QUALITY OF INTERPRETATION AND TRANSLATION AT UNITED NATIONS SUFFERING, ADMINISTRATIVE AND BUDGETARY COMMITTEE TOLD
Press Release
GA/AB/3289
QUALITY OF INTERPRETATION AND TRANSLATION AT UNITED NATIONS SUFFERING, ADMINISTRATIVE AND BUDGETARY COMMITTEE TOLD
19990322 Discusses Pattern of Conferences, Article 19, Gratis Personnel, Programme Planning, Administrative and Budgetary Aspects of PeacekeepingThe quality of interpretation and translation at the United Nations was suffering, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) was told this morning, as it discussed the United Nations pattern of conferences.
The representative of Syria told the Committee that although the General Assembly had agreed to the Secretary-General's proposal to eliminate posts in interpreting and translating, it had also asked him to ensure that conference servicing was not affected by the use of cost-saving measures, such as remote interpretation and translation. The Secretary-General was now reporting that such measures did not affect performance, but also that their use was being restricted to international conferences and specialized meetings. Any decision to use remote translating and interpretation at an optimal level should only be implemented if the General Assembly agreed.
The representatives of Cuba, Uganda, Indonesia, New Zealand, China, Kenya, and Pakistan also spoke, after Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly Affairs and Conference Services, Federico Riesco, introduced three reports on the item. Mr. Riesco also answered related questions raised by Member States.
When the Fifth Committee commenced discussion of a report on exemptions from sanctions specified in Article 19 of the United Nations Charter, the representative of Germany, speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, proposed that Member States consider using a country's payment history as a factor in deciding whether those liable to be sanctioned should lose their General Assembly voting rights.
That would help counter the tendency of some countries to pay just enough to avoid the sanctions, he continued. The Committee on Contributions -- the body set up to make recommendations on Article 19 sanctions to the Assembly -- had pointed out in the report under consideration that the
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consequences of this practice were that those States were always in debt to the Organization and were exceedingly vulnerable to falling under the sanctions should any unforseen circumstance affect their capacities to pay.
[Charter Article 19 states that Member States that owe the United Nations more than the amount due from them for the last two years will lose their vote in the General Assembly, unless the Assembly decides that the non- payment is due to circumstances beyond the Country's control].
The representative of Japan also spoke, and the Committee on Contributions, David Etucket, introduced that body's report.
As the Committee concluded its discussion of gratis personnel -- staff provided to the United Nations free of charge by governments -- the representatives of the United States, Pakistan, Uganda and Cuba spoke. The Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, C.S.M. Mselle, and the Director of Operational Services of the Office of Human Resources Management, Johannes Wortell, responded to questions raised by Member States.
The Committee decided to refer a note from the Secretary-General on activities postponed from the 1996-1997 biennium to the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC) for its consideration, when it took up its agenda item on programme planning. Statements were made by the representatives of Cuba and Algeria. The Chief of the Central Monitoring and Inspection Unit of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, Ellen Abrenica, introduced the Secretary-General's note.
When it turned to the administrative and budgetary aspects of peacekeeping operations, the Committee agreed to recommend that the Assembly take note of the Secretary-General's quarterly report for 1 October to 30 December 1998 on progress made in clearing the backlog of claims for peacekeeping incidents.
The Committee will meet again tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. to discuss the United Nations scale of assessments.
Fifth Committee Work Programme
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) met this morning to take up a number of issues. Under the agenda item scale of assessments, it was to consider a report of the Committee on Contributions, regarding its special session held from 8-12 February concerning States' applications for exemption to the sanctions imposed by Article 19 of the United Nations Charter.
[Article 19 states that a Member State shall have no vote in the General Assembly if the amount of its arrears equals or exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for the proceeding two full years. Exemptions are given if the Assembly decides that non-payment is due to circumstances beyond the Member State's control. Under the General Assembly Rules of Procedure, decisions on requests for exemptions are made after consideration by the Committee on Contributions and a recommendation from it to the General Assembly.]
The Committee also had before it reports pertaining to the Organization's pattern of conferences and programme planning.
In addition, it planned to conclude its general discussion on gratis personnel, considered jointly under the agenda items of human resources management and review of efficiency. Gratis personnel are staff loaned to the United Nations free of charge by Member States.
(For background on reports concerning gratis personnel, see Press Release GA/AB/3288 of 19 March).
