GRATIS PERSONNEL SHOULD NOT BE ACCEPTED BECAUSE OF RECRUITMENT FAILURE, FIFTH COMMITTEE IS TOLD

Press Release
GA/AB/3230

GRATIS PERSONNEL SHOULD NOT BE ACCEPTED BECAUSE OF RECRUITMENT FAILURE, FIFTH COMMITTEE IS TOLD

Gratis personnel should not be used to perform functions that could be carried out by other United Nations staff members, nor should they be accepted because of recruitment failure, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) was told this morning as it discussed use of such personnel and aspects of the support account for peacekeeping operations.

The representative of Uganda said there was a growing tendency to undermine the General Assembly directive to accept gratis personnel only when the expertise they provided was unavailable in the Secretariat.

Gratis personnel are staff loaned to the United Nations, free of charge, by Member States. General Assembly resolution 51/243 of 15 September 1997 prescribes the circumstances under which such personnel may be utilized. They may be accepted for a limited period of time, after a budget is approved, to provide expertise not available within the Organization. Also, they can be used to provide temporary and urgent assistance for new and/or expanding mandates, pending the Assembly's decision on funds for those mandates.

The representative of the United Kingdom, speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, said the United Nations must be able to fulfil mandated activities despite the decision to expeditiously phase out gratis personnel. Canada's representative added that arrangements to replace gratis officers should be in place prior to their departure so that valuable expertise was not lost during the transition.

Also this morning, delegations commented on the Secretary-General's funding and staffing proposals for the support account for peacekeeping operations. The support account is used to pay for variable backstopping activities at Headquarters to assist peacekeeping operations in the field. Backstopping is the overall direction, assistance and guidance given by offices at Headquarters for ensuring the effective planning, implementation and liquidation of such operations.

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Several delegations expressed support for the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) that a decision on the account be taken at the next regular session, as important information from the Secretariat was missing. Some other delegates, however, felt that such a postponement would interfere with the budget cycle and the implementation of Assembly resolutions. Many delegations stressed the importance of the support account to fund backstopping activities.

Indonesia's representative, speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, noted that eight new posts had been proposed in the support account for Rapidly Deployable Mission Headquarters -- a mechanism to enable the United Nations to quickly deploy civilian and military personnel to a mission area. However, such staff should be financed through a trust fund as originally envisaged.

The representative of the Republic of Korea expressed reservation about the 469 posts proposed to be funded from the support account, except for those meant for the Rapidly Deployable Mission Headquarters. He asked why the number of support account posts was to be maintained or increased when expenses of peacekeeping operations were decreasing. While the Secretary-General had said there was no direct linkage between amounts for peacekeeping and backstopping work at Headquarters, there was need for more persuasive reasoning to support that conclusion.

Statements were also made by representatives of the United States, Japan, India, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Iraq and Norway.

Jean-Pierre Halbwachs, United Nations Controller, introduced reports of the Secretary-General on the support account. Ingrid Laux, Officer-in-Charge, Office of Human Resources Management, introduced the reports of the Secretary- General on gratis personnel.

The Committee is scheduled to meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow to conclude its discussion of the support account and gratis personnel.

Committee Work Programme

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) met this morning to take up the administrative and budgetary aspects of the financing of peacekeeping operations, specifically support account for such operations. It would also consider the question of gratis personnel under the item review of efficiency of the administrative and financial functioning of the United Nations.

Support Account

The Committee had before it the twenty-third annual report of the International Civil Service Commission (document A/52/30), which reviews the Commission's work pertaining to items including conditions of service of the professional and higher categories; post adjustment at Geneva; remuneration of General Service and other locally recruited categories; and conditions of service, including standards of travel, per diem and mission subsistence allowance.

Regarding mission subsistence allowance, the report states that the General Assembly had requested it to develop, for submission to the Assembly at its fifty-second session, a proposal to provide a post allowance and separate maintenance allowance for those personnel who leave their families at their home duty station while they are on mission assignment. In light of the short period between the request made by the Assembly and the beginning of the forty-sixth session of the Commission, only a preliminary study of the issue was carried out.

