FIFTH COMMITTEE DEFERS CONSIDERING STRENGTHENING OF EXTERNAL OVERSIGHT MECHANISMS
Press Release
GA/AB/3197
FIFTH COMMITTEE DEFERS CONSIDERING STRENGTHENING OF EXTERNAL OVERSIGHT MECHANISMS
19971201 Begins Considering Financing Of Tribunals for Former Yugoslavia and for RwandaThe Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this afternoon deferred consideration of the question of strengthening United Nations external oversight mechanisms to its resumed session and entrusted its bureau to decide on the appropriate time.
The Committee took that action by approving an oral draft decision proposed by its Chairman, Anwarul Karim Chowdhury (Bangladesh). The decision followed information from Pakistan's representative -- coordinator of the informal consultations on the question -- that members had failed to agree on a draft resolution on the issue, which falls under the review of the United Nations administrative and financial efficiency.
Considered by the Committee since at least the forty-ninth session, the question of the strengthening of oversight mechanisms has included issues such as the Board of Auditors and the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU). Matters before the Committee include proposals to extend the current three-year terms of office of the members of the Board of Auditors to four or six years. On the JIU are proposals that draw attention to the need to urgently address the weakness of oversight mechanisms, to strengthen the JIU and enhance its independence, and to give other oversight mechanisms the administrative and budgetary independence enjoyed by the Office of Internal Oversight Services.
Earlier at this afternoon's meeting, the Committee took up the conditions of service and the financing of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and for the Former Yugoslavia. In his reports, the Secretary-General request for about $130.1 million gross for 1998: $71.1 million gross for the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and almost $59 million gross for the Tribunal for Rwanda.
The Secretary-General's reports were presented by United Nations Controller Jean-Pierre Halbwachs.
The reports of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) were presented by its Chairman Conrad S.M. Mselle, who said that the United Nations should not allow itself to be criticized for long detention of persons simply because of lack of funds to speed up the trial of accused people before the Tribunals.
The Hague-based Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia was mandated by the Security Council in 1993 to prosecute persons responsible for violations of international humanitarian law in the former Yugoslavia since 1991. It investigates each of the parties to the conflict separately: Yugoslavia, Croatia, and within Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Bosnian Serbs, the Bosnian Croats, and the Bosniaks. At different times since 1991, there were more than 12 distinct ethnic conflicts, each involving separate victim and perpetrator groups.
The Rwanda Tribunal tries those responsible for genocide and other violations of international humanitarian law committed in Rwanda and neighbouring States in 1994. Based in Arusha, its terms of reference were established by the Council in 1994. The Prosecutor for the Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia also serves as Prosecutor for the Rwanda Tribunal.
The Fifth Committee is scheduled to meet again tomorrow, 2 December, to consider the administrative and financial implications of the decisions and recommendations in the 1997 annual report of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC).
Reports on Tribunals
In his report on the financing the Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (document A/C.5/52/4 and Corr.1), the Secretary-General asks for $71 million gross ($64.2 million net) for the Tribunal's 1998 operations. The amount -- an increase of $15.6 million from 1997 appropriations -- covers the reclassification of 12 posts, as well as the creation of 204 posts resulting from the Tribunal's conversion of its 52 gratis positions to temporary posts and the creation of 152 temporary positions. The proposed funds also cover the cost of constructing a second permanent courtroom, estimated at almost $3 million.
The Tribunal is jointly funded through the assessment scales for the United Nations regular budget and for peacekeeping. The report states that if that joint mechanism is to be continued, the scale of assessments applicable to the regular budget could be applied for 50 per cent of the total amount and the other 50 per cent could be financed through the peacekeeping scale. That formula would be applied after first taking into account a cumulative surplus fund balance of $5.6 million as at 31 December 1995 and an anticipated balance of some $10 million for 1997.
Fifth Committee - 3 - Press Release GA/AB/3197 34th Meeting (PM) 1 December 1997
Also before the Committee was a letter from the President of the Security Council to the President of the General Assembly, dated 27 August (document A/51/976). The letter transmits the text of Council resolution 1126 (1997), by which the Council endorsed the Secretary-General's recommendation that the three judges, once replaced as members of the Tribunal, finish the Celebici case, which they have begun, before the expiration of their terms of office. The Council also noted the Tribunal's intention to finish the case before November 1998.
(When the General Assembly elected the Tribunal's judges in May, a number of judges currently serving were not elected for a second term of office, including the three sitting on the Celebici case and whose terms of office expired on 16 November. If those Judges were not allowed to complete the case, the trial would have to be restarted with a new panel of Judges, significantly prolonging the trial and violating the right of the accused to due process of law.)
