GA/AB/3813

BUDGET COMMITTEE TAKES UP PATTERN OF CONFERENCES

15 October 2007
General AssemblyGA/AB/3813
Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York

Sixty-second General Assembly

Fifth Committee

5th Meeting (AM)


BUDGET COMMITTEE TAKES UP PATTERN OF CONFERENCES


The Under-Secretary General for General Assembly and Conference Management, Shaaban M. Shaaban, told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning that, while his Department intended to manage its resources wisely, there was no escaping the fact that “quality is expensive”.


Mr. Shaaban, speaking as the Committee took up several reports concerning its pattern of conferences agenda item, noted that, in order to make the handling of conference services more efficient and cost-effective in its publication of documents, utilization of resources, recruitment and training for language and interpretation services and the implementation of technology, more resources and cooperation between Member States and the Secretariat would be required.


He added that, as a relative newcomer to the Department, he had been impressed with the way it managed to deliver on the exacting goals of reform, while fully aware of the intrinsic contradiction between simultaneous demands on improved quality and fiscal austerity.  In a wide-ranging statement, he also touched on quality control on external translation, how the Department would face the large number of retirees in coming years, harmonization of information technology among duty stations -- and an under-staffed unit with which to do it – as well as the late issuance of documents.


The Committee also heard the introduction of a report by the Chairman of the Committee on Conferences, Yuri Yaroshevich, who told delegates that this year’s report contained a draft resolution that had been approved by consensus -- and concerning items on which consensus seemed unlikely at the beginning of the Committee’s session.  The text addresses such things as the draft calendar for 2008-2009, utilization of conference-servicing resources, the impact of the Capital Master Plan on meetings held at Headquarters, integrated global management, documentation and publication matters, and translation and interpretation matters.


In the discussion that followed, speakers noted the improved conference services utilization rates in Nairobi and Addis Ababa, but remained concerned with the overall decreased utilization rates during 2006.  Although above the benchmark of 80 per cent, that figure had decreased to 83 per cent for 2006 from 85 per cent in 2005.


The representative of Egypt, speaking on behalf of the African Group, expressed concern over interpretation services only being provided to regional groups’ meetings on an ad hoc or “as required” basis, stressing that the temporary fix would not provide a lasting solution to improving utilization factors.  Compared with rates five years ago, he noted that the percentage of the meetings of regional groups provided with interpretation services was quite low.


In the same vein, the representative of Pakistan, speaking on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, said he was deeply concerned that only 77 per cent of the meetings of the regional groups were provided with interpretation, as compared to 87 per cent of similar meetings last year.  There would have to be a big improvement in that area to achieve the level of May 2001 to April 2002, when 98 per cent regional groupings’ meetings had been provided with that facility.


He also highlighted the importance of checking “the wastage” of conference service resources by being punctual in the conduct of meetings.  Adequate budgetary resources had to be ensured to facilitate the Budget Committee’s consideration of important issues.  As for the reports and summary records of various meetings, the primary aim needed to be the effective communication and preservation of information, rather than cost-cutting, which might adversely affect the quality of those documents.


Also highlighted in the debate were recent initiatives to foster integrated global management by the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, including the adoption of a compendium of administrative policies, practices and procedures reflecting agreements reached by the four duty stations; the establishment of a working group on publishing, to be composed of representatives from each of the four duty stations; and plans for the implementation of a common roster of outside contractors.


The representatives of the Russian Federation and Syria were among the speakers who highlighted the importance of timely issuance of documents and quality interpretation and translation within the United Nations, with the latter stressing the need to fill vacancies in the in Arabic interpretation sections in Nairobi.  He said current solutions to filling those vacancies resulted in temporary, not permanent, solutions and recommended the Department make more efforts to solve the situation permanently.


The Russian Federation’s representative emphasized the importance of an equitable approach to all language services and supported the Department’s initiative on stepping up contacts with language schools, under which the Department approached major universities to enlist graduates for the Organization’s language services.  He also insisted that Member States should have equal opportunities to bring their assessments of services provided to the Department management, as called for by relevant resolutions.  While welcoming information meetings on language services, he said that such meetings should result in specific measures to resolve issues raised and make sure that their demands were appropriately recorded.  Incidentally, his delegation continued to have problems with simultaneous interpretation from Russian into other languages. 


Also participating in the debate were representatives of Portugal (on behalf of the European Union), China, United States and Cuba.  Other documents before the Committee were introduced by the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), Rajat Saha.


