PRESS BRIEFING BY UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR MANAGEMENT

PRESS BRIEFING BY UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR MANAGEMENT

Only 127 Member States had paid their United Nations regular budget assessments in full as of 31 October, Catherine Bertini, Under-Secretary-General for Management, said at Headquarters this afternoon.

Briefing correspondents on the Organization’s financial health, she said the number was higher than it was in 2002, when only 117 Member States had paid in full by the end of the year.  However, it was not high enough.  “We still have some way to go for Member States to pay their dues.”

She said 41 Member States had made some payments as of 31 October while 25 had made no payment at all.  Major contributors currently owed $360 million and the other 63 contributors owed $106 million, bringing the total amount outstanding to $466 million.  Unless Member States who owed money paid by the end of the year, the United Nations would end 2003 with a deficit of $12 million.

However, she said that although the Organization’s current financial situation was tenuous, it was better than it had been in many previous years.  But that was not true of the international tribunals; 105 Member States had made no payment on their 2003 tribunal assessments as of 31 October, 18 had made partial payments and only 63 had paid in full.  As a result, money had been borrowed for the tribunals since July.  Although it was hoped that the tribunals would have a $2 million positive cash balance at the end of 2003, that would not be the case unless Member States made significant payments.  In the current situation, the cash balance for the tribunals had fallen to a deficit of $41 million in October and was projected to be negative $29 million by year-end.  “This is a very fragile financial position for the tribunals and it is absolutely critical that we have payments from Member States”, Ms. Bertini emphasized.

Turning to the Capital Master Plan, the Under-Secretary-General said Member States had been assessed for the 2003 calendar year in order for the Organization to have start-up funds for the beginning of the design phase.  The assessment came to a total of $25.5 million.  So far $18 million had been received from 72 Member States while 119 had not made payments.

Regarding peacekeeping, she said $1,188 million had not been paid at the end of October, which was, nevertheless, an improvement over 2002, when unpaid assessments totalled $1,652 million.  Peacekeeping operations had had healthy cash flow balances every month of the year.  It was important that the money was there because it was used to support peacekeeping missions and to borrow funds for the tribunals.  In 2003, $41 million had been borrowed to sustain the tribunals.

On the issue of reimbursement to troop- and equipment-contributing countries, she said the Secretary-General wanted those payments to be as current as possible.  In January 2003, the debt to Member States had stood at $703 million and the Organization had then undertaken further obligations of $694 million.  So far, $832 million had been reimbursed to Member States, and the Secretary-General’s goal would be met by the end of the year.  However, more work remained to be done on that issue.

She said the Secretary-General had proposed a $2.9 billion general budget for the biennium 2004-2005.  That figure had been re-costed to provide for inflation and the weakening of the United States dollar, bringing the new total to $3.1 billion.  The proposed budget represented a real growth of 0.5 per cent.

Emphasizing that there would be many reallocations of resources to reflect the Secretary-General’s reform initiatives, she said there would be more of a focus on results and some discontinuation of outputs.  Resources would also be reallocated towards priority areas and additional resources would be allocated to information technology and staff training.  In addition, baselines and targets would be added to facilitate the measurement of achievement indicators.

Included in the proposed budget was a $41 million cut, a reduction in the number of new posts, a change in the computer-replacement cycle from three to four years and an adjustment of the vacancy rates, she said.  The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) was currently reviewing the budget proposal.

The Under-Secretary-General noted that while the United Nations could learn from the private sector, it was not the private sector.  It was more akin to a State government in terms of its organization and would be best served by looking for best practices both in the private sector and in government.

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