The Commission asked its secretariat to look into the matter further and to report back to it at its forty-seventh session, the report states. In particular, it asked for further study of applicability of the mission subsistence allowance to other parts of the common system; relationship between the mission subsistence allowance and post adjustment; relationship between the mission subsistence allowance and daily subsistence allowance; and applicability of the mission subsistence allowance to General Service staff.

A report on the support account (document A/51/965) resubmits the Secretary-General's proposals for the creation of three new posts for the Lessons Learned Unit, to be funded from the support account for peacekeeping operations for the period from 1 January to 30 June 1998. He expects that the related costs can be met within the resources approved by the Assembly for the support account for the period from 1 July 1997 to 30 June 1998; thus, no additional appropriation is requested.

In another report on the support account (document A/52/837), the Secretary-General first asks the Assembly to approve an estimate of some

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$39.4 million for the support account for the period from 1 July 1998 to 30 June 1999. He also asks that it apply an unencumbered balance of $2.5 million for the period from 1 July 1996 to 30 June 1997 for the upcoming period, and prorate the balance of $36.9 million among the individual peacekeeping operations budgets to meet the support account's requirements for the period from 1 July 1998 to 30 June 1999. Of the budget estimate, almost $35.9 million would go for post requirements and $3.6 million for non-post requirements, the report explains.

The Secretary-General's budget estimate is almost $7 million more than for last year, the report says. He recommends a staffing level of 469 temporary posts, which is 123 more than the currently authorized level of 346 posts. The figure is based on a 5 per cent vacancy rate for existing posts, and 50 per cent for the proposed posts. The net change of 123 posts includes the replacement of 106 posts currently filled by gratis personnel, deletion of three posts, and 20 new posts. The Secretary-General states that those posts would be advertised externally.

Of the 20 new posts, eight would go for the Rapidly Deployable Mission Headquarters, designed to enable the United Nations to quickly deploy a cohesive team of civilian and military personnel in the mission area, the report says. One new post is proposed for the Civilian Police Unit in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations; eight posts for implementing the peacekeeping assets management function; two new posts for the Investigations Section of the Office of Internal Oversight Services; and one new post for the Contributions Section of the Financial Management Office of the Department of Management.

Also before the committee was a performance report of the Secretary- General on the support account for peacekeeping operations (document A/52/838) relating to the period from 1 July 1996 to 30 June 1997 and from 1 July to 31 December 1997.

Regarding the first period, the report states that, by its resolution 50/221 B, the General Assembly approved support account resources amounting to some $30.5 million for post and non-post requirements. The total expenditures for that period amounted to $28.1 million, resulting in an unutilized balance of $2.5 million, some $1.9 million of which was attributable to an average vacancy rate of 6 per cent for support account posts. The General Assembly should decide to apply the unencumbered balance of $2.5 million to the support account requirements for the period from 1 July 1998 to 30 June 1999.

With regard to the 12-month period from 1 July 1997 to 30 June 1998, the report states that the General Assembly authorized an amount of $32.5 million. The Assembly also authorized the Secretary-General to enter into commitments not exceeding $808,500 for rental of premises. Expenditures recorded for the first six months of the period amounted to about $13.4 million.

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The report also provides a description of major peacekeeping activities during the period from 1 July 1996 to 31 December 1997. In this regard, it states that, while the number of peacekeeping operations remained relatively stable, in the case of certain missions, their mandates and corresponding requirements were modified by the Security Council. This involved revisions to their initial budgets after they had been approved by the Assembly. In other cases where an existing mission became a "follow-on" mission, this also entailed complex administrative, accounting and budgeting adjustments.

Another note by the Secretary-General (document A/C.5/51/52/Rev.1) provides the revised prorated share among peacekeeping operations of the cost of backstopping requirements at Headquarters for the 12-month period beginning 1 July 1997. The revised cost is based on Assembly resolution 51/239 of 17 June 1997 by which, among other things, the Assembly authorized for that period an amount of some $32.4 million for the support account.

A report from the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) covers the financial performance of the support account for the period from 1 July 1996 to 30 June 1997, and for the following 12-month period (document A/52/892). Regarding the earlier period, the ACABQ states that it has no objection to the Secretary-General's proposal that an unencumbered balance of almost $2.5 million for the period from 1 July 1996 to 30 June 1997 be applied to the account's requirements for the upcoming 12-month period. It believes the Secretary-General's performance report was too focused on statistical information, and should have been more analytical.