Scale of Assessments
The Committee had before it an addendum to the report of the Committee on Contributions (document A/53/11/Add.1 and Corr.1). It reports on a special session of the Contributions Committee held from 8 to 12 February in response to Assembly resolution A/53/36, in which it was asked to meet to consider representations from Member States with respect to Article 19 of the Charter.
In the course of reviewing requests for exemption, the report states, the Contributions Committee considered a number of related issues, such as some States' practices of paying just enough to avoid being deprived of the vote, and that a consequence of this practice was that those States were left vulnerable to loss of vote should that minimum payment be delayed due to unforseen circumstance. Given the length and mandate of the special session, it was decided that general policy should be considered during a review of Article 19 at its fifty-ninth session.
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The Contributions Committee recommends exemptions to Article 19 sanctions until 30 June 1999 for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia and Georgia, and until 30 June 2000 for the Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras and Nicaragua. In the case of a request from Iraq, the Contributions Committee noted the political issues raised by the request and concluded that any recommendation would be beyond its technical advisory role.
Pattern of Conferences
The Secretary-General's report on the provision of interpretation to meetings of regional and other major groups of Member States (document A/53/826) states that from January to end June 1998, all but one of the 29 requests for the provision of conference services to regional and other major groupings were met at Geneva. For the period from July 1998 through January 1999, all 15 requests were met. In New York, from end-June 1997 to end-June 1998, 100 per cent of the 535 requests for facilities only were met, and 283 out of 348 requests for interpreters were met. Unavailability of interpretation teams was the main reason services were not provided. For example, in the week of 22 to 26 June 1998, five of six requests could not be granted because few meetings were cancelled and the Committee for Programme and Coordination requested six additional meetings. Eleven intergovernmental bodies in addition to the five regional groups could not be serviced.
From July 1998 to January 1999, 100 per cent of the 399 requests for facilities only were met, according to the report, and 151 of 169, or 89 per cent of requests for interpreters were met. From 21 to 25 September 1998, only three requests for interpretation could not be granted of a total of 26. The "Group of 77" developing countries and China had 10 meetings that week, out of which seven were provided with interpretation services. For the week 2 to 6 November 1998, four out of five requests for interpretation services were not granted because this was a peak period during the main part of the General Assembly session, when 78 meetings with interpretation were serviced.
The report also contains a comparative table of statistics for the three reporting periods.
According to the Secretary-General's report on utilization of conference facilities at the United Nations Office in Nairobi (document A/53/827), utilization of the Nairobi conference centre facilities can increase if the intergovernmental and expert bodies that could meet there decide to do so. Only two United Nations bodies -- the Commission on Human Settlements and the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) -- have Nairobi as their headquarters, but related bodies could meet there as could those that already tend to meet away from their respective bases, including the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), the Advisory Committee on
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Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) and the Committee on Conferences.
The Nairobi Office lacks permanent interpretation capacity; interpretation services are provided by deploying staff interpreters from New York, Geneva and Vienna, or recruiting freelance interpreters from around the world. This increases the cost of meetings -- which dissuades treaty bodies from meeting there -- since payment of travel expenses and daily subsistence allowances are involved. But until the schedule in Nairobi becomes heavier, the cost of permanent interpreters is not justified since, to remain productive, the interpreters would have to be assigned to New York, Geneva or Vienna, with associated costs.
The Secretariat hopes to address the problem with remote interpretation from another duty station, according to the report. A pilot test was conducted earlier this year between Geneva and Vienna, paving the way for refinements that may make this method a viable complement to on-site interpretation.
The report distinguishes between "utilization factor" (which the General Assembly decided should have a benchmark figure of 80 per cent) and "utilization rate". The former is the proportion of meeting time allocated to a body that it actually used. For 1997, the last period reported, Nairobi-based bodies had very high utilization factors (100 per cent or close).
As for the "utilization rate", the report explains that with a capacity of two meetings per room per working day, the notional maximum for a one-room facility would be 500 meetings per year and the utilization rate would be the actual occupancy as a percentage of that figure.
Increased utilization rates would bring about a need for additional staff resources, the report continues. In 1997, the utilization rate in Nairobi was 11 per cent, according to the report. In 1998, the rate was 9.33 per cent. Under reimbursable servicing arrangements, Nairobi Conference Services serviced all sessions of environment-related treaty bodies held at other locations in 1998, the report states. This meant that although conference rooms in Nairobi were not in constant use, the Office's servicing capacity was fully employed.