The Committee will take up a comprehensive report on the review of efficiency and several documents under the current budget agenda item at 10 a.m., Tuesday, 16 October.


Background


The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) met this morning to take up its “pattern of conferences” agenda item, which relates to the management of numerous conferences and meetings organized within the United Nations system.


The first document before the Committee was a 2007 report of the Committee on Conferences (document A/62/32), which contains the Organization’s calendar of conferences and meetings and presents Committee on Conferences’ deliberations on the utilization of conference-servicing resources and facilities, as well as matters related to documentation, publications, translation, interpretation, and information technology.  It also contains a consensus draft resolution.


In a related report (document A/62/161), the Secretary-General proposes ways to better assess and improve conference services, while streamlining the work of the United Nations’ four duty stations.


According to the document, managing the duty stations in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi and making their operations cost-effective and efficient was paramount for the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management throughout the past year.  To do that, strengthening technology, grappling with a large number of retirees in language services, receiving timely input from Member States, and coordinating and standardizing procedures across the four stations were priorities.


An Integrated Global Management Initiative began to be implemented in 2004, with a joint two-year project meant to coordinate and harmonize the policies, practices and procedures of conference services.  In 2006, a compendium of administrative policies, practices and procedures was adopted, reflecting the agreements reached by the four duty stations.  The process of integrating global management was meant to be continuous and requires sustained nurturing, states the report.  The compendium includes information on the implementation of a proactive document management approach.


Streamlining procedures across duty stations meant launching a global information technology initiative, involving staff training, and developing a common statistical framework and glossary.  Two widely used computer applications were also introduced as part of the effort.  The Secretary-General expects the technology project to be completed at the end of 2009.


In order to improve the quality of conference services, the Department circulated a client survey and urged more Member States to participate and offer feedback in the future; the response rate in 2006 was about 13 per cent despite the fact that it was issued in all six official languages.  The results indicated an excellent or good rating from just over 86 per cent, a satisfactory rating from about 13 per cent, and a poor rating from under 2 per cent for the year’s services.


To increase feedback from Member States, the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) proposed changing the survey form, establishing a central database, as well as ad hoc communications from Member States and other clients on the quality of conference services.  At biennial informational meetings for Member States, which, according to the report, consistently have poor attendance, delegations expressed satisfaction with the quality of language services overall, but suggested that the Department prepare a guide outlining mandate, working methods and outputs.


According to the statistics in the report, at 83 per cent in 2006, the conference services overall utilization factor was 2 per cent lower than in 2005.  However, 84 per cent of bodies had a planning accuracy factor of 80 per cent or higher, a 5 per cent improvement over the 2005 reporting period.  Better coordination between planning officers led to a decline in the number of reassignments, from 75 per cent in 2005 to 59 per cent in 2006.  In 2006, there was an 11 per cent increase in the number of meetings requested without interpretations, and an 8 per cent increase in the number of meetings requested with interpretation.


On documentation, the report notes the Assembly’s concern with the continued high level of late submissions by author departments.  The report lists the lack of proper planning and timing of document preparation, the submission of documents beyond the control of author departments, and the informal consultation about documents preceding their actual submittal as the main causes of the delays.  The report also recommends that intergovernmental bodies respond to document service reports as a way of identifying problems and making suggestions for improvement, as well as endorse draft guidelines that call for action-oriented, succinct reports.


Efforts to enhance the quality of language services and staff training and to replenish the ranks of the language services will be a major priority of the Department in the future, the report states.  Keeping the communications and technology infrastructures up-to-date will also be important.  The Secretariat will participate in outreach activities targeting universities that train language professionals in order to make them aware of the staffing needs of the international organizations, and to help develop their curricula to ensure that graduates can function effectively in international organizations.


The addendum to the pattern of conferences report (A/62/161/Add.1) contains a draft schedule of conferences and meetings of the United Nations and its subsidiary bodies, special conferences and expert groups for 2008-2009.


The report states, among other things, that the recently established Human Rights Council will decide at its sixth session the most appropriate mechanisms to continue the work of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations, the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, and the Working Group on Minorities and the Social Forum.  Mandates already renewed by the Council include:  the open-ended working group on an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Effective Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action; the Working Group on the Right to Development; high-level task force on the implementation of the right to development.


