ADMINISTRATIVE AND BUDGETARY COMMITTEE ELECTS OFFICERS, APPROVES PROGRAMME OF WORK
Press Release
GA/AB/3307
ADMINISTRATIVE AND BUDGETARY COMMITTEE ELECTS OFFICERS, APPROVES PROGRAMME OF WORK
19990921The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this afternoon elected Ahmed H. Darwish (Egypt), Amjad B. Sial (Pakistan) and Judith Maria Cardoze (Panama) as its Vice Chairmen, and Jan Jaremczuk (Poland) as its Rapporteur. The Committee Chairman, Penny A. Wensley (Australia), was elected on 14 September.
Also this afternoon, the Committee approved its 38-item programme of work for the fifty-fourth Assembly session.
The programme of work includes consideration of the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2000-2001, improving the financial situation of the United Nations, financing of United Nations peacekeeping, consideration of the Secretary- General's report on the Office of Internal Oversight Services, and the financial reports and audited financial statements of certain United Nations agencies and programmes, along with the reports of the Board of Auditors.
The key issue that confronted the Committee at this session was identified during discussion of the programme of work, as the programme budget for the 2000-2001 biennium, but the importance of instruction to the Committee on Contributions on the Scale of Assessments - the means by which the amount each Member State must contribute towards the expenses of the Organization is determined - was also raised, as was financing peacekeeping operations and the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Delegations expressed concerns about late submission of documents, and also about failure to comply with the General Assemblys decisions about the correct format for reports of the Secretary-General. The importance of avoiding late Committee meetings and parallel informal consultations were also raised during the meeting.
The Director of the Programme Planning and Budget Division, Warren Sach, responded to a question about a delay in the anticipated submission date of an Expert Group report on the operations of the two International Criminal Tribunals. The Committee is scheduled to begin its substantive session on 4 October, when it will take up its organization of work and the financing of United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM)/United Nations Angola Observer Mission (MONUA), and the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM).
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