Financing of peacekeeping missions – Fifth Cttee meeting – Press release (excerpts)

Fifty-seventh General Assembly

Fifth Committee (Resumed)

46^th Meeting (AM)

COST OF 11 UN PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS EXTIMATED AT $2.3 BILLION FOR 2003-2004,

FIFTH COMMITTEE TOLD, AS RESUMED SESSION OPENS

Scheduled to End 30 May, Budget Committee

Deliberations to Focus Primarily on Peacekeeping Financing

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Background

During its second resumed session, opening today and expected to last through 30 May, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) will focus mostly on in-depth consideration of various aspects of peacekeeping financing, ranging from the funding of individual missions to gender mainstreaming and  write-off of contingent-owned equipment.  For that purpose, the Committee is  going to take up documents related to administrative and budgetary aspects of peacekeeping, performance reports and audited financial statements of individual missions for the current financial year and their budget requirements for the period from 1 July 2003 to 30 June 2003.

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The amount of $91.75 million proposed for UNIFIL (also in documents A/57/662 and A/57/663) shows a decrease of $20.3 million (18.1 per cent) following the downsizing of the Force, including civilian personnel.  In a related report, the Advisory Committee (document A/57/772/Add.6) recommends that the unencumbered balance of $5.7 million for 2001/2002, as well as interest and other income in the amount of $15.16 million be credited to Member States in a manner to be determined by the Assembly. 

As for the 2003/2004 budget proposal, the ACABQ believes that the estimated requirements of $91.75 million gross should be reduced by $1.75 million, recommending an appropriation of $90 million gross.  In particular, the Advisory Committee recommends against the request for a D-1 post for Deputy Force Commander and questions the need to provide redundant capacity, such as the spare satellite station equipment requested in the proposed budget.  It also proposes reducing the frequency of travel.

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An increase of $1.2 million (3.1 per cent) is envisioned for the proposed budget of UNDOF (also in documents A/57/668 and A/57/688) ($40.21 million) due to the enhancement of the mission’s information technology infrastructure.  Analysing the mission’s financing, the ACABQ in a related report (document A/57/772/Add.7) recommends crediting to Member States their respective shares of the Mission’s unencumbered balance for 2001/2002 in the amount of $113,400 and income totalling some $2.36 million.  For 2003/2004, the ACABQ recommends reducing the proposed amount by $311,200, appropriating some $39.9 million for the maintenance of the Mission in the next budget cycle.   

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