The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has requested the General Assembly to authorize it, as a permanent measure from 2008 onwards, to hold three annual sessions of three weeks each, with a one-week pre-session working group for each session.  The Committee has also requested that its Working Group on Communications under the Optional Protocol be granted the opportunity to meet three times a year instead of twice a year, for a total of 10 working days, immediately prior to or after the scheduled sessions of the Committee.


Introduction of Documents


Introducing the report of the Committee on Conferences (document A/62/32), that body’s Chairman, YURI YAROSHEVICH, said that this year’s report contained a draft resolution, which the Committee had approved by consensus.  The deliberations on the text were not easy.  There were items on which consensus seemed unlikely at the beginning of the session.  However, in the end, a spirit of cooperation had prevailed, and both the draft resolution and the report itself were adopted by consensus.  Included in the document as Annex I, the draft was structured along the same lines and sequence as in the Secretary-General’s report.


The first operative section of the text approved the draft biennial calendar of conferences and meetings of the United Nations for 2008 and 2009, subject to provisions within the resolution, and authorized the Committee on Conferences to make any adjustments necessary, based on decisions taken during the current session.  On the utilization of conference-servicing resources, the Committee noted that the overall utilization rate at the four main duty stations, while still above the established benchmark of 80 per cent, had decreased from 85 per cent in 2005 to 83 per cent in 2006, although the planning accuracy factor had improved in 2006 by 5 per cent over the 2005 reporting period.


Like his predecessors, he had conducted consultations with the chairpersons and secretaries of bodies that had been underutilizing their resources for three years in a row, with a view to finding efficient ways to improve the situation, he continued.  The solutions suggested varied from the importance of starting and ending meetings on time to better planning of programmes to reduce, where possible, the number of meetings requested.  Three intergovernmental bodies that had previously underutilized resources had reached or surpassed the established 80 per cent benchmark in 2006.  Furthermore, the intergovernmental body that had been the perennial lowest utilizer up to that point had reached the 80 per cent figure in 2007.  The improvement was the result of careful planning and ongoing dialogue between the bodies concerned and conference services, as well as other efforts to improve utilization.


In his oral report to the Committee on Conferences, he had also noted an increase in time lost from late starts and early endings and suggested three options to address the situation:  to write a letter from the Committee on Conferences highlighting the issue; to reflect the problem in the pattern of conferences resolution; and to request Committee on Conferences members to raise the matter in the meetings of their respective regional groups.  He had suggested a three-pronged approach to the Committee:  the Chairman should continue to hold consultations, especially with chairpersons of underutilizing bodies; the Department should continue its proactive approach at the planning stage; and the intergovernmental bodies should, to the extent possible, be more realistic in their request for conference services.


Regarding the provision of conference services to regional and other major groupings, he said that the percentage of meetings provided with interpretation had decreased from 87 per cent in 2005 to 76 per cent in 2006.  Once again, intergovernmental bodies were urged to spare no effort at the planning stages, to take into account the meetings of regional and other major groupings, and the draft resolution requested the Secretary-General to continue to explore innovative ways to address the problem.


Further, the Committee had noted with satisfaction that all meetings of Nairobi-based United Nations bodies had taken place in Nairobi in 2006, he said.  It also welcomed increased promotional activities by the management of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) conference centre, which had resulted in a utilization rate of just over 60 per cent, a marked improvement over the 2005 rate of 42 per cent, and the trend in 2007 was even more encouraging.  The Committee also welcomed the cooperation agreement regarding conference services concluded by ECAwith the United Nations Office in Nairobi.


On the impact of the Capital Master Plan on the meetings held at Headquarters, he said that calendar bodies and other intergovernmental organizations had been requested to take into consideration the limitations of conference facilities throughout the renovation period, and to liaise closely with the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management when scheduling meetings.  In addition, part of the conference-servicing staff and information technology resources of the Department would be temporarily relocated to a swing space, and the Secretary-General was requested to ensure that the quality of services would not be compromised, that all language services be treated equally, and that adequate support be provided to the Department for continued maintenance of information technology facilities.


Continuing, he noted the initiatives to streamline the procedures, achieve economies of scale and improve the quality of conference services, saying that the Committee had also stressed the importance of equal treatment of conference-servicing staff, as well as equal grade for equal work at all four duty stations.  The Secretary-General was requested to continue to explore best practices and techniques in client satisfaction evaluation, and to continue to explore innovative ways to capture and analyse feedback on the quality of conference services.  The outcome of the work of the task forces was noted, and the draft requested that administrative policies, practices and procedures developed should be in full compliance with relevant resolutions.