The Secretary-General's report on the conditions of service for the Judges for both Tribunals (document A/52/520) contains recommendations based on the conditions of service of the International Court of Justice and in accordance with the Tribunals' Statutes. He urges the Assembly to adopt his recommendations for the conditions of service for the Judges of the Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia with effect from 17 November 1993, and for the Rwanda Tribunal with effect from 26 June 1995. He recommends that each Judge receive an annual salary of $145,000, with the President receiving a special allowance of $15,000 per year and the Vice-President receiving $94 per day for each day he or she acts as President, to a maximum of $9,400 per year. Upon retirement, a Judge who served the full four-year term would receive an annual pension of $22,000; a Judge who was re-elected would receive a maximum pension of $33,000 per year. Education grants would be granted up to $9,750 per child, and relocation allowances, upon termination of work, are put at a net sum of 12 weeks' salary.
The report states that if the Assembly approves the proposed pension scheme and the system of benefits for the survivors of Judges, the financial implications for 1998 will be $113,300 for the Former Yugoslavia Tribunal. That amount comprises the survivor's benefits in respect of one deceased judge ($40,200) plus pension entitlements of retired Judges ($73,100). For the Rwanda Tribunal, there would be no financial implications for 1998, since the Judges' four-year terms only began in 1995.
Also before the Committee was the consolidated report of the ACABQ on the financing of the Former Yugoslavia Tribunal and on the conditions of service for the Judges of both tribunals (document A/52/696). The ACABQ recommends that the Assembly appropriate for the Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia about $68.8 million gross ($62.3 million net) for 1998.
Fifth Committee - 4 - Press Release GA/AB/3197 34th Meeting (PM) 1 December 1997
The ACABQ's figure takes into consideration revised post requirements, based on the Tribunal's prior experience in filling posts, according to the report. The report explains that in light of the difficulty anticipated in filling all the vacant posts in 1998, the stated assumptions for occupancy of new posts in 1998 should be adjusted. After deducting some $2.2 million gross (almost $1.9 million net) to reflect revised amounts, the estimated cost of posts in 1998 would be $36.2 million gross ($30.2 million net) instead of the $38.5 million ($32 million net) estimated by the Secretary-General.
The ACABQ is of the view that if a comprehensive review of emoluments and of the pension scheme of members of the International Court of Justice were submitted by the Secretary-General to the Assembly's fifty-third session, the review of the pension scheme of the Tribunal Judges should be postponed until that report is taken up by the Committee in 1998. Pending that review, the estimate of $113,300 ($73,100 for pensions and $40,200 for survivors' benefits) should be considered as provisional. In 1998, the ACABQ will examine a number of related issues, including the possibility of a Judge serving subsequent terms on more than one body.
The Secretary-General's report on the financing of the Tribunal for Rwanda (document A/C.5/52/13) asks for almost $59 million gross ($52.8 million net) to cover the Tribunal's operating expenses for 1998. That request reflects an increase of almost $16.9 million net (46.9 per cent) compared with the 1997 appropriation. The overall post requirements (some 584 assessed budget posts) include the proposed establishment of 165 new temporary posts, the conversion of two gratis positions to temporary posts and the reclassification of six posts. In 1997, all but seven of the 34 gratis personnel serving the Tribunal were returned to their governments, and none of those remaining are expected to be carried into 1998.
The Secretary-General notes that 1998 will be the first year of the Tribunal's normal operations. Two courtrooms are expected to be in full operation, which means that both Trial Chambers will be able to hold court proceedings simultaneously. The demands on support services will increase owing to the complexity, number and frequency of proceedings. Among the substantive activities anticipated for 1998 are a coordinated public information programme with activities at four offices -- Arusha, Kigali, Nairobi and The Hague -- to publicize positions of the Tribunal and the latest related developments.
The Secretary-General reports that the unencumbered balances of the account of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) have almost been depleted and future appropriations should be assessed primarily on the current basis.
Fifth Committee - 5 - Press Release GA/AB/3197 34th Meeting (PM) 1 December 1997
In its report on the Rwanda Tribunal (document A/52/697), the ACABQ recommends acceptance of the new posts requested by the Secretary-General, including those to be established as a consequence of the phasing out of gratis personnel. In light of the Tribunal's current vacancy rates, and taking into account its prior experience in filling posts, the ACABQ is of the view that the Tribunal will have difficulty filling the new posts in 1998. Consequently, it believes that the stated assumptions for occupancy of new posts in 1998 should be adjusted. Upon inquiry, the Advisory Committee was given revised cost estimates to reflect adjusted vacancy rates. Based on its revisions and conclusions, the ACABQ recommends that the Assembly appropriate $56.7 gross ($50.8 million net) for the Tribunal for 1998.
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