Regarding the period from 1 July 1998 to 30 June 1999, the ACABQ states that it was unable to complete its consideration of the Secretary-General's request for new and converted posts, because explanatory information and reliable statistics were unavailable, the report says. The ACABQ plans to resume its consideration of the requirements in September, after it receives reliable data and analysis. The General Assembly should be able to complete action on the support account before the end of October. In the meantime, the Committee recommends four new posts for assets management, and the conversion of 34 gratis positions to temporary posts, with priority going to functions related to military expertise and civilian policy. Together with the current 30 vacancies, the new posts will bring the number to be filled to 68 through October.

The ACABQ also recommends that the amount to be prorated to the various peacekeeping operations for contributing to the support account should be based on the 1997-1998 level for the account ($32.4 million), with an additional $2 million for the above-mentioned posts, bringing the total to $34.4 million. Additional requirements would be reflected in the relevant performance reports of each operation after the Assembly had completed its decision on the account

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Gratis Personnel

The Secretary-General's report on gratis personnel (document A/52/698) revises the draft guidelines set out in prior reports on such staff, provided by governments and other entities, in accordance with the provisions of resolution 51/243. The revised guidelines will apply prospectively to type II gratis personnel, who may be accepted only in accordance with the conditions set out in the resolution, and will not apply to type I gratis personnel, who are governed by established regimes. [Type I serve as associate experts, technical cooperation experts and interns. Type II have been accepted by programme managers by a variety of means, including an exchange of letters between the United Nations and the donor.]

Provisions of the Secretary-General's guidelines include the following: all nominees will be evaluated by the requesting department to ascertain that the best qualified nominee is selected on the basis of standards established by the Organization; gratis personnel may not supervise staff members in the exercise of their official duties or be involved in decisions affecting the status, rights and entitlement of staff members; gratis personnel may be accepted after the approval of a budget for an initial period of up to one year to discharge very specialized functions for which expertise is not required on a continuing basis in the Secretariat.

Also before the Committee was a report by the Secretary-General on gratis personnel on the methodology to be applied to, and the level of, administrative support costs regarding that personnel (document A/52/823). The report states that the services of gratis personnel are treated as voluntary contributions. The acceptance of a voluntary contribution almost always involves additional financial liability for the Organization in terms of associated costs. The charge of administrative support costs -- currently set at 13 per cent -- to donors is, therefore, required so as to avoid additional financial liability for the Organization.

The report states that the guidelines for the acceptance of gratis personnel conform to General Assembly resolution 51/243 of 15 September 1997, which prescribes the circumstances under which such personnel may be utilized. By the terms of operative paragraph 4 of that resolution the Secretary-General may accept type II gratis personnel for a limited period of time, after a budget is approved, to provide expertise not available within the Organization. Also, he may accept such staff to provide temporary and urgent assistance for new and/or expanding Organizational mandates, pending the Assembly's decision on the level of resources for those mandates.

The same resolution states that the Secretary-General is required to prepare all budgets on a full-cost basis, identifying a full complement of staffing requirements, the report notes. Such budgets may include a limited

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number of posts requiring expertise for specialized functions for which gratis personnel may be needed. In the case of gratis personnel accepted to provide temporary or urgent assistance, such personnel would be required for a very short duration and would be performing functions for which the approval of posts by the Assembly was pending and would be forthcoming shortly. Under those strictly limited circumstances, the charging of support costs would not seem appropriate.

The Secretary-General's first quarterly report on gratis personnel (documents A/52/709 and Corr.1) covers the period 16 to 30 September 1997. Two new type II gratis personnel had begun service during that period. One provided expertise that was unavailable in-house and the agreement by which the other had been accepted had been negotiated prior to the Assembly's resolution on the matter.

Information annexed to the report relates to, among others, the numbers, nationalities and departments of service of gratis personnel currently serving the United Nations, as well as description of functions discharged as at 30 December 1997.

Another report of the Secretary-General (document A/52/710) sets out a phased plan of action to reduce and eliminate, to the maximum extent possible, the use of gratis personnel in the Secretariat, in accordance with the provisions set out in Assembly resolution 51/243.