Turning to documentation and publication-related matters, he noted “familiar concerns” on maintenance of equality of the six official languages and delayed and late issuance of documentation.  The importance of the concordance principle was also stressed, in order to ensure equally valid texts of resolutions in all six official languages.


On translation and interpretation, he said that the OIOS was requested to conduct a comprehensive review of the existing special arrangements governing recruitment of temporary staff in language services at the four duty stations, in particular their compliance with relevant rules and regulations.  Concern was expressed over the appropriate level of self-revision in all languages, and the high vacancy rates in Nairobi.  Succession planning was a matter of major concern, and training and mobility and their implications for conference services was the theme of this year’s traditional videoconference with other duty stations.  The Secretary-General was requested to continue to address the issue of succession planning by enhancing internal and external training programmes, developing staff exchange between organizations, and participating in outreach activities to international institutions.  In light of the changing demographic in language services, he was also requested to take necessary measures to avoid any negative impact on the quality of translation and interpretation.


He said that the draft requested the Secretary-General to enhance the quality of translation in all official languages, in particular for contractual translations, and to report on lessons learned and best practices in performing quality control in contractual translation, including on numbers needed and appropriate level of staff needed to carry out that function.  The Committee had also taken note of the performance measurement matrix proposed by the Secretary-General and looked forward to receiving the indicators for all duty stations beginning in 2008.  It also noted the impact of freelance requirements on the quality of interpretation at all duty stations, and welcomed the measures proposed in that regard.


Introducing the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) (document A/62/473), the Chairman of that body, RAJAT SAHA, said that many of the issues highlighted in the Secretary-General’s report before the Committee were also the subject of discussions during the Advisory Committee’s deliberations on the estimates under the proposed programme budget.  The Advisory Committee welcomed recent initiatives to foster integrated global management by the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, including the adoption of a compendium of administrative policies, practices and procedures reflecting agreements reached by the four duty stations; the establishment of a working group on publishing, to be composed of representatives from each of the four duty stations; and plans for the implementation of a common roster of outside contractors.


The Advisory Committee recommended approval of the measures set out in paragraph 77 of the Secretary-General’s report, which were intended to address a number of documentation problems, he said.  Among other things, the Secretary-General sought the endorsement of the drafting guidelines for reports not originating in the Secretariat.  He also suggested that the Assembly might wish to affirm that documents prepared on the basis of submissions from Governments or agencies and programmes of the United Nations system should not be reproduced in full, and that it may wish to reiterate its request that the Secretary-General bring to the attention of intergovernmental bodies any request for documentation that exceeded the ability of the Secretariat to produce such material within its approved resources.


With over 20 per cent of all staff on established language posts due to retire between 2007 and 2011, the need for adequate succession planning in the Department was acute, he continued.  It was clear that the ability of the Department, in cooperation with the OHRM, to hold an adequate number of competitive examinations for language posts would be essential for effective succession planning.  The ACABQ, therefore, urged the Department and the OHRM to agree on measures aimed at ensuring prompt organization and scheduling of the necessary examinations in the coming biennium, and recommended that the Assembly request the Secretary-General to submit proposals for handling succession planning in the Department, assigning responsibility in that regard, in the context of the next reports on the pattern of conferences and human resources management.


Statements


In his first address to the Fifth Committee as the Under-Secretary General for General Assembly and Conference Management, SHAABAN M. SHAABAN, said that, as a relative newcomer, he had been impressed with the way the Department managed to deliver on the exacting goals of the reform, while fully aware of the intrinsic contradiction between simultaneous demands on improved quality and fiscal austerity.  “We intend to manage our resources wisely, but, as I said in my introductory statement to the Committee on Conferences, there’s no getting away from the fact that quality is expensive”, he said.  “Mindful of your concern about the quality of our services, we have included in the proposed programme budget for 2008-2009 a request for seven P-5 posts at UNHQ to allow the Department to provide quality control of contractual translation documents.”  Similar requests had been made for the Offices in Geneva and Vienna.  Given its cost-efficiency, contractual translation was an important component of the “optimal mix” of translation modes.


As was the case with in-house translations, the work of external translators required sustained attention from senior revisers in the translation services, he continued.  Up until now, however, that attention had been lacking for want of adequate resources.  Quality control was an ongoing process, and dedicated, permanent capacity was needed for that purpose, “but this has a price tag attached to it”, he said.  “We cannot -- and will not -- pretend that we can deliver higher quality in this area, as requested in several General Assembly resolutions, if the Department’s staffing tables are not strengthened at the right levels.”


