BUDGET COMMITTEE HOLDS ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING; SESSION WILL FOCUS ON HUMAN RESOURCES, MANAGEMENT

Fifty-ninth General Assembly

Fifty Committee

1^st Meeting (AM)

BUDGET COMMITTEE HOLDS ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING; SESSION

WILL FOCUS ON HUMAN RESOURCES, MANAGEMENT

Debate Begins 4 October

During its organizational meeting this morning, the Assembly’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee (Fifth) discussed its programme of work for the fifty-ninth session, with several speakers expressing deep concern over the lack of documentation needed for the Committee’s consideration of individual agenda items.

In accordance with the Committee’s biennial cycle of work, this year’s session will give particular emphasis to the human resources, administration and management issues, focusing on the consolidation of human resources management reform.  Another reform to be discussed by the Committee is that of the Joint Inspection Unit -- the sole system-wide external oversight body of the United Nations.

Introducing the proposed programme of work to the Committee, its incoming Chairman, Don MacKay (New Zealand), said that it was particularly heavy this year, with many complex issues on the agenda.  In addition to its usual items, the Committee had to address the priority issue of safety and security of United Nations personnel and the budgets of several peacekeeping missions.  Work needed to be completed expeditiously, as many items were time-bound and could not be deferred to the resumed session in March.

He added that the intensity of the workload was also due to the steady increase of documentation to be considered by the Committee, which had before it over 200 reports, not including the reports of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ).  However, in view of non-availability of documents, the programme of work would “be pretty much a living organism”, requiring adjustments as the Committee went along.  For that reason, today it was important for the Committee to focus mostly on the initial weeks of the session.

He expressed hope that a spirit of cooperation and flexibility would allow the Committee to successfully complete its work in a timely manner.  He reminded delegates that the fifty-ninth session of the Assembly would recess on 14 December and, thus, the date for the completion of the work of the Fifth Committee had been set for Friday, 10 December.

He also presented to the Committee the members of the Bureau, who had been elected three months in advance of the session in compliance with newly introduced measures to optimize and better focus the work of the General Assembly and its Main Committees.  Elected on 10 June were the Committee’s three Vice-Chairpersons: Karen Lock (South Africa), Mohamed Najib Eljy (Syria), and Karla Samayoa-Ricari (Guatemala), as well as its Rapporteur, Denisa Hutanova (Slovakia).

Representatives of the Netherlands (on behalf of the European Union and associated States), Qatar (on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China), Russian Federation, India, Australia (also on behalf of Canada), Republic of Korea, United States, Canada and Nigeria commented on the programme of work and made suggestions regarding the allocation of meetings, advocating effective use of the time allocated to the Committee.  Most speakers emphasized the need to ensure timely issuance of documentation needed for the work of the Committee, saying that the chronic problem of late publication of reports had always affected the delegates’ work, but the situation was particularly difficult this year.

In that connection, Qatar’s representative said that this year the Committee was “confronted with failures on all counts”.  It was facing “an unprecedented situation”, with the majority of documents not issued on time and no explanations from the Secretariat in that regard.  The Group had been of the view that the work of the Committee should be postponed for two weeks, in order to allow documents to be issued.  In a spirit of responsibility, however, the Group stood ready to adopt a programme of work for the initial two weeks of the session.  The Group requested that senior representatives of author departments in the Headquarters and the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management provide explanations on the reasons for documentation delays on 4 October.

To that, the United States representative added that Member States should also take responsibility for the situation, requesting reports only when absolutely needed.  He was also one of the speakers advocating postponing the second five-year evaluation and review of the functions and reporting procedures of the Office of Internal Oversight Services until all relevant documents were available.  [As this year marks the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Office, such a review is included on the Committee’s agenda this session.]

In an effort to improve the Organization’s planning and budgeting system, during the fifty-ninth session the Committee will also take up the first-ever two year strategic framework for the period 2006-2007, which is going to replace the four-year medium-term plan of the United Nations.  In late 2004, Member States are also expected to consider specific measures to improve the system of monitoring and evaluation, another important element in the planning and budgeting cycle.

Other agenda items before the Committee include:  improving the overall financial situation of the United Nations and its main bodies; and the serious deterioration in the financial situation of the International Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.  In his report on the work of the Organization (document A/59/1), the Secretary-General pointed out that in 2003 an increasing number of Member States had failed to pay their assessed contributions for those courts.

Taking up its Pattern of Conferences agenda item, the Committee will consider utilization of conference-servicing resources and facilities, matters related to documentation, publications, translation, interpretation, and information technology, as well as the reform of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management.  Also to be considered are the capital master plan for the refurbishment of the United Nations complex in New York; statements by the Board of Auditors; the scale of assessments for the apportionment of dues to the Organization among Member States; common support services; administration of justice at the United Nations; and the first performance report for the current 2004-2005 budget.

The Committee will continue its consideration of organizational matters and begin its substantive work at 10 a.m. Monday, 4 October.

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