Strict observance of the headquarters' rule by locally based bodies, as the General Assembly often requests, has little effect on utilization rates in Nairobi, the report states. Substantive headquarters of United Nations organs are not distributed evenly among United Nations conference centres, and their distribution is not closely related to the physical capacity of the duty stations. So "it may not be unjustified" to wonder whether the situation at
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underutilized conference centres is one of underutilization or of excess physical capacity.
The Committee had before it a Secretary-General's report on the impact of economy measures on the delivery of mandated conference services (document A/53/833). According to the report, 1996-1997 constraints only impacted on service for unscheduled meetings, mainly those of regional and other major groupings of Member States. Lower demand kept the number of those not met at levels similar to previous years, but in many cases services could not be provided on requested dates. Delay in the purchase of computers for translators meant reduced text-processing workloads were not as anticipated. The late-1996 cash-flow crisis meant curtailing temporary assistance, overtime and contractual translation services. Priority is given to pre-session documents, which continued to be issued as normal, but delays occurred in issuing meeting records. Planned reductions in the rate of self-revision had to be postponed, and overtime could not be used to improve timeliness.
Essential reproduction and distribution services continued due to reductions in document print runs. Improvements in productivity and a decline in the demand for services, particularly in translation, allowed conference services to cope with the 1996-1997 workload, but with costs in quality and timeliness.
Managerial and technological improvements, and the expectation that demand for meetings and documents would not return to record 1992 to 1995 levels allowed conference services to propose, at the end of 1997, the abolition of 203 posts. Most had been vacant through the biennium in compliance with mandatory vacancy rates. A large number of the Professional posts were language services P-2s, which were of limited use, and the 148 General Service posts reflected decreased resource requirements for text-processing as a result of technological advances, increased electronic document movement and reduced workloads. In general, posts were relinquished where mandated functions could be performed more cost-efficiently with temporary assistance or contractual arrangements.
Efficiency gains have been achieved through organizational adjustments and technological innovations, such as having teams on call rather than on-duty on weekends, and keeping document print runs are kept under tight control, according to the report. Off-site reporting with electronic information transfers is being introduced in the production of verbatim records to compensate for staffing reductions in that area in New York.
Some inadequacies remain, the report states. Insufficient excess interpretation capacity exists to allow attendance at regional and other Member State group meetings. Ironically, the Secretariat's improved service planning and allocation and better use of resources by calendar bodies, that resulted in decreased meeting cancellations, have contributed to this.
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Compensation cannot be made to overcome late submission of documents by using overtime and additional resources. Recent extensive delays in summary records have largely been corrected, but almost all had to be translated contractually, which made ensuring consistency and quality harder. Verbatim records still become backlogged during peak periods and delays mean simultaneous circulation in all languages cannot be strictly implemented. Conference services hopes to address these situations through further use of technology and adjustments to resource allocations.
Programme Planning
Also before the Committee was the Secretary-General's report on the United Nations programme performance for 1996-1997 (documents A/53/122 ). It presents an overview of programme performance in the biennium and the medium-term plan period of 1992-1997. In 1996-1997, programme managers had had 48,500 professional work-months available, which is 7 per cent less than the previous biennium. Of the total number of outputs programmed and mandated (7,966), about 80 per cent (6,377 outputs) were implemented. Others were postponed, reformulated or terminated.
Implementation was highest in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (100 per cent), the report says, and lowest in the International Trade Centre UNCTAD/GATT (ITC) (50 per cent), due to that body's transition during the period, as well as reduced financial resources. Programme managers redeployed resources, used extrabudgetary sources of funding and/or vacant posts to fund short-term consultants in the face of financial constraints. Vacancy rates were higher than in earlier bienniums -- averaging about 13 per cent for reasons including cumbersome recruitment processes.
During the medium-term plan period, productivity improved despite zero-growth budgets, and changes related to reform and political developments, the Secretary-General writes. Since there is increasing reliance on extrabudgetary resources to finance mandated activities, information on those resources, and the posts established under them, should be centrally available for monitoring purposes, he recommended. Also, the financial rules should be revisited to ensure that programme mangers have the flexibility they need to perform their functions, including the authority to manage the human and financial resources appropriated to their programmes.
The report says that there are inherent limitations to the practice of reporting on programme performance, which can highlight changes and problems, but not assess whether objectives have been met. Conceptual changes in budget and programming are required, and managers must be committed to effective systems of monitoring and controlling performance quality. This, in turn, requires that a culture of management accountability be established in the Secretariat -- already efforts are being made at Headquarters to that end.