Also, he added, over the years, the paring down of the Department’s resources, prompted by the need to implement budget cuts, had left the Department with incongruent staffing tables -– and concomitant anomalies in the grading structure of several language units, where P-4 posts were not equally distributed among the languages, or where staff performing identical functions were graded at different levels, as was the case in Official Records Editing Section, the Verbatim Reporting Service, the Copy Preparation and Proofreading Section, and the Terminology and Reference Section.  Those inequalities flew in the fact of the mandate of equal treatment of the official languages, as well as the widely recognized principle of equal grade for equal work embodied in several resolutions.  In addition, they had an adverse impact on the morale of the staff in the units concerned.


Among the Department’s major challenges in the coming years, he mentioned the large number of projected retirements, with some 40 per cent of D-1s and D-2s and about 26 per cent of P-5s due to leave the Organization in the next five years. The Department depended on competitive examinations for recruiting some 80 per cent of its staff.  For the Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM) to cope with such a large number of exams, it would need additional resources.  Competitive examinations were costly, laborious and time-consuming.  Closely connected with the issue of succession planning was that of training.  As all the new staff coming on board had to be trained, the Department’s output was likely to be affected.  The Department intended to pursue various avenues in that regard, including the assignment of dedicated senior-level staff exclusively to training functions.  In addition, a staff member had been appointed “Training Coordination Officer” on a temporary basis.


Among other things, he also mentioned the fact that, in November, the Department managers from the four duty stations would undertake a study visit to the European Union institutions in Brussels for first-hand learning and in-depth exchanges of information.  Last year, the Department had hosted a group from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which had come to learn from the United Nations.  In May, a group from the Publishing Section had visited the printing operations of the World Bank, and two officers from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) were coming to United Nations Headquarters shortly.  Those initiatives came at a cost, but they were essential if training was to receive the place it deserved in a modern knowledge-based organization.


On information technology, he said that the Information Technology Unit at Headquarters was currently coordinating a global project aimed at harmonizing information technology activities, processes and practices in the areas of meeting and documentation services across the four duty stations.  Unfortunately, however, the Unit continued to be severely under-staffed.  While the proposed 2008-2009 budget recognized to some extent the need to strengthen the Information Management and Technology Unit, two additional P-3 posts would be essential for it to be adequately staffed.


On regional groups and other major groupings meetings, he said that, while there had not been significant changes in the percentage of requests met, the number of meetings with interpretation services had continued to increase.  Also, regional groups were not the only ones affected.  Some 20 per cent of the requests of bodies entitled to meetings “as required” had been unmet in the period from January to May 2007 -- a matter of some concern, since those meetings were fully authorized.


Regarding documentation, he listed recent mechanisms, including the slotting system, that had been introduced in recent years.  However, while the total number of pages submitted for translation per year was reasonably stable, it was impossible to state, at any given point, what the exact volume would be.  That added an element of risk and uncertainly to the forecasting and capacity-planning.  In its report, the Department had outlined a series of measures, including drafting guidelines for reports not totally within the purview of the Secretariat.  The Department was also making available to Member States the matrix that it intended to use to measure its overall performance.


CLOTILDE MESQUITA ( Portugal), speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, said that the provision of effective conference services, through timely issuance of documentation, high standards of language services and adequate meeting facilities, was essential to the success of the work of the United Nations.  At the same time, the Union was aware of the share of the regular budget represented by conference management.  For those reasons, the Union placed great value on effectiveness, efficiency, accuracy and quality of conference services with consistency in all official languages.


The Union welcomed the progress achieved across all duty stations in many areas of Department reform, she continued, in particular progress in the context of achieving integrated global management with a view to streamlining procedures, achieving economies of scale, and improving the quality of conference services.  She encouraged the Department to actively take forward all those and other reform initiatives.  The Union also warmly welcomed the report of the Committee on Conferences and was encouraged that the Committee had been able to agree on the annexed draft resolution.  The Union welcomed the draft proposed by the Committee and was willing to endorse it as a package.


AHMED FAROOQ ( Pakistan), speaking on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, said that the draft resolution submitted by the Committee on Conferences provided a good basis for work.  Efficient conference management provided the necessary tools through which the Organization worked.  Issues like the utilization of conference-servicing resources, documentation, translation and interpretation matters, and the calendar of conferences would all form key elements of that endeavour.  Apart from those issues, it would be necessary to consider the impact of the Capital Master Plan on the conference services at Headquarters during the project duration.