According to the report, as of 1 November 1997, type II gratis personnel currently perform functions in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the International Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, the Office of the Emergency Relief Coordinator, the Department of Management, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the Centre for International Crime Prevention at the United Nations Office at Vienna, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The report states, among other things, that the immediate large-scale withdrawal of gratis personnel from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations would seriously jeopardize its ability to carry out its functions fully, as a good number of gratis personnel are actually performing functions related to mandated activities. It is for this reason that the Secretary-General intends to phase out such personnel over a period of time, to be completed by 31 December 1999.

Another quarterly report (document A/C.5/52/43) covers the period from 1 October through 31 December 1997. It states that during the reporting period, 14 type II gratis personnel started their service -- six in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and eight in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

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In the Peacekeeping Department, the six personnel were loaned from Argentina, United Kingdom, Sweden, Slovenia, Australia and Singapore. At the Tribunal, eight investigators were accepted from the Netherlands to carry out specialized investigative functions for which, at the time, there was no expertise available in the Secretariat, the report states.

Another quarterly report (document A/C.5/52/51) contains the third quarterly report on the acceptance of gratis personnel. It states that during the period from 1 January through 31 March 1998, 33 new type II gratis personnel started their service. During the same period, 43 type II gratis personnel concluded their assignments.

A report of the ACABQ (document A/52/890) recommends that the Secretary- General continue to issue quarterly reports, clearly demonstrating the acceptance of gratis personnel in accordance with the relevant provisions of resolution 51/243. It welcomes the redrafted guidelines contained in document A/52/698, but notes that the text of the guidelines is addressed to governments as sole providers. The Committee was assured that only Member States would be approached.

With regard to the phasing out of gratis personnel, the Advisory Committee points out that the final phase-out date of 31 December 1999 indicated for the Department of Peacekeeping Operations is superseded by the information provided and resources requested in connection with the requirements for the support account for peacekeeping operations for the 1 July 1998 to 30 June 1999. In paragraph 19 of the support account report, the Secretary-General proposes the conversion of 106 gratis personnel into support account posts. During the Committee's hearings on the subject of the support account, representatives of the Secretary-General, in response to queries of the Committee, confirmed that if the request for conversions were accepted by the Assembly, it would be possible to phase out all gratis personnel in the Peacekeeping Department by the end of December 1998.

Statements

JEAN-PIERRE HALBWACHS, United Nations Controller, introduced the reports of the Secretary-General on the support account.

INGRID LAUX, Officer-in-Charge, Office of Human Resources Management, introduced the reports of the Secretary-General on gratis personnel.

PRAYONO ATIYANTO (Indonesia), speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, said the Group deeply regretted the delay in submission of the Secretary-General's report on the proposed support account from the period 1 July 1998 to 30 June 1999 (document A/52/837). The Secretariat must fully comply with relevant General Assembly resolutions and

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assure that such delays did not occur in the future. It was evident that the report should have been more focused and analytical and that assertions in the report were not sufficiently justified, he added.

The Group wished to reaffirm its position on the need for adequate funding for backstopping, he said. Taking into account the need to expeditiously phase out gratis personnel, the Secretary-General had been asked to present detailed information containing the job description, function and posts proposed for conversion to support account posts by the Assembly. The Group firmly believed that the Secretariat should be comprised of personnel selected in accordance with relevant provisions of the Charter.

The Group was concerned by the high vacancy rates in peacekeeping operations, he said. However, United Nations staff should have been employed to fill those positions, not gratis personnel. An explanation in that regard was desired. No adequate rationale had been given in the Secretary-General's report for the view that the division of labour between the Department of Political Affairs and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations was clear. A detailed analysis should be submitted.

Eight new posts and two new posts had been proposed, respectively, for the Rapidly Deployable Mission Headquarters and the Office of Internal Oversight Services. The Mission headquarters should be financed through a trust fund as had originally been envisaged. There was no justification, in the Group's view, for the establishment of the Oversight Office's posts.