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An addendum (document A/53/122/Add.1) presents the programme performance of each section of the programme budget for the biennium 1996-1997. It highlights achievements and the factors that affected programme deliveries. Recruitment freezes, high vacancy rates and measures to achieve target savings impacted programme implementation, and, in some cases, meant that the demands of Member States could not be met.
Administrative and Budgetary Aspects of Peacekeeping Operations
The Committee had before it the Secretary-General's sixth quarterly report on death and disability benefits (document A/C.5/53/51). These quarterly reports are submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 51/239A, in which it had noted that as of 19 May 1997, 564 claims awaited processing, and had asked the Secretary-General to update it on a quarterly basis.
The Secretary-General recalls that the total number of claims awaiting processing as of 30 September 1998 was 147, as indicated in the fifth quarterly report. As of 31 December 1998, the number increased to 208: 63 claims had been received prior to May 1997, and were thus part of the backlog, while the remaining 145 were received between 1 September and 31 December 1998.
In terms of the backlog, 208 claims await processing for incidents occurring up to and including 30 June 1998 as of 31 December 1998, according to the report's annex. The highest number of claims still to be processed come from Malaysia (34), followed by Bangladesh (27), Austria (25) and Jordan (25). Of the 1,267 claims processed from 19 May 1997 to 31 December 1998, 319 came from France, 244 from Jordan and 127 from Poland.
By operation, the report shows that the greatest number of backlog claims awaiting processing come from the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), with 99 claims, and the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM), with 38. Overall, 4,982 incidents were reported occurring up to and including 30 June 1997 as at 31 December 1998, for which 1,858 claims were submitted. The largest share of incidents were reported from UNPROFOR (1,733) which also has the largest number of claims (733). The second largest numbers come from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), with 1,382 incidents and 364 claims.
Statements
MOVSES ABELIAN (Armenia), Chairman of the Fifth Committee, instructed that it be formally recorded and drawn to the notice of the Secretariat that morning meetings of the Fifth Committee commenced at 10 a.m.
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Gratis Personnel
THOMAS REPASCH (United States), speaking on the topic of gratis personnel, noted that all type II gratis military personnel had left the Organization on February 28, yet, despite assurances to the contrary by the Secretariat, there had not been a smooth transition. From the first, the United States had been worried about the loss of the skills, knowledge and expertise provided by type II gratis personnel. It was concerned that this might be a case of "act in haste, repent at your leisure".
The Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) had criticized the Secretary-General for keeping gratis personnel on without General Assembly concurrence, he said. It had also said the reasons for the decision were worthy. The United States was of the opinion that the case would be covered by the paragraph in the relevant resolution allowing specialized gratis personnel for tasks requiring skills not available within the Secretariat, for a limited time. The gratis staff in question did not fall under the paragraph of resolution 52/234 requiring concurrence that the Advisory Committee had cited. The United States would appreciate clarification on that from C.S.M. Mselle, Chairman of the Advisory Committee.
C.S.M. Mselle, Chairman of the ACABQ, said the General Assembly had decided all type II gratis must go by 28 February. The Secretary-General had deemed it appropriate to extend the person in question. In his own introductory remarks to the Advisory Committee's report, he had indicated that he thought the extension was reasonable. But it would have been prudent for the Secretary-General to have sought prior concurrence for the continuation from the General Assembly or, if it was not sitting, from the Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee was always available to assist the Secretariat on such matters.
The resolution did not bar the Secretary-General from having recourse to gratis personnel, he said, but there was a specific methodology the Secretary- General should employ when seeking to use gratis personnel. This person, however, was already on board, and it had been determined that all such gratis staff should be phased out.
He hoped the Fifth Committee would regard this as the end of a regime of gratis personnel that had not found favour with Member States, and that it would note that a new regime to govern the use of this kind of personnel had already been established.
AMJAD SIAL (Pakistan) said the Secretariat's responses should be circulated at the formal meeting and discussed in informal meetings.
NESTER ODAGA-JALOMAYO (Uganda) asked whether responses distributed but not discussed in the formal meeting would automatically be reflected on the
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official record. Questions raised in formal meetings must be replied to in formal meetings. If not, the questions were reflected on the record, but not the responses. He then asked whether the statement made by the United States was correct to the effect that the Secretariat was facing difficulties in recruiting staff to replace gratis personnel. He had not heard any reports of that.
DULCE BUERGO RODRIGUEZ (Cuba) said her delegation was also awaiting the Secretariat's response in that regard.
