VIEWS OF UN BODIES AFFECTED BY SECRETARY-GENERAL'S REFORM PROPOSALS SHOULD BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT, FIFTH COMMITTEE IS TOLD

Press Release
GA/AB/3163

VIEWS OF UN BODIES AFFECTED BY SECRETARY-GENERAL'S REFORM PROPOSALS SHOULD BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT, FIFTH COMMITTEE IS TOLD

The implementation of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's proposed reforms should take into account the views of the United Nations bodies they might affect, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) was told this afternoon as it began its substantive work for the fifty-second session of the General Assembly and discussed its programme of work.

The suggestion was made by Argentina's representative, speaking on a letter dated 18 September from the Chairman of the Special Committee on decolonization, Utula U. Samana (Papua New Guinea), on the impact of the reform proposals on the Decolonization Unit of the Secretariat. In his letter to the Fifth Committee, Mr. Samana said he had no alternative but to inform it that, contrary to assurances given to his Committee, the Unit would suffer a setback and be downgraded under the reform proposals.

The representative of Algeria, who had called the Fifth Committee's attention to the letter, reserved the right to make further statements on it.

When the Committee took up the United Nations Logistics Base in Brindisi, Italy, the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), Conrad S.M. Mselle, informed it of the ACABQ's approval of the Secretary-General's request for $14.5 million gross ($13.9 million net) for the Base for the 12-month period from 1 July 1997 to 30 June 1998. It had also approved $7.9 million gross ($7.4 million net) for the Base for the previous 12-month period from 1 July 1996 to 30 June 1997.

On resources for managing peacekeeping assets, Mr. Mselle informed the Fifth Committee that the ACABQ did not object to the Secretary-General's request for four posts, as long as they were met from redeployment.

The Officer-in-Charge, Audit and Management Consulting Division of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, Egbert C. Kaltenbach, introduced the Oversight Office report on the Base. The representative of the United States asked questions.

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During discussions on the Fifth Committee's work, members dwelt on the tardiness in the issuance of documents. Several of them stressed the importance of receiving documents in a timely fashion to ensure careful consideration of the Committee's agenda items. Statements were made by the representatives of Mexico, Cuba, and Pakistan. Fifth Committee Secretary Joseph Acakpo-Satchivi also spoke.

The Committee is scheduled to meet again at 3 p.m. tomorrow, 1 October, to continue its consideration of the Logistics Base.

Committee Work Programme

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) met this afternoon to start its substantive work for the fifty-second session of the General Assembly, a period in which it would determine the United Nations regular budget for 1998-1999, the scale of assessments for the period 1998-2000, consider the financing of peacekeeping operations and of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

However, at today's meeting, it is scheduled to consider issues carried over from previous sessions. For example, under administrative and budgetary aspects of financing peacekeeping operations, it would consider reports from the Secretary-General, the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), the Office of Internal Oversight Services and the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) on the United Nations Logistics Base in Brindisi, Italy.

The strategic location of Brindisi for United Nations peacekeeping operations was a key factor in selecting it as a Base site. Brindisi is strategically central to those missions, with 13 of the current 17 field missions located within 5,000 kilometres of the Base. Furthermore, the location offers spacious warehouses, direct access to an airfield capable of handling the largest transport aircraft, proximity to a deep seaport and immediate access to technical services that may be needed to logistics operations. The Base has been operating since late 1994 under a rent-free arrangement with the Italian Government.

Reports on Brindisi Base and Management of Assets

In his report on the surplus asset storage facilities and mission start-up kits at the Base (document A/50/907), the Secretary-General asks the Assembly to approve the $7.9 million gross ($7.4 million net) cost estimates for the Base for the period 1 July 1996 to 30 June 1997. He also asks it to include in each peacekeeping mission's budget an amount to meet the Base's financing needs for that period.

Since the signing of the memorandum, the Base has been funded on an ad hoc basis and from the budgets of peacekeeping missions, primarily the United Nations Peace Forces in the former Yugoslavia (UNPF). The funds were spent on general temporary assistance, premises, transport, communications and other equipment, as well as freight charges.

The ACABQ, in its report on the Base (document A/50/985), recommends that the Assembly approve the $7.9 million gross for the Base to be prorated among individual peacekeeping budgets. However, any additional appropriation required should be justified by the Secretary-General in the context of the performance reports of the relevant peacekeeping missions. The $7.9 million gross estimates are based on a total of 16 international and 17 local staff

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and include provisions for mission subsistence allowance for international staff. The ACABQ asks the Secretary-General to review the staff levels and report in his next budget for the Base. It is of the understanding that once a budget and staff structure are approved, the payment of mission subsistence allowance will stop.

The report states that the ACABQ does not oppose the Secretary-General's proposal to establish 33 posts as core staff, changing an ad hoc arrangement in which the Base was run with up to 38 staff funded from general temporary assistance.

The Secretary-General's budget report on the financing of the Base (document A/51/905) asks the Assembly to approve $14.5 million gross ($13.9 million net) as cost estimates for the Base for the 12-month period 1 July 1997 to 30 June 1998 and prorate the sum among the budgets of active peacekeeping operations. The cost comprises a $10.2 million gross ($9.7 million net) maintenance budget and $4.3 million gross ($4.2 million net) for clearing backlog inventory.