GABRIELLE DUSCHNER (Canada), speaking also for Australia and New Zealand, said the Assembly's decision to phase out gratis military officers had led the Secretary-General to request 106 posts in his support account submission. Her delegations believed that recommending a funding level for the support account this time was not simply just another request for funding. What need to be considered was whether the Organization had the will to maintain an asset to enhance its Organization's capability to respond collectively to threats to international peace and security. To that end, it should be ensured that arrangement to replace gratis officers were in place prior to their departure so that valuable expertise was not lost during the transition.

Peacekeeping had become more complex and, as a result, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations had assumed new responsibilities over the past three years, she said. She expressed support for the Secretary-General's proposal of organizational changes within the Department to meet those new demands. However, the Department should be provided with the resources both to maintain essential functions and to retain the capability to expand in response to any future growth of peacekeeping activity. To ensure that adequate funding was provided, the Department should be undertaking a more fundamental and forward- looking review to determine if its organization was appropriate to efficiently manage the range and volume of its current and future functions. It was not sufficient to merely replace gratis officers with personnel from a different funding source and to maintain the status quo.

Only by comparing clearly defined roles and functions to resource requirements could an appropriate level of funding to maintain core responsibilities be established, she said. "Salami slicing" of posts and

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concession-making might inadvertently lead the Organization to cut essential capabilities created over the past six years. Although some support account posts seemed to have become permanent rather than temporary, it was recognized that the account was an important means to ensure that the United Nations contained a viable capacity to backstop peacekeeping operations.

She regretted that once again the Committee was poorly placed to make an informed and reasoned decision on the support account. Time remaining in the session was short, there had been delays and inadequacies in documentation, and the ACABQ had only produced an interim report. In those circumstances, it was tempting to ask the Secretary-General to prepare a revised submission. However, that approach might not be feasible or realistic given the time involved. In that context, the ACABQ's recommendations seemed pragmatic and sensitive to the complexities involved and they might provide a basis on which the Committee could reach a decision.

CECEP HERAWAN (Indonesia), speaking on gratis personnel for the Group of 77 and China, regretted that reports to have been considered in the first part of the General Assembly had been delayed, leading to a subsequent delay of the ACABQ report. As a result, after a delay of about six months, the Committee had resumed its consideration. Members of the Secretariat should be appointed and should serve according to the relevant Articles of the Charter. In 1997, the Assembly had decided to end the extraordinary practice of using gratis personnel. In that regard, the Group looked forward to full implementation of resolution 51/243. Further, budgets submitted should indicate the total needs, in terms of human and financial resources, to implement all programmes and mandated activities.

Those gratis personnel that fell beyond the scope of the provisions contained in paragraph 4 of resolution 51/243 should be phased out expeditiously, he said. All the functions performed by gratis personnel, as indicated in the quarterly reports, should be performed by United Nations staff. It was the lack of adequate staff resources that led to the use of gratis personnel, rather than the need for specialized expertise not obtainable through recruitment.

Gratis personnel should not be accepted on the basis of failure to recruit staff appropriately, he continued. The Secretary-General should continue to issue quarterly reports concerning gratis personnel. The Assembly should decide

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that acceptance of such personnel would be from Member States only. The Group noted the Secretariat's plan for phasing out gratis personnel. The Secretary- General's phase-out plan provided for continuing the use of gratis personnel through November 1999, which was not in conformity with the resolution. Yet, he had also indicated that such staff could be phased out by the end of December 1998 if adequate resources were provided for the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

The Secretariat should be equipped with the resources it required for carrying out its responsibilities, he said. In accordance with the Organization's financial regulation, no expenditure should be incurred for gratis personnel from the regular budget. The Group asked for clarification of the use of type II personnel in the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), set up under Security Council resolution 687 (1991) in connection with the disposal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

NICHOLAS THORNE (United Kingdom), speaking on behalf of the European Union, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Norway, said the United Nations must maintain and improve its operational capacity to effectively plan, deploy and manage current and future peacekeeping operations. It needed a realistic concept of well-coordinated permanent, surge and specialist functions within the Department of Peacekeeping Operations; and a clear understanding of the division of labour between that Department and other parts of the Secretariat. Further, that Department needed a staffing structure which was appropriate for both high- and low-intensity periods of operation.