Mr. SIAL (Pakistan) said the Assembly had been told in several reports of the Secretary-General that gratis personnel in the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia would be phased out in accordance with the 28 February 1999 deadline. The Secretary-General should have obtained the General Assembly's approval before making the 17 exceptions to the recruitment rule. Anything that went against resolutions of the General Assembly was unacceptable and the Secretariat should provide clarification.
JOHANNES WORTELL, Director of Operational Services, Office of Human Resources Management, responded to questions posed on Friday, 19 March, and today. The Secretariat had noted the comments on the reporting format of reports on gratis personnel, and would comply with the format recommended by the ACABQ, which would report on the engagement of gratis staff during the period covered by the report, and also contain a historical view of the practice. The most recent quarterly report contained such information, and future reports would too, if there were any.
Regarding the procurement expert in the Office of the Iraq Programme, he said he would provide further details in the informal setting. But that staff member did not have procurement functions or responsibilities. The Office of the Iraq Programme did not perform duties normally performed by United Nations staff procurement officers.
Regarding questions as to why the Nairobi Office had used gratis personnel rather than consultants, that had probably been related to the availability of expertise and the decision by the management of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to make use of offers of gratis staff. Regarding the Nairobi Office's ex post facto reporting on its use of gratis personnel, the delay was probably due to the time it had taken to convey to the offices administered by the Nairobi Office that type II personnel were to be discontinued. But now, the Nairobi Office had communicated that all type II personnel had been phased out by 28 February.
Requests for combined information on nationalities and functions of gratis staff would be provided in informal meetings, he said.
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On recruitment of seconded active military and police personnel, recruitment for three additional posts for officers from Romania, France and the United States was being processed. The fourth post was temporarily encumbered and had been recirculated. Regretfully, only one female candidate had so far been approved for that type of active military and police personnel. Efforts to find female candidates had not been successful.
Comments regarding the short time it had taken to recruit to fill those posts had been noted, he said. The recruitment process for replacing gratis personnel had been accorded high priority. There had been exemplary cooperation from staff of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Office of Human Resources Management, and also from Member States. Overall, the timeline for recruitment had decreased considerably in 1998, and the Secretariat anticipated that the trend would continue.
As for details on the gratis personnel recruited for the two International Tribunals, details would be provided in informal settings. All the staff members concerned (three at the P-4 level, five at P-3 and six at P-2) were on one-year fixed term contracts with expiration dates between 1 July 1999 and 7 March 2000. Regarding questions as to why instructions to discontinue and phase out type II gratis personnel were being issued only now, he said that while all offices and departments had been fully informed, the Secretariat had focused on meeting the deadline rather than on issuing instructions. To the question on whether there were difficulties in recruiting replacements for gratis personnel, he said he was not aware of any.
Scale of Assessments
DAVID ETUCKET, Chairman of the Committee on Contributions, introduced that body's report on its special session held recently. He gave brief reasons for that Committee's recommendations on each of the eight requests for exemption from Article 19 sanctions.
KLAUS STEIN (Germany), speaking on behalf of the European Union, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, said Member States would recall that the Union had felt uneasy about granting exemptions to Article 19 sanctions without the Committee on Contribution's advice. That had been because it wanted to adhere to the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly, and also because it believed the expert body's recommendations were necessary to take well-informed decisions.
The Union was broadly in agreement with the recommendations in the report, he said. It particularly welcomed the comment on the impact of Member States' paying just enough to avoid the application of Article 19, a practice the Union agreed was not in keeping with Charter obligations. Consideration
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of whether past payment practice should become an element in determining exemptions from Article 19 sanctions would be worthwhile.
One element of the Union's previously outlined proposals to improve the financial situation of the United Nations was the tighter application of Article 19, he said. He recalled that the Union had suggested the Committee on Contributions review the implications of that. The semi-annual calculation of Article 19, the use of a "net" rather than a "gross" approach for assessments and the potential impact of a reduced floor rate for minimum levels of payment, were options that could be considered. In addition, the provision of inadequate information from States requesting exemption might be considered.
KAZUO WATANABE (Japan) said the Committee on Contributions had examined the eight cases in question in accord with its mandate, but that the fundamental process of exemption was still open. Japan hoped that the Contributions Committee would look deeply at this process at its session in June and would present its conclusions to the General Assembly. Japan also realized that some countries regularly made the minimum payment to retain the right to vote. Every Member State should make the utmost effort to pay its assessed contributions -- big or small -- so the Organization could be financed soundly.
