The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) sent the General Assembly 10 nominations for the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions today, also delivering the names of 15 additional candidates for three other bodies and recommending that the Chair of the Federal Court of Accounts of Brazil fill an upcoming vacancy in the Board of Auditors.
Fifth Committee
Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today laid out their intentions to ensure the United Nations can stage quality conferences — equally accessible to every Member State — at all four headquarters.
Troubled by the Organization’s precarious liquidity situation and its impact on mandate delivery, delegates of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today urged Member States with adequate financial resources to meet their obligations fully, promptly and without conditions.
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), in New York today:
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today began its line-by-line consideration of a proposed $3.3 billion regular budget for 2024, which includes 10,334 posts and would likely swing upward after re-costing by the end of next year. Secretary-General António Guterres introduced the reports detailing the proposed 2024 figures, which make up the Organization’s fifth annual budget.
The United Nations senior management official told delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today that the deteriorating liquidity situation of the Organization’s regular budget could persist into 2024 if the collection rates of unpaid assessments from Member States does not pick up.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today considered the Secretary-General’s appeal for $775.3 million to fund more than three dozen special political missions in 2024 as several delegates again pushed for the creation of a special financing mechanism to sustain them. While supportive of the missions’ crucial part in the Organization’s global peace and security pillar, delegates voiced their concern that the 39 missions consume a quarter of the Organization’s regular budget.
As they gauged ongoing efforts to run an ethical and accountable Organization, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today stressed the need for an independent Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the oversight body that carries out internal audits, investigations and evaluations of the Organization’s resources and staff.
Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today tackled a diverse set of financial issues that included adequate funding to safely drawdown a peacekeeping mission in Africa, creating a stable financing mechanism for the Organization’s Peacebuilding Fund and exploring changes in the complex methodology used to assess Member States’ contributions. As they opened their seventy-eighth session and approved their work programme, delegates also discussed the Organization’s liquidity woes and once again urged each other to make timely payments so the Organization can fulfil the core mandates laid down by Member States.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) elected Osama Mahmoud Abdelkhalek Mahmoud (Egypt) Chair on 1 June.