The utilization of conference services, although above the benchmark of 80 per cent, had registered a decrease to 83 per cent for 2006 from 85 per cent in 2005, he continued.  The negative trend in that regard was reflected in all but one duty station.  He hoped that, in the coming year, the utilization factor would rise once again through better coordination between the planning officers and technical secretariats.  In that regard, he noted with satisfaction the 100 per cent utilization of conference services in Nairobi and the marked increase at the Conference Centre at ECA in Addis Ababa.  The latter needed to continue to explore the means to further enhance its conference utilization, bearing in mind the minimum operating security standards.


He also highlighted the importance of checking “the wastage” of conference service resources by being punctual in the conduct of meetings.  Each hour of fully serviced conference time cost thousands of dollars.  The Fifth Committee, at times, had to meet for long hours to complete its work, and adequate budgetary resources had to be ensured to facilitate its consideration of important issues.  As for the reports and summary records of various meetings, the primary aim needed to be the effective communication and preservation of information, rather than cost-cutting, which might adversely affect the quality of those documents.  Resolution 61/236 recognized the importance of the meetings of regional groups, which needed interpretation for smooth functioning.  The Group was deeply concerned that only 77 per cent of the meetings of the regional groups were provided with interpretation, as compared to 87 per cent of similar meetings last year.  There was a wide scope of improvement in that area, through adequate allocation of resources, to achieve the level of May 2001 to April 2002, when 98 per cent of regional meetings had been provided with that facility.


The Group believed in equitable treatment of all the duty stations and languages, he continued.  With some 25 per cent of the total United Nations language staff due to retire in the next five years, he said that, while the course of action mentioned in the report was a step in the right direction, he would like to receive more detailed information as to the number of vacancies at each duty station and in each language, along with the strategy to deal with that issue in the long run.  It was also important to make sure that outsourcing of the translation services did not affect their quality.  At present, the capacity of quality control for outside services was missing at all duty stations.  Without quality control, the Organization might not be able to fully utilize that option.


Turning to “the perennial problem” of late issuance of documentation, he noted, from the Secretary-General’s report, that the lack of proper planning and timing was one of the main reasons for the delays, whereas only 8 per cent of the slotted documents were beyond the control of the Secretariat.  With regard to paragraph 77 of document A/62/161, the Group would like to reiterate the prerogative of Member States and intergovernmental bodies with regard to the length and timing for the provision of the inputs to the United Nations as they deemed necessary.  The Group took note of the outcome of the work of the Integrated Global Management task forces and requested the Secretary-General to ensure that administrative policies, practices and procedures developed on the basis of their recommendations be in full compliance with relevant Assembly resolutions.


On the Capital Master Plan, he said that the bodies holding meetings during the duration of construction work would have to be cognizant of the scarcity of conference space.  The Group encouraged all requestors of meetings at Headquarters to liaise with the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management to facilitate better conference management during the project.


HESHAM MOHAMMED EMAN AFIFI ( Egypt), speaking on behalf of the African Group, welcomed the improved utilization rates in Nairobi and Addis Ababa, but remained concerned with the decreased utilization rates of 83 per cent during 2006 compared to 85 per cent in 2005.  Also concerned with interpretation services only being provided to meetings on an ad hoc or “as required” basis, he said that that method did not provide a lasting solution to improving utilization factors.  Compared with rates five years ago, he noted that the percentage of the meetings of regional groups provided with interpretation fell far below previous rates.


Regarding the Capital Master Plan, he welcomed the inclusion of information of the Plan’s impact on the Department in its report to the Secretary-General, and requested the Department to keep the matter under constant review.  He emphasized that any approach decided upon should not compromise the quality of conference management services and looked forward to receiving more information on the impact of the Plan, as a result of the proposed approach.  Continuing, he noted that the timely issuance of documents was critical, but late issuances still remained a chronic problem that negatively affected the legislative process.  He urged the Secretary-General to hold author departments accountable for late issuances.  While he welcomed page limits being mandated, he stressed that the quality of those documents should not be compromised in an effort to be brief, and urged flexibility when implementing those limits.