According to the Contributions Committee's recommendation, sanctions were waived for four countries until 30 June 2000 and for three until 30 June 1999, he said. The reason for the different length of the waivers was unclear. In the case of Cambodia, with which Japan was familiar, that country's representative had said he hoped to be able to pay by June 1999, and therefore its waiver was until that date. However, Japan would appreciate enlightenment on reasons for the different lengths of waivers recommended.
Programme Planning
ELLEN ABRENICA, Chief of the Central Monitoring and Inspection Unit of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, introduced the Secretary-General's note providing information on postponed items from the programmed activities of the United Nations 1996-1997 biennium.
Ms. BUERGO RODRIGUEZ (Cuba) thanked the Secretariat for the information provided thus far on that important issue.
The CHAIRMAN proposed that the Committee recommend to the General Assembly to transmit the note by the Secretariat to the Committee for Programme Coordination for consideration at its thirty-ninth session. The Committee agreed to do so.
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Pattern of Conferences
FEDERICO RIESCO, Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly Affairs and Conference Services, introduced reports on pattern of conferences. In resolution 52/214, the Assembly had asked the Secretary-General to report on interpretation provided to groups of Member States and on improving utilization of conference services at the United Nations Office at Nairobi through the Committee on Conferences.
When that body had held its session last year, the Secretariat had orally presented the information, with the ensuing discussion presented in the Committee on Conference's report, he continued. The two issues had then been discussed in the Fifth Committee last fall, resulting in the General Assembly adopting resolution A/53/208. The Fifth Committee had expressed dissatisfaction with the procedure, and the Assembly had requested in resolution A/53/208 that the reports be distributed in writing.
The report on the impact of economy measures on mandated activities had also been requested in that resolution, he said. There had been some difficulty defining the expression "economy measures". There had been fluctuations in resources approved for conference services. The report described the resources allocated, and the variations in demand for conference services, as well as some of the measures taken to address inadequacies that might have resulted from those developments.
He then responded to questions posed on Friday by Fifth Committee members during discussion on the programme of work. Regarding translation of documents of the Conference of the Standardization of Geographical Names, he said that body had been entitled to documents in six languages, but had chosen not to make full use of that entitlement. Last March, the Fifth Committee had decided that the Conference's documents should be submitted in six languages, but the Conference had not met since then. Documentation for its next meeting would be produced in the United Nations six official languages.
Two other questions related to public information, he said. The first referred to a press release providing a summarized compilation of General Assembly resolutions, known as "round-ups". That had been prepared by the Department of Public Information and issued shortly after the adjournment of the main part of the General Assembly's session. Those round-ups had been released in English and French, which were the language of the press releases. Some years ago, however, they had also been prepared in Spanish and Arabic. Since the Department of Public Information produced the English and French releases, they did not require much work from Conference Services. The Arabic and Spanish press releases, however, had involved more work, including translation, and had thus appeared later, in April.
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Starting in 1997, with the use of more advanced technology, the release of the official version of General Assembly resolutions in all languages had advanced, he continued. Until that year, the official version had been issued in June or July, but since then, it had been circulated in all languages by mid-April. That meant that the official version had appeared before the "round-up" press release could be produced in Arabic and Spanish. There did not seem to be much advantage in having the press release, as it was not an official version, issued after the compilation of the official version. In addition, the ACABQ, commenting on United Nations publications, had commented on duplication of General Assembly resolutions and had highlighted that very instance.
The third question related to information booklets on the United Nations which were produced by the Department of Public Information, he said. The Department's sales materials were geared to specific markets, and produced in selected languages. Basic Facts about the United Nations appeared in English, French and Spanish, and The United Nations in Brief appeared in six languages.
To questions about resolution A/53/208, he said it contained 11 provisions addressing requests to Member States and 50 directing instructions to the Secretariat, including 14 for reports. Implementing the resolution was, therefore, a tall order. The Department of General Assembly Affairs and Conference Services had written to all other departments concerned and would shortly resume its ongoing dialogue with other secretariats on complying with Member States' requests.
TAMMAM SULAIMAN (Syria) said he was grateful for the response provided to questions he had raised last meeting. He was also concerned about the impact of economy measures on the pattern of conferences, notably regarding remote interpretation and translation. Syria supported the use of new technology at the United Nations and particularly in conference servicing, but that use should not affect the level of the servicing. The report on that issue stated there had been a need to use temporary staff in Conference Services. That suggested specific shortcomings in the staffing levels.
