The United Nations Controller urged delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today to act to avert a looming liquidity crisis that could impact the delivery of the Organization’s mandates and services next year.
Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today threw their support behind the Organization’s peacekeeping activities as Secretariat officials unveiled the details of a $6.5 billion budget earmarked for 11 missions in the upcoming 2022/23 fiscal year and the need to adequately fund peacebuilding activities through the Peacebuilding Fund.
Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budget) today asked for details on cost savings and efficiency as the Organization’s top official for supply chain management unveiled the Secretariat’s plan to restructure the way the Department of Operational Support manages and delivers equipment and services to peacekeeping missions around the world.
The support account for peacekeeping missions should correspond with the number and mandates of such operations in the field, speakers told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budget) today as it considered the Secretary-General’s proposed budget for the account during the upcoming 2022/23 fiscal cycle as well as financing for five peacekeeping missions in Africa.
The delivery of essential United Nations mandates will suffer unless they act to ease the vicious cycle of liquidity shortages in the regular budget, the United Nations top financial official warned delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today as she discussed the Organization’s semi-annual financial situation.
Delegates of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) urged each other today to disrupt the five-year deadlock over the crucial issues that cut across all operations — including sexual exploitation and abuse, the safety of peacekeepers and environmental safeguards. At the opening day of a resumed session dedicated to its global peacekeeping operations, Member States also emphasized the need to adequately finance the 11 peacekeeping missions, which now have a proposed budget of $6.5 billion, and resolve the Organization’s ongoing liquidity crisis.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today wrapped up the first part of its resumed seventy-sixth session by sending the General Assembly three resolutions and one decision, yet still not giving the Secretary-General guidance on human resources or resolving the Organization’s ongoing liquidity problems.
Amid praise for efforts to strengthen the United Nations internal anti-corruption measures, ensure gender parity and promote high standards of competence among its staff, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today pointed to continued imbalances in the equitable geographic representation among Secretariat employees and limited career prospects for existing personnel as major sources of concern.
While relieved that the United Nations liquidity crisis has eased for now, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today voiced their concerns for the long-term financial health of the Organization and its ability to keep delivering on the mandates set forth by the General Assembly, as the United Nations Controller provided an update on the financial situation.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) wrapped up the main part of its seventy-sixth session on 23 December by approving resources of $3.12 billion for the 2022 regular budget, the Organization’s third annual budget in 50 years.
