A/62/7/Add.32), a report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (A/61/357) and an exchange of letters between the Permanent Representatives of Antigua and Barbuda and Cuba to the United Nations and the Secretary-General (A/C.5/62/24 & A/C.5/62/25) (decision 62/545 B).

Capital master plan

At its fifty-seventh session, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to report to it on an annual basis on the awarding of contracts for procurement for the capital master plan; and also requested him to submit to the Assembly annual progress reports on the implementation of the capital master plan (resolution 57/292, sect. II).

At its sixty-second session, the General Assembly took note of the proposal of the Secretary-General on the accelerated strategy IV (A/62/364 & Corr.1); requested him to proceed without further delay with the phased approach to the renovation of the Secretariat Building as approved by the Assembly in its resolution 61/251; approved the changes in the schedule of the renovation of the Conference Building and the General Assembly Building as proposed by the Secretary-General in paragraph 28 of his report; requested the Secretary-General to ensure by all means that the project costs were brought back within the approved budget of $1,876.7 million; reiterated its request to the Secretary-General to make every effort to avoid budget increases through sound project management practices and to ensure that the capital master plan was completed within the budget as approved in its resolution 61/251; and took note of the proposal of the Secretary-General to utilize value engineering as a tool to recover the projected cost overruns in the capital master plan budget approved by the General Assembly in its resolution 61/251, directed at improving performance, reliability, quality, safety and life-cycle costs, and requested the Secretary-General to expeditiously and clearly identify the areas of work where efficiency gains and cost reductions were possible and to report thereon in the context of his sixth annual progress report (resolution 62/87).

Public access to United Nations documentation

At its sixtieth session, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to submit to the Assembly at its sixty-first session, for consideration and action, a comprehensive report containing detailed parameters of the proposal on the policy for access to United Nations documentation by Member States and the public, including information on resource requirements, financing mechanisms and the possibility of a fee structure, and also addressing the implementation of the existing mandates governing the issue of facilitating the access of Member States and the public to United Nations documentation and information materials, as contained in relevant resolutions of the General Assembly (resolution 60/283, sect. V).

Information and communications technology

At its fifty-ninth session, in 2004, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to submit to it at its sixtieth session the results of the technical study on information and communications technology security, business continuity and disaster recovery, with detailed costing and a timetable (resolution 59/276, sect. XI, para. 47).

At its sixtieth session, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to provide to the Assembly, at its resumed sixty-first session, detailed information on the structure and staffing requirements of the envisaged information and communications technology structure; and also requested him to submit to the Assembly, at its resumed sixty-first session, a comprehensive report on the implementation of an enterprise resource planning system including, inter alia, information on substantive improvements to the information and communications technology systems that might be required (resolution 60/283, sect. II).

At its sixty-first session, the General Assembly, with a view to enhancing the role of the subregional offices of the Economic Commission for Africa, requested the Secretary-General, in the context of his report on the comprehensive information and communications technology strategy of the Organization, to include detailed information on the implementation of paragraph 6 of its resolution 60/235 (resolution 61/234).

Financing of the administration of justice

[See item 129]

Standards of accommodation for air travel

At its fifty-seventh session, in 2003, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to submit his report on standards of accommodation for air travel to the Assembly on a biennial basis (decision 57/589).

At its sixty-second session, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General, in his capacity as Chairman of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, to report on the feasibility of harmonizing standards of travel for staff members, members of organs and subsidiary organs of the United Nations and organizations of the United Nations system, on the basis of a review and proposals by the Chief Executives Board, taking due consideration of the specificity of the work and mandates of the different entities of the system (resolution 62/238, sect. XV).

United Nations Postal Administration

At its sixty-second session, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to continue taking measures, alternative to the establishment of a contingent liability reserve, to eliminate risks posed to the United Nations Postal Administration by mass mailing and to report to the Assembly at its sixty-third session on the progress achieved; and decided to consider at its sixty-third session the establishment of a contingent liability reserve for the United Nations Postal Administration as a solution to the issue of reducing the risk posed to the Postal Administration by the use of its services for commercial and bulk mail, on the basis of any future recommendations of the Board of Auditors and updated information provided by the Secretary-General on the issue (resolution 62/238, sect. XIV)..

Construction of additional conference facilities at the Vienna International Centre, and construction of additional office facilities at the Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa

At its fifty-sixth session, in 2002, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to report to the Assembly on an annual basis on progress made in the construction of additional office facilities at the Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, bearing in mind the views and recommendations contained in paragraphs 4, 5 and 8 of the report of the Advisory Committee (A/56/711) (resolution 56/270).