The General Assembly had agreed to the Secretary-General's proposal to eliminate many unencumbered posts in interpreting and translating, he said, but the quality was suffering. The Assembly had later requested him to ensure that conference servicing not be affected by the use of remote interpretation and translation. That had been a major concern in the last Assembly session. The Secretary-General was now reporting that it did not affect performance, but also that use was being restricted to international conferences and specialized meetings. It was reported that remote translating and interpretation would be used at an optimal level. That should not be done until the General Assembly agreed to it.
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He asked why the Secretariat would find it necessary to use contract services to produce summary records in the correct time frame and yet recommend the elimination of posts. The use of contract services obviously implied that Conference Services were affected. The General Assembly had on many occasions asked for conference servicing at optimal levels of performance.
On the translation of the geographical names standardization documents, he was grateful for Mr. Riesco's assurance that they would be translated for the next session of the relevant meeting, he said. Regarding translation of the Department of Public Information round-up of Assembly resolutions, the Fifth Committee should determine whether there was a need for full translations. On official language publication of the United Nations book titled Basic Facts about the United Nations he wanted to keep the issue in the minds of the Secretariat until the Assembly could consider whether it should be available in all six languages.
Ms. BUERGO RODRIGUEZ (Cuba), on the impact of economy measures, said she hoped the Committee would find the proper time to give the Secretary-General's report due consideration. Cuba noted with concern the report's references regarding difficulties ensuring quality and cohesiveness of summary records. She would continue to follow the issue closely, as her delegation had done in recent years whenever the pattern of conferences was studied. Member States had made references to the 1997 proposal to eliminate 103 posts. The Committee must decide when it would discuss the impact of economy measures on Conference Services in detail.
Mr. ODAGA-JALOMAYO (Uganda) felt the reports introduced were useful. He was grateful to the representative of Syria for bringing out issues about quality of translation and pilot projects. He was concerned about the inadequacies that remained in Conference Services and hoped they would be addressed, as the report assured. He asked how resource adjustment would help, as the report clearly identified the problems as being consequences of inadequate resources. He also noted the negative impact of economy measures on providing services to regional groups and other major groupings.
On Nairobi, he wished to be informed as to which parts of the report had been updated from the oral presentation given previously. The General Assembly had asked in December that the written report on Conference Services in Nairobi be an update on the oral presentation. Were references to bodies that could meet in Nairobi updated references, or were they only the same bodies referred to in the oral presentation using Nairobi? he asked. Similarly, he wished to know whether references to conference rooms being equipped with technology referred to provisions that had taken place following the oral presentation. Were the vacancy rates referred to in the written report current? he asked. He also wanted further information on the management system of the Office of Human Resources Management.
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PRAYONO ATIYANTO (Indonesia) said the "Group of 77" developing countries and China had paid a great deal of attention to this agenda item in the previous session. Regarding the Secretary-General's report, A/53/826, Indonesia strongly supported the role of the major groupings of Member States in the effort to smooth the process of decision-making in the United Nations. He noted that the report mentioned the Group of 77 and China. He would like to receive a written breakdown of the regional groups and other major groups that used the facilities of the United Nations.
Regarding report A/53/827, he said he had listened to the representative of Uganda's comments with interest. Indonesia strongly supported the United Nations Office in Nairobi and the recommendations made by the Secretary- General in the report.
WEN CHIN POWLES (New Zealand) noted the efforts made by the Department of General Assembly Affairs and Conference Services to use its budget effectively and in an innovative manner. It had endeavoured to upgrade the standard of its services to Member States. She hoped the Assistant Secretary- General would transmit her delegation's appreciation to those involved.
ZHANG WANHAI (China) expressed concern about the quality of documents provided by language services. According to the report on the impact of economy measures, conference services had proposed at the end of 1997 to abolish 203 posts in light of managerial and technological improvements and based on the expectation that the demand for meetings and documents would not return to levels experienced between 1992 and 1995. The Secretariat should provide more information, including the actual reduction in posts since 1997. Also, it should provide the categories and level of posts involved, as well as the vacancy rates of all languages. His delegation would comment further in light of that information.
THOMAS AMOLO (Kenya) associated himself with the views and requests made by the representatives of Syria, Cuba, Uganda, Indonesia and China. He encouraged the Secretariat to continue pushing divisions and departments to implement relevant provisions of the General Assembly resolutions.
Mr. RIESCO said delegates' comments would be taken into account in the Department's future work. The end of the document on economy measures indicated that conference services intended to address inadequacies through further use of technology and through adjustments to resource allocations. Fluctuations in demand for the different types of conference services could be used to shift resources to areas where there was greater need.