The Union was concerned about the inadequacy of the explanations provided so far on the Secretary-General's proposals for the structure and staffing of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and other departments involved in supporting peacekeeping operations, he said. While the regular budget should cover core functions -- permanent tasks to be carried out independent of the size and number of peacekeeping operations -- the support account should be the mechanism to allow adaptation for non-core needs, including backstopping newly created peacekeeping operations. While the Union accepted the Secretariat's view that there was no direct link between the dollar value of peacekeeping operations and the backstopping workload at Headquarters, it found it hard to believe that a fall from $3.5 billion in 1994 to around $800 million now could have no impact on the Department's workload.

He said that whatever decision was taken on financing, it was essential that the United Nations continue to be able to fulfil mandated activities despite the decision to expeditiously phase out gratis personnel. The Union was content to see resolution 51/243 fully implemented, and it had confidence that the Secretary-General would ensure that the phase-out of those gratis

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personnel who did not fall under the exceptions provided for in the resolution would be expeditious. If the ACABQ's recommendation were followed, the Committee would not take a decision on the support account requirement for the 1998-1999 period before October. Such an occurrence would disrupt the budget cycle and render previously adopted resolutions even harder to implement. If the Committee delayed its final decision, a firm and strict deadline would be needed.

The Union was posing a series of detailed written questions to the Secretariat, he said. Answers should be provided in time to inform the Committee's deliberations on the subject. Those questions sought to elaborate on staffing needs, the particular situation in the Field Administration and Logistics Division, interdepartmental cooperation and overlap, transitional arrangements for the phase out of gratis personnel, and the longer-term issues of human resources management in the peacekeeping area, in particular recruitment.

Commenting on the ACABQ's view that new claims procedures (to determine reimbursement to Member States for contingent-owned equipment provided to peacekeeping missions) should not apply to certain missions, including in Mozambique, he recalled that retrospective application had been discussed at length. The Committee was waiting for the Secretary-General's report on the new procedures. The financial implications of retrospective application of the new procedures was not clear. The Union did not agree with the ACABQ that the Secretary-General's request for the retrospective application of the new procedures should be denied. Such application should apply only to those agreements that had not been concluded, while concluded agreements should not be reopened. He welcomed the ACABQ's comments that the possibility of double- payment was a risk. The matter should be considered in the context of the upcoming report by the Secretary-General on the new procedures.

RICHARD SKLAR (United States) said his delegation had found itself in concert with almost everything that had been said by other delegations. The necessary information should be provided so that the Committee could better undertake its deliberations. On the question of the phasing out of gratis personnel, the United States wished to emphasize that disruptions and loss of expertise should be minimized.

There was no comprehensive description of the organizational structure, staffing table and budget for all Secretariat components that directly executed or backed up peacekeeping operations, he said. Staff that supported those operations existed in several departments. Funding came from the regular budget, the support account, trust funds and contributions in kind. The United States could find no single composite picture.

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He said the Secretary-General was requested to provide information that included the following: an organizational chart showing all the components working in the Secretariat peacekeeping operations either directly or in a backstopping role; a description of the functional role along with expected outputs for each section of the chart; an enumeration of how many people were currently funded or were proposed; and identification of the amount and source of funds to pay for all the above staff by section and funding source. Since answers to those questions and to those posed by other Member States would require considerable effort, it might be necessary to adopt an interim funding arrangement for the support account. That should ensure sufficient funding to allow for the transition from gratis officers to paid, active-duty military and civilian police officers.

KOJI F.X. YAMAGIWA (Japan) stressed the importance of considering support account requirements for the period starting 1 July. Such consideration was inextricably linked to the issue of phasing out gratis personnel, mandated by the Assembly in its resolution 51/243, and then reaffirmed in resolution 52/220. He regretted that information provided by the Secretariat to the Advisory Committee was insufficient, resulting in the ACABQ making only interim recommendations. Further, during the course of deliberations in the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, delegations were dissatisfied with the Secretariat's explanations.