He also asks the Assembly to approve $7.9 million gross ($7.4 million net) as costs for the Base for the period 1 July 1996 to 30 June 1997.

In other requests, he asks the Assembly to approve policies he proposes on the resourcing of the Base and on the transfer to it of used assets. Under the resourcing policy, he says the Base should be designed to maintain a core capability, sufficient to fulfil its essential functions and to allow it to handle rapid increases in activity as needed, for example, in receiving surplus equipment from closing missions or sending them to new ones.

He recommends the adoption of the principle of self-funding replenishment by which the Base will charge field missions for services it renders in their name. The charges would take two forms. First, when start-up kits are deployed to a new mission, the cost of replacing them would be charged to the mission's budget. The "replenishment" concept will allow the Base to maintain the viability of mission start-up kits it holds, without incurring more expenses for the United Nations, since any new mission would need to procure the relevant equipment anyway.

Second, in the case of supplies that would not be used to start up missions, the costs of refurbishing and preserving them will be charged to the missions' liquidation budgets. Therefore, such budgets in the future will include a provision to cover that work, equal to 30 per cent of the total depreciated value of the material to be transferred to the Base. If his proposal is approved, those arrangements would apply to the Base's budget for the period beginning on 1 July 1998. The current cost estimates for the Base include provisions for spare parts and staffing needed to refurbish existing equipment and those expected at the Base in the period up to 30 June 1998.

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Shipping costs will be charged to the missions that receive supplies from the Base.

As to the policy for transferring used assets to the Base from closing missions, the Secretary-General says that such actions should be based on a principle that ensures the consideration of their condition, cost of refurbishment and shipping, as well as their remaining useful life. Therefore, items to be shipped should have at least two years' useful life remaining, and be either serviceable or repairable at not more than 30 per cent of their depreciated value. Logistics experts should be provided to help closing missions identify items for transfer to the Base. The proposal does not rule out the need, under the some security circumstances, to abandon and destroy some matériel.

The Secretary-General's report on the management of peacekeeping assets (document A/51/957) describes the field assets control system in detail and introduces his plan to develop a comprehensive field mission logistics system, which will provide specific records and controls for expendable and non- expendable property. The latter are those that are worth $1,500 or more at the time of purchase and with a serviceable life of five years. The assets control system will use the Organization's communications, data storage and transmission facilities to track assets' conditions and manage spare parts.

Included in the report is the Secretary-General's request for the Assembly to endorse the implementation of the system and approve four posts (1 P-4, 2 P-3 and 1 General Service) to be paid for from the support account for peacekeeping operations. Annexed to the report are charts showing how the system's components would be linked through the United Nations telecommunication facilities.

The report of the Oversight Office, following a May 1996 audit of the Logistics Base (document A/51/803), says that, with a proposed budget of some $7.9 million gross for the period from 1 July 1996 to 30 June 1997, the Base served 11 peacekeeping operations. Consisting of the main facilities at Brindisi and additional container storage areas at San Pancrazio, Italy, the Base stores surplus assets from closing or downsizing missions and reserves some equipment for use as start-up kits for new missions.

In the report, the Office says that the Base's inventory records should provide up-to-date lists of assets, with specific information on quantities, condition and value of items. Such information was unavailable in many instances or often incorrect. With discrepancies in the quantities reported in inventory records, the Office suggests that priority be given to ensuring that receipts and issues of supplies are recorded accurately. It recalls that the inventory value of the Base's equipment and supplies was reduced from $76 million in late 1995 to the current $20 million. The reduction was due to write-offs and transfers of materials to various missions. The Office recommends that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations should develop

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procedures to ensure that essential information for recording inventory is provided when closing missions send materials to the Base.

The Office says it found many equipment and supplies obsolete or unusable for future missions. For example, at least 50 per cent of the stored generators were unserviceable, many of the vehicles were in poor condition even though some had been used for only 4,000 kilometres, and most trucks could not be used except for spare parts. The Office recommends that the Base evaluate all materials as they arrive to determine their serviceability.

The Office says it found, for example, that containers shipped from the United Nations Operations in Somalia containing helicopter and M-60 tank spare parts of over $6 million had never been opened. The condition of a container with more than $1 million worth of helicopter spares was in poor condition, with water leaking into it and damaging some of its contents. The Office recommends that priority be given to inspecting costly supplies to ensure that they do not deteriorate while awaiting inspection. Even though the Base has been trying to assemble start-up kits from materials received from closing missions, the Office continues, the concept of start-up kits was not yet workable. With completed start-up kits valued at some $3.4 million, the Base management, the Office was informed, intended to defray some of that cost by using some of the materials in the Base and buying those unavailable there. The Office recommends that the Department should intensify its efforts to complete the kits and to make budget proposals to buy items unavailable at the Base.