It was ironic that improved planning of servicing or resource allocation could negatively impact the availability of resources for other groupings, but that was a fact, he said. The Department relied on the cancellation of meetings to meet requirements of non-calendar bodies, such as regional
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groupings. Since the cancellation rate had decreased, such resources were not being freed. Efforts were being made to encourage bodies to plan for the meetings of groupings of Member States.
Turning then to the report on utilization of conference facilities in Nairobi, he said much of the information had been presented to the Committee last fall. The major update had to do with actions to be taken as a result of the Assembly's decisions and resolutions. Also, 1998 statistics had been updated. On the system of managed assignment and its possible impact on vacancy rates, discussions were ongoing with the Office of Human Resources Management and a report was being prepared.
As for which groups of States had received interpretation services, he said the list included: the Group of Asian States, the Group of African States, the Latin American and Caribbean States Group, the Western European and Other States Group, the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organization of Islamic Conference, the States of Western Asia, the least developed countries Group, and the Group of small island developing States. Also, the Chairman had reminded him that services had been provided for the Eastern European States Group. The Department was prepared to produce a table on staff changes by unit, function, level and language.
Mr. ODAGA-JALOMAYO (Uganda), referring to the report on the impact of economy measures, asked why resources freed through efficiency gains were not deployed to overcome inadequacies mentioned in the report. What was meant by "pre-session documents continued to be issued within the time frames customary in the past"? he asked.
Mr. RIESCO said it was not easy to shift resources achieved through efficiency savings, particularly when they were expressed in terms of staff, and in light of the specialization of conference service and language staff. But in some cases resources had been shifted. For example, with the introduction of computer-assisted translation, the Department had been able to increase the time translators could devote to quality of translation.
Pre-session documents were unfortunately being issued late, he said, but no later than in the past. The six-week rule, "which should be the golden rule for issuance of documentation", was not, in fact, complied with in every case. The report had mentioned pre-session documents because their issuance was linked to conference services capacity. The biggest reason for late issuance was late submission, but with adequate capacity, efforts could be made to mitigate the effects of that.
Mr. SIAL (Pakistan) said he knew that it would take some time to fully implement the 11-page resolution, A/53/208. His question had pertained only to implementation of provisions having to do with the format of reports. Why
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were some reports not being issued in accordance with the provisions? he asked.
Mr. RIESCO said he was aware that there was not yet uniformity in following that instruction. He hoped that at least documents from his Department were being produced in conformity. Conference services had contacted all other Secretariat departments on the matter, and did not take the issue lightly. The Secretariat was like a large ship -- changing course even a few degrees took a lot of turns of the wheel. There was some resistance from certain bodies that believed the format did not conform with their needs. However, with electronic flow of production, there was the possibility of imposing the format on reports even in draft form. He hoped formatting requirements would be complied with soon.
The CHAIRMAN reminded delegations that some parts of the Secretariat were still using systems from the 1970s. Member States should be realistic in their expectations.
He then proposed the following draft decision:
The General Assembly takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on the provision of interpretation services to meetings of the regional and other major groupings of Member States (document A/53/826) and the report of the Secretary-General on improved utilization of conference facilities at the United Nations Office in Nairobi (document A/53/827) and decides to transmit the report of the Secretary-General on the impact of economy measures on the delivery of mandated conference services (document A/53/833) to the Committee on Conferences for consideration at its forthcoming session.
Mr. ODAGA-JALOMAYO (Uganda) said the latter report had to do with budgetary matters and should therefore go to the ACABQ rather than the Committee on Conference Services.
The CHAIRMAN said the Committee could take the matter up in informal consultations.
Administrative and Budgetary Aspects of Peacekeeping Operations
He then drew attention to the report on clearing the backlog of death and disability claims.
DJAMEL MOKTEFI (Algeria) said the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC) had recommended that a list of outputs proposed for abolishment be provided, and that the views of competent intergovernmental bodies be obtained. The latter had not occurred, so the CPC could not present its views.
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The CHAIRMAN said the Committee had already decided to transmit the conference room paper to the CPC.
He recommended that the General Assembly take note of the note of the Secretary-General on the quarterly report for the period from 1 October to 30 December 1998 on progress made in clearing the backlog of claims for incidents.
The Committee agreed.
Other Matters
Mr. MOKTEFI (Algeria) asked that the summary records link his views on the outputs proposed for abolishment with the agenda item on programme planning -- for the information of the CPC.
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