To address the vacancy situation in language sections, particularly in Nairobi, he hoped that the steps already made to fill longstanding gaps achieved concrete results and looked forward to receiving more information on the issue from informal consultations.  He reaffirmed the importance of achieving the highest quality of translation and interpretation services, stressing that cost savings should not be pursued at the expense of quality, timeliness and efficiency.  Finally, he noted with concern that the internal capacity to ensure appropriate quality control of external translations has been inadequate.


SHEN YANJIE ( China) associated himself with the position of the Group of 77 and China, and expressed appreciation for the work of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management.  The Department had vigorously carried out the reform to improve management and utilization of resources, paying attention to enhancing the quality of its services.  In fact, some of the factors were beyond the control of the Department, and China noted with appreciation that the Department had paid attention to the study of those factors and was actively trying to find solutions.


Regarding the expected retirement of a large number of language staff, he said that it was important, budget permitting, to train new recruits.  It was equally important to pay attention to enhancing the skills of existing staff.  The language staff should follow the most recent usage and master the newest terminology.  International recruits should be given corresponding treatment, according to the existing regulations and rules.


Turning to information exchange meetings on language services, he noted from the Secretary-General’s report that, in April, the Department had held the first round of such meetings this year, with participation of 22 Member States.  At the meeting, the delegations had expressed some concerns, but were, on the whole, satisfied with the quality of the services.  The delegations had also made suggestions, which the Department intended to implement.  He believed such meetings were useful as they allowed language staff to find out what delegations thought and improve their services.


On the Capital Master Plan, he said that during the project, the work of the Department was likely to be carried out in different locations.  He appreciated the Department’s efforts to address the situation.  In particular, it was actively studying the issue to ensure quality of services during the construction period and ensure equal working conditions for staff in six official languages, as well as equal status of all languages.


DAVID IBSEN ( United States) said he appreciated the ongoing efforts of the Department to reform itself in a way that maximized both efficiency and cost-effectiveness, without compromising the quality of its services.  In that connection, he noted the high utilization rate across the four main duty stations, the increased emphasis on accountability in regards to timely submission of documents, and the Department’s stated emphasis on strengthening its technological applications.


Taking up meetings management, he brought to the Committee’s attention the increased utilization rate at the four main duty stations, the improved planning accuracy factor by 5 per cent over the 2005 reporting period, and the decrease in time lost due to late starts and early endings.  Given strong communications between departments, he said future time loss could continue to be avoided.   Continuing, he commended the Department for its efforts to service the meetings of those bodies that were entitled to meet “as required”.


Finally, he expressed his continued support for the introduction of new technologies to improve and facilitate conference services and the interoperability between duty stations.  He noted that he supported efforts to develop and implement its Global Information Technology Initiative.  He encouraged the Department to continue to develop the initiative, which he said had the potential to greatly enhance the efficiency and quality of conference services, in a cost-effective manner.


YASSAR DIAB ( Syria) said he attached special importance to the item on pattern of conferences, as it allowed Member States to follow up on all conferences on the United Nations.  He reiterated the importance of all bodies submitting documents on time.  He said the timely submission of documents affected the work of all the organs of the United Nations.  He urged departments to comply with the six-week rule.  Notwithstanding the Assembly’s resolution on the issue, he asked the Secretariat to continue to make efforts to improve the situation


He also stressed importance of posting, in a timely manner, documents on the Organization’s website.  He drew attention to conference services in Nairobi and stressed the need to fill vacancies in the Arabic interpretation sections there.  He said the current solutions to filling those vacancies resulted in temporary, not permanent, solutions and he recommended the Department make more of an effort to solve the situation permanently.


Regarding the work of intergovernmental machinery, he noted the increased percentage of meetings involving interpretation services for the first half of the year.  Further, he said it was important to coordinate among interpretation and translation sections to adopt a uniform terminology for those services.  He suggested contacting universities to fill language posts, especially through the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in the Arab world.  He took note of the completion of the Integrated Global Management policies, practices and administrative measures developed in 2006, and urged the Department not to lose sight of the issue. He noted that, in the compendium, relevant resolutions of the Assembly must be observed.  Finally, regarding the Capital Master Plan, he demanded the implementation of the project, not diminish the quality of services provided to Member States.