A note by the Secretary-General transmits the JIU's comments on the Oversight Office report on the Logistics Base (document A/52/380), which says that, in making suggestions, the Office did not follow its findings and recommendations to their logical conclusion. Also, the Office did not explicitly try to link the Base's situation to that of closed or scaled-down missions and to the role of the Department as the overseer of all operations. The JIU, therefore, observed that the Department seemed to lack the proper guidelines and monitoring control system at the Base and at closing or downsizing missions. It also points to shortcomings at those missions such as lack of an accurate inventory, lack of assessment of equipment to be shipped to the Base and lack of clear decision-making processes.

Continuing, the JIU says it does not detect in the Office's report a direction for more effective management, including better guidelines and a more realistic concept of what is needed for start-up kits. It then ponders whether it would be feasible to have a small deployable technical/administrative team within the Department that would be qualified to handle all tasks entrusted to it, to make decisions on equipment to be shipped or disposed of from missions and to take all necessary steps. The team could help the Logistics Base and would assume overall responsibility for such operations but delegate authority to the field.

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Agreeing with the Office that some of the deficiencies it highlighted were partly due to lack of human and financial resources, the JIU says the situation should be corrected.

Statements on Logistics Base in Brindisi

CONRAD S.M. MSELLE, Chairman of the ACABQ, introducing the report of his Committee, said that the Secretary-General had not submitted a precise cost- benefit analysis on the Logistics Base in Brindisi. The ACABQ had recommended that he should do so, with adequate statistics based on a minimum running costs of the Base. Military-type equipment loaned or donated to the United Nations, but which could not be transferred to third parties due to restrictions placed by the donor State, should be destroyed. He reminded the Fifth Committee that a budget had not yet been approved for the Base. In the process of doing so, some matters, such as the status of staff, should be considered and regularized. The Secretary-General's proposal to establish 44 posts for the period 1 July 1997 to 30 June 1998 should be reviewed in future in the light of the volume of operations at the Base.

Continuing, he disclosed that the ACABQ had recommended the approval of the Secretary-General's proposal of $14.5 million gross ($13.9 million net) as cost estimates for the Base for the 12-month period from 1 July 1997 to 30 June 1998 and to prorate the sum among the budgets of active peacekeeping missions. It had also approved his request for $7.9 million gross ($7.4 million net) as costs for the Base for the previous 12-month period from 1 July 1996 to 30 June 1997. In implementing the budget, additional savings should be made, based on ACABQ recommendations.

Referring to the Secretary-General's report on the management of peacekeeping assets, he said the ACABQ had no objections to his request for four posts as long as they were met from redeployment. It concurred with the actions the Secretary-General has asked of the Assembly, such as the endorsement of the proposals for developing and implementing the field assets control system described in the Secretary-General's report.

EGBERT KALTENBACH, Officer-in-Charge, Audit and Management Consulting Division of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, introduced the Office's report on the Base and called for the implementation of its recommendations. Since the issuance of that report, the Office had undertaken a follow-up audit of the Base last April. Much work remained to be done at the Base to establish an accurate and reliable inventory. There was a huge backlog in technical reviews necessary to establish the serviceability of equipment and supplies at the Base. "Worthless and unserviceable items must be written off the Organization's books and then sold or otherwise disposed of."

Continuing, he said the Office appreciated the interest shown by the JIU in the report. The Office had addressed some of the points raised by the JIU

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on the role of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations in directing the Base's work and in deciding what equipment should be sent there by closing or downsizing missions. While some of the questions raised by the inspectors also deserved further study, they were outside the scope of the Office's audits. Rather, the audits had focused on the Base's operational and administrative procedures and the degree to which it had achieved its stated functions.

LINDA SHENWICK (United States) said that while she supported the Secretary- General's proposal for a logistics base at Brindisi, certain matters required clarification. First, it seemed that the Secretary-General distinguished between Professional, local and General Service staff in his report. However, her understanding was that local staff were General Service staff. She requested clarification from the ACABQ on aspects of the reclassification of the Base as a family duty station. Would expenditures increase as a result of that reclassification, and what was the meaning of converting certain staff members? she asked.

On a related point, she said her understanding had been that when the United Nations logistical depot at Pisa had closed, many of the depot's staff had been hired at the Brindisi Base. Those staff members had been rehired in Brindisi without a break in service, yet they had received a termination fee.

The ACABQ's report on the Base indicated that staffing levels should be reviewed in light of volume of work, she said. The Fifth Committee required further guidance on why and how those staffing levels would be reviewed. Also, it seemed contradictory that the ACABQ had supported the Secretary-General's request for funds for the Base while noting that an appropriate cost-benefit analysis had not been undertaken.

Ms. Shenwick then asked the Secretariat to confirm that the Logistics Base at Brindisi would be the Organization's only such facility. She said it was important to understand from the outset that it would be an exclusive base supporting United Nations activities.

Next, she said, she was a bit confused on the method used by the ACABQ to determine application of redeployment. Which activities were deemed to be of a lesser priority? she asked. She then asked for an update on the redeployment effort regarding the Lessons Learned Unit of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and whether posts had been identified for such redeployment.

Was the Unit's report on financing of United Nations peacekeeping operations critiquing the Office of Internal Oversight Services or the Base? she asked. It was the only inspection report she had seen that asked management to comment on whether recommendations had been complied with. The JIU itself should have such information.

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