At its sixty-second session, the General Assembly took note of the report of the Secretary-General (A/62/358) and endorsed the related observations and recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions on the construction of additional conference facilities at the Vienna International Centre contained in its report (A/62/7/Add.9) (resolution 62/238, sect. X).

Improving and modernizing the conference facilities and construction of additional office facilities at the United Nations Office at Nairobi

At its fifty-eighth session, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to report to the Assembly on the experience gained from operating the modernized conference facilities of the United Nations Office at Nairobi during the biennium 2006-2007 (resolution 58/272, sect. IV)..

Programme budget for the biennium 2008-2009

At its sixty-second session, the General Assembly resolved that, for the year 2008, budget appropriations consisting of $2,085,679,850, being half of the appropriation of $4,171,359,700 approved for the biennium 2008-2009 by the General Assembly in paragraph 1 of resolution A, plus $19,876,500, being the increase in revised appropriations for the biennium 2006-2007 approved by the Assembly in its resolutions 61/258, 61/275 & 62/235 A, should be financed in accordance with regulations 3.1 and 3.2 of the Financial Regulations and Rules of the United Nations (resolution 62/237 C).
At the same session, the General Assembly resolved that the Working Capital Fund should be established for the biennium 2008-2009 in the amount of $150 million (resolution 62/240).

No advance documentation is expected.

Estimates in respect of special political missions, good offices and other political initiatives authorized by the General Assembly and/or the Security Council

At its sixty-second session, the General Assembly approved the budgets totalling $386,587,300 for the 26 special political missions authorized by the General Assembly and/or the Security Council; and requested the Secretary-General to ensure that all special political missions were properly managed and all related post and non-post resources were fully and thoroughly justified (resolution 62/238, sect. V).

At its resumed sixty-second session, in April 2008, the General Assembly approved additional budgets totalling $48,954,400 in respect of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Lord’s Resistance Army-affected areas, the United Nations representative to the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, the United Nations Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the future status process for Kosovo, the United Nations Political Mission in Nepal and the United Nations Political Office in Somalia; and decided to review the staffing and resource allocation for the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Lord’s Resistance Army-affected areas at the main part of its sixty-third session in the context of the 2009 budget proposal for special political missions (resolution 62/245, sect. III).

Business continuity management

At its sixty-second session, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to submit to it at its sixty-third session a comprehensive report on business continuity, including in the event of a pandemic, that is complementary to and compatible with the wider enterprise resource planning and information and communications technology reform, and to include information on the status of implementation of measures taken in that regard (resolution 62/238, sect. VII).

Development Account

At its sixty-second session, the General Assembly decided to appropriate an additional 2.5 million dollars for the Development Account and requested the Secretary-General to fully comply with its resolution 52/12 B and subsequent resolutions on the Development Account and to submit at its sixty-third session a report on the implementation of the resolution (resolution 62/238, sect. VIII).

Liabilities and proposed funding for after-service health insurance benefits

At its sixty-first session, the General Assembly approved the establishment of an independent segregated special account to record after-service health insurance accrued liabilities and account for related transactions and also approved the recommended changes to the after-service health insurance provisions for new staff members recruited on or after 1 July 2007; decided to defer its consideration of the remaining funding proposals made in the report; and requested the Secretary-General to submit a report to it at its sixty-third session that would, inter alia: (a) reflect updated and validated after-service health insurance accrued liabilities; (b) provide additional information on alternative long-term financing strategies; (c) report on measures aimed at reducing the Organization’s costs related to health-care plans; (d) provide comprehensive information and analysis based, inter alia, on the results of the actuarial valuation of the after-service health insurance plan as at 31 December 2007 with respect to differentiated funding options based on funding sources; and (e) provide investment strategies with respect to an after-service health insurance reserve fund (resolution 61/264, paras. 10 and 11-15).

Administrative and financial implications of the decisions and recommendations contained in the report of the International Civil Service Commission for 2008

At its sixty-second session, the General Assembly took note of the report of the Secretary-General (A/62/336) on the administrative and financial implications of the decisions and recommendations contained in the report of the International Civil Service Commission for 2007 (A/62/30) and endorsed the conclusions and recommendations contained in the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (A/62/353; & A/62/7/Add.1 & Corr.1) (resolution 62/238, sect. XIII).