MAXIM N. GOLOVINOV ( Russian Federation) noted the successful work by the Committee on Conferences in 2007, which had resulted not only in the traditional report, but also an agreed draft resolution on the pattern of conferences.  He stressed the important role of the Committee on Conferences in ensuring effective conference management and detailed consideration of problems in that regard.  The Russian Federation attached great importance to the continued reform of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, the main task of which was to improve the quality of services to Member States in six official languages at Headquarters and all the duty stations.  In that connection, he advocated caution in reforming language services.  There should be no doubt regarding the unique nature of the work done by language services.  The main goal of reforming their work was to ensure enhanced quality of translation and interpretation in six official languages of the United Nations.  Speaking about the quality of language services, he could not fail to observe that, to a large extent, it depended on creating equal working conditions and ensuring balanced distribution of human and financial resources, as envisioned by resolution 61/266 on multilingualism.


The success of the Department’s integrated global conference management initiative at all duty stations would depend on a balanced division of labour between the duty stations and Headquarters, under which the Department, through its coordinating efforts, should facilitate the most effective use of the duty stations’ potential.  He noted the completion of the work by the task forces on Integrated Global Management and the completion of a compendium of administrative policies, practices and procedures.  Although detailed consideration of that document in the Fifth Committee would be difficult, because of the heavy agenda, he believed the practice, procedures and policies of the Department should be fully in line with relevant General Assembly resolutions.  He also expected the implementation of the project to help reach such important goals as ensuring the place on the United Nations website of all the documents issued since the Organization’s inception, facilitating the use of new technologies in all official languages, and harmonization of United Nations terminology, while fully observing grammatical and stylistic peculiarities of official languages.


On documentation, he said there were still cases where the rule on simultaneous distribution in all six languages was not observed.  He also asserted that the Department needed to continue its work to ensure systematic monitoring of Member States’ satisfaction with the services provided.  Member States should have equal opportunities to bring their assessments to the Department’s management as called for by relevant resolutions. Also, while welcoming information meetings on language services, he said that such meetings should result in specific measures to resolve issues raised and make sure that demands were appropriately recorded.


Incidentally, his delegation continued to have problems with simultaneous interpretation from Russian into other languages.  He supported the Department’s initiative on stepping up contacts with language schools in countries whose populations spoke the languages of the United Nations.  The implementation of that initiative should be part of a forward-looking strategy to plan competitive linguistic examinations.  Also, the implementation of the Capital Master Plan should not have an adverse effect on the quality of conference services or equitable approach to all language services.


PABLO BERTI OLIVA (Cuba) endorsed the statement of Pakistan, speaking on behalf of the Group of 77, and said, after examining the report of the Secretary-General, it was quite clear that the most effective way to address conference services, regional groups, and other groupings of countries, was to grant the necessary resources for that to be done.  The granting of resources would be the most effective solution in the long term.  Regarding the publication of documentation, he welcomed the work of the Department to achieve more timely results.  He added that accountability was not only internal within the Secretariat, but also was within the purview of Member States, which were the ones who received the product from the Secretariat.  He noted extensive resolutions had addressed the issue and urged the Secretariat to seek innovative reforms to continue to take on the issue.  Finally, he said documents should be published in accordance with the rules and regulations.


In his concluding remarks, Mr. SHAABAN thanked the delegates for their comments, noting that three delegations had spoken about the six-week document issuance rule, but not a single one had spoken about the 10-4-6 rule, which was also important.  The Department could not translate documents in four weeks, unless it received them 10 weeks ahead, as envisioned by the same resolution.  Late submission was a problem.  In general, there had been many improvements, but there was still a long way to go.


Responding to comments about the prerogative of Member States on deciding on the length of reports, he stressed the importance of close cooperation between the Secretariat and Member States, giving as an example a recent report of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), which could not be discussed due to lateness of issuance.  The document represented a questionnaire to Member States, to which some countries responded in over 20 pages and others in one page.  “So how can we produce in a timely manner a report to be composed of over 100 pages?” he asked.  He also reiterated the point he had made in his introductory statement that quality was expensive.


Some delegations had spoken about recruitment with diligence, the satisfaction of Member States, and quality of interpretation and translation services, he continued.  Upon arrival, he had found out about the outreach to universities programme, under which the Department approached major schools to enlist graduates to sit for competitive language exams.  Unfortunately, the United Nations was not competitive at the level of the United States, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for example.  Others paid better.  During a recent conversation with the Director of École d’Interpets in Geneva, he had found out that the graduates of that school were booked for several years for the European Union and other organizations.  The only way to enlist and attract people was to train them before they sat for the exam.  He regretted the United Nations did not have an institutionalized capacity towards that goal.


* *** *

For information media • not an official record
For information media. Not an official record.