The Secretariat position that there was no link between the total dollar value of all active peacekeeping operations and the backstopping work performed at Headquarters should be based on a more functional analysis of backstopping requirements, he said. On the issue of possible overlap between the work of the Department of Political Affairs and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, he said that the Secretariat view that the division of labour between the two Departments was clear was too simplistic to be convincing. Japan had questioned the present policy regarding the funding of peacekeeping operation related posts. It was not at all justifiable, for instance, that all posts in the Peacekeeping Financing Division in the Office of Programme Planning, Budget and Accounts were financed through the support account. Should the Secretariat conduct a comprehensive review, that issue must be addressed on a priority basis.

On the conversion of gratis positions to temporary posts, while it acknowledged the appropriateness of taking into account the existing 30 vacancies funded by the support account, Japan was sceptical that all of those vacancies could be utilized for functions other than the original ones. Clarification from the Secretariat was therefore sought.

Japan took note of the ACABQ opinion that practically all functions assigned to gratis personnel should be performed by staff members. It was the lack of adequate staff members that gave rise to type II personnel. It was essential to convert appropriate gratis positions to temporary posts. The

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Secretariat was requested to recruit qualified staff for those posts once the conversion had been achieved.

RAJAT SAHA (India) said that peacekeeping was a dynamic activity and backstopping for it should take into account the dynamics in the field, both quantitative and qualitative. The support account proposal, unfortunately, did not do that. Issues it did not address included the following: decline in the number of troops and resultant impact on backstopping at Headquarters; changing requirements of peacekeeping operations in the field and needs of Headquarters support; and areas of duplication between the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and other departments.

The questions and issues raised by the representative of Canada and the United Kingdom were pertinent and needed to be addressed, he said. On many of those related issues, the Advisory Committee's comments and observations were comprehensive and relevant. All were issues which had been raised previously in a variety of forms, and it had been expected that they would be addressed by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations in its submission. If such information was not provided, it would be very difficult to arrive at informed decisions regarding the posts for that Department.

AMJAD HUSSAIN SIAL (Pakistan) said his delegation attached great importance to the role of the United Nations in the maintenance of international peace and security. It was the collective responsibility of all Member States to provide adequate resources for full implementation of mandates. The Secretariat should be equipped with the requisite human and financial resources to carry out the tasks assigned to it.

He said the Secretary-General's report on the support account requirements for the 12-month record beginning 1 July was a good attempt to give in-depth evaluation and comprehensive review of the total human resources requirements for Headquarters backstopping of peacekeeping operations. Could the Secretariat, however, elucidate the reasons for the outstanding requests for information by the ACABQ? he asked. The report on the support account was an annual feature, and the Secretariat had ample time to prepare further information.

Pakistan fully supported the proposed conversion of posts with a view to implementing the provisions of Assembly resolution 51/243 in letter and spirit, he said. Pakistan endorsed the Advisory Committee's observation in its report that gratis personnel should not be accepted on the grounds of failure to recruit staff in an expeditious manner. He welcomed the assurance given by the Secretariat to the Advisory Committee that only the Member States would be approached for providing gratis personnel, as well as the Secretary-General's plan for phasing out gratis personnel. The Advisory Committee had pointed out that the plan had been superseded by the support account proposal. It would now be possible to phase out gratis personnel by December.

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NIKOLAI LOZINSKI (Russian Federation) said the situation regarding deadlines for document distribution was unsatisfactory, to put it mildly. Delegations had had very little time to study the documents before the Committee. The time had come to consider ways and means to prevent repetition of the situation. The Secretary-General's report on the support account should have been more focused and analytical; its assertions were not corroborated by convincing analyses, he said. As for the Secretary-General's assertions that there was no direct link between the total dollar amount of peacekeeping operations and the needs for backstopping, the Secretariat should have attempted to analyse the related indicators in greater depth. The questions raised today by the European Union could serve as an excellent basis for that. The Secretary-General's report, despite its late issuance, contained numerous errors. Tardiness in the issuance of the report precluded its in-depth review by both the ACABQ and the Committee. It seemed that there was no alternative to the ACABQ's suggestion that the Committee defer its final decision on financing the support account.

His delegation had been surprised with the politicized, irrelevant, one- sided description in paragraph 37e of the Secretary-General's report, he said. [That paragraph concerned the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP)]. He called on the Secretariat to refrain from using such an approach, and expressed gratitude for the corrigendum to that paragraph, which had been issued today. MOWAFAK MAHMOUD AYOUB (Iraq) said his country supported the statement made for the Group of 77 and China. He asked why some persons in UNSCOM had been reclassified from type II personnel to type I personnel. What were the financial repercussions of that reclassification, since the support costs for those employees were taken from frozen Iraqi assets?

