COMMISSION ON NARCOTIC DRUGS CONSIDERING ADMINISTRATIVE, BUDGETARY ISSUES AT RECONVENED SESSION
Press Release
SOC/NAR/717
COMMISSION ON NARCOTIC DRUGS CONSIDERING ADMINISTRATIVE, BUDGETARY ISSUES AT RECONVENED SESSION
19951213 UNDCP Seen at Crossroads In Addressing Gap between Mandates and ResourcesVIENNA, 13 December (UN Information Service) -- Five years after the General Assembly decided to establish the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) as the single body responsible for world-wide action for drug abuse control, the Programme is at a "crossroads", facing an increasing gap between its mandates and the resources available to implement them.
The UNDCP Executive Director Giorgio Giacomelli made that comment this morning in an opening address to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs which has reconvened here to discuss a number of administrative and budgetary matters. With States continuing to call for increased priority to the fight against illicit drugs while failing to allocate commensurate resources to the Programme's core and project activities, there was an imperative need, he said, to explore funding possibilities beyond the heritage of the Programme's "rather small" regular budget.
He urged Commission members to consider themselves as shareholders in the UNDCP, rather than allowing a handful of donors to bear the brunt of the financial burden of international drug control. None of the Commission's members could afford to become and remain exclusively long-term clients of the Programme. One idea for increasing contributions, he said, would be for about 50 countries to agree to contribute some $300,000 each over three years, thus providing $15 million to enhance collective responsibility and help the UNDCP obtain a broad and durable financial base.
The Commission is meeting today and tomorrow to approve a final budget and performance report for the UNDCP's extrabudgetary activities for 1994-1995, as well as a proposed initial programme budget for 1996-1997. In doing so, the Commission is continuing to exercise the administrative and financial functions entrusted to it by the General Assembly in 1991 in relation to the Drug Control Programme. The Programme's regular programme budget is determined by the Assembly.
As proposed in the Executive Director's report to the Commission, (document E/CN.7/1995/21), the Fund's final budget for 1994-1995 would be $188,923,100, with $148,712,300 having been spent on implementing projects. For the 1996-1997 biennium, an initial budget of $152,448,500 is proposed, at a decrease in real terms of 25.8 per cent.
In an audio-visual presentation of the budgetary proposals, Bertrand Juppin de Fondaumière, Deputy Executive Director of the Programme and Director of the Division for Treaty Implementation and Support Services, highlighted a number of changes in the report's presentation. The budget for 1996-1997, he said, contained no surprises and was in line with the outline considered by the Commission in March. The one exception was that, based on a request by the Office of Internal Oversight Services, provision would be made for the Programme to reimburse that Office for audit services, resulting in an increase of $300,000.
In reply to points raised by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) in a report which is also before the Commission, Mr. de Fondaumière underscored the transparency offered in the current proposal, which gives a comprehensive presentation of both project and administrative activities, although United Nations organizations are generally required to focus only on the administrative portion of their budgets. He said the repetitions found by the ACABQ had been included deliberately, in order to make the text more "user-friendly".
Reviewing UNDCP's activities, Gerd Merrem, Deputy Executive Director and Director of the Division for Operational Activities and Technical Services, stressed the Programme's recent successes in establishing cooperation agreements in several subregions and in promoting demand reduction projects. Among the Programme's key emphases for the forthcoming biennium would be setting up subregional agreements in Central Asia, the Caribbean, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Baltics, the Middle East and the Amazon Basin. Demand reduction efforts would move beyond experimentation into replication of approaches that seem to work.
With regard to control measures, he said, a more comprehensive approach was needed. In addition to the transfer of skills to customs and police officials, judiciary systems had to be strengthened in their capacity to process both domestic and cross-border cases. He also pointed to the need to address the growing threat of psychotropic substances, the need to assist countries in establishing systems for regulating licit but controlled drugs and the importance of incorporating efforts to eliminate illicit crops into integrated rural development programmes.
The opening statements were followed by the start of discussion, with representatives of Japan, Egypt, Turkey, Spain and the United States participating. The session is chaired by Ireneusz Matela (Poland).
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