TRYGGVE GJESDAL (Norway) said his country provided large contingents of troops for United Nations peacekeeping activities and United Nations-mandated activities. To the extent possible, such activities should be funded from the regular budget, thus reflecting the importance accorded them by the international community. The Secretary-General should be provided with the resources needed. Three elements were needed for backstopping -- permanent core capacity, variable capacity to support ongoing missions and additional capacity to support the liquidation of completed missions. Variable and additional capacities should be met through the support account, while core functions should be funded by the regular budget.

Norway welcomed the introduction of the new funding mechanism for the support account, based on the backstopping requirements, he said. The budget period now logically matched the budget period of peacekeeping operation budgets. At the same time, the one-year schedule should not lead to micro- management. Norway had been disappointed to see the ACABQ's suggestion to put off the decision to the fifty-third session. Part of the problem had been that the ACABQ had not been in session for some time after the report had been submitted. Last year, the information provided in the Secretariat's submission had been less complete than this year, yet the Committee had been able to go along with the Secretary-General's suggestions. It seemed that the Secretariat had endeavoured to respond to informational needs.

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The United Nations must be able to fulfil mandated activities, despite its decision to phase out gratis personnel, he said. Transitional arrangements should minimize loss of expertise. Plans for the phasing out of gratis personnel, whose functions would be taken over by posts funded by the support account -- and hopefully the regular budget -- should be in line with the schedules of the terms of those persons.

EUY TAEK KIM (Republic of Korea) noted with satisfaction the Secretary- General's proposal to create eight new support account posts for the Rapidly Deployable Mission Headquarters. However, his delegation had certain reservations on the proposed 469 posts to be funded by the support account. It could not understand why the number of support account posts had been maintained or increased when overall expenses of peacekeeping operations were diminishing. While the Secretary-General had said there was no direct linkage between overall amounts for peacekeeping and backstopping work at Headquarters, there was need for more persuasive reasoning to support that conclusion.

His delegation regretted that again the Secretariat had not provided sufficient statistical and explanatory information to enable the ACABQ to consider the proposals, he said. The current pace of implementation of the plan to phase out gratis personnel was satisfactory. Noting that some 200 such staff were scheduled to be phased out, he said such a large-scale withdrawal should not undermine the operational efficiency of mandated activities.

He said acceptance of gratis personnel inevitably entailed additional financial costs for the Organization, which could amount to as much as 18 per cent of the entire cost of gratis personnel. It was unreasonable for those costs to be absorbed by the assessed contributions of all Member States. The providers of gratis personnel alone should pay those additional costs.

The acceptance of type II gratis personnel was often the result of insufficient staff resources, rather than the lack of specialized functions in the Secretariat, he said. He urged full compliance of Assembly resolution 51/243 on the acceptance of such loaned staff. He welcomed the Secretary- General's revised guidelines, and looked forward to their implementation throughout the United Nations system. The next quarterly report should present more detailed information on gratis personnel, including the functions they performed.

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NESTER ODAGA-JALOMAYO (Uganda) said his delegation's views regarding gratis personnel had been stated by the representative of Indonesia. Uganda was concerned by the acceptance of type II gratis personnel. There was already, in the Organization, a growing tendency to undermine the provision of Assembly resolution 51/243, which stated that such personnel would be accepted only because their expertise was otherwise unavailable. Such personnel should not be brought in to perform functions that could be served by other staff members; Uganda was afraid that such personnel would be accepted in order to make up for recruitment failure.

He said Uganda had long been emphasizing the need to eliminate gratis personnel. Among other reasons, such personnel had loyalty to their governments and could ultimately be withdrawn by them at any time. International civil servants accountable to the Organization should be recruited to fill the posts.

Ms. DUSCHNER (Canada), also speaking for Australia and New Zealand, said that the questions submitted by the representative of the United Kingdom on behalf of the European Union were relevant and worthy of review. Australia, Canada and New Zealand wished to align themselves with those questions.

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