Fifty-ninth General Assembly

Fifth Committee

8^th Meeting (AM)

Pace, methods of General Assembly management reform debated in budget committee

(Issued on 15 October 2004.)

The claim by the Secretariat of a trend of improvement in the timely issuance of documents was “debatable”, if one considered the crisis faced by the Committee during the current session, the representative of Cuba told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning.  A number of delegates over the past two days had expressed concern over the pace and methods of reform undertaken by the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management.

Responding to those questions, Assistant Secretary-General for the Department, Angela Kane, elaborated on a number of steps made by the Department to improve its work.

Regarding the new slotting system implemented this year, aimed at improving planning of the workload and helping curb the late issuance of documentation, she noted that there remained some “teething problems”.  Those problems were not exclusively the fault of the Department, but of author departments, as well.  Any document could be turned around in a shorter time, she continued, but at a cost.

She also addressed the provision of services to regional groups.  As pointed out by the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, the percentage of the meetings of regional and other major groupings that were provided with interpretation in 2003-2004 had decreased over the past two years.  However, the actual number of meetings serviced had increased over the same time-span, an achievement overshadowed by the increased number of requests.

On the vacancies in translation and interpretation, she said that the situation would improve, particularly in the Arabic and Chinese services, as new competitive exams were held and interviews scheduled.  Staffing needs for the United Nations Office at Nairobi would be given high priority.  High vacancy rates for translators were mostly attributable to a large number of retirements, she said.  Kenya, on behalf of the African group, noted the progress made in utilizing conference facilities in Nairobi since the establishment of a permanent interpretation service.  He encouraged further efforts to market and popularize those facilities.

Canada’s representative, also speaking on behalf of Australia and New Zealand, strongly supported the continuing implementation of the reform strategy for the Department, adding that it was important to persevere in that complex and difficult process.  She highlighted four issues:  the constructive efforts made toward integrated global management; the integration of information technology in the workplace; the development of means to quantitatively measure productivity and efficiency; and support for the biennialization of the Pattern of Conferences agenda item.

Also speaking today were representatives of Syria and Nigeria, as well as Louis Dominique Ouedraogo of the Joint Inspection Unit.

The next formal meeting will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, 15 October.

Background

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning was expected to continue its consideration of its “pattern of conferences” agenda item.  For summaries of the reports before the Committee, see Press Release GA/AB/3632.

Statements

GEORGE OLAGO OWUOR (Kenya), speaking on behalf of the African Group, supported the position of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China and noted with appreciation the steady progress in utilization of conference facilities at the United Nations Office at Nairobi since the establishment of a permanent interpretation service there in 2001.  However, it was still necessary to make further efforts in that regard.

Continuing, he recognized the need to more widely market and popularize Nairobi facilities by undertaking a marketing campaign similar to that for the Conference Centre at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).  The Group strongly urged the two United Nations programmes in Nairobi -- United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) -- to hold all their meetings and events in Nairobi.  He commended the Secretary-General for his efforts to increase utilization and efficient use of the facilities at the Conference Centre at the ECA, encouraging establishment of linkages with other centres and bodies to introduce integrated conference management and modern technology systems for a more efficient delivery of services.

Turning to interpretation and translation services, he noted with concern relatively high vacancy rates in Nairobi and Geneva.  A chronic difficulty in staffing some interpretation posts at Nairobi, particularly in the Arabic Unit, raised serious concerns and doubts concerning the measures to address the difficulties.  He also noted with concern the sharp disparities between Nairobi and other duty stations and called for the Secretary-General to correct the situation.  A long-term strategy was needed to address persistent high-vacancy problems in translation, editorial and interpretation services in Nairobi.

Regarding the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, he expressed great disappointment that translation had not been available during the video conferencing for the last meeting of the Committee on Conferences amongst three United Nations Offices in Nairobi, Geneva and Vienna, as English was the only language used.  Some Members of the Committee could not follow the deliberations, as a result.  He expected that, once completed, the transition from conference servicing to conference management would lead to high cost-effective performance and benefits in efficiency and productivity.

The Committee on Conferences had noted some serious problems arising out of overlapping of dates for some meetings, he continued.  The dates of the UN-HABITAT Governing Council and the Commission on Sustainable Development were clashing.  He called on conference management to ensure that such overlaps were avoided, for they presented difficulties for smaller delegations from the developing world.  The Group was also concerned that some requests for interpretation had not been met for regional and other major groupings of Member States, despite the decision of the Assembly to include all necessary resources in the budget for that purpose.

In conclusion, he welcomed the development of the integrated global management of conference services and active participation of the Nairobi Office in the nine task forces established.  He also welcomed the efforts to include that Office in the sharing of standards, good practices and technological achievement with other duty stations and would like to see more integration in that field.

JENNIE CHEN (Canada), also speaking on behalf of Australia and New Zealand, strongly supported the continuing implementation of the reform strategy for the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, recognizing the efforts made toward results-based management, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency.  It was important to persevere in that complex and difficult process.

She highlighted four issues:  the constructive efforts made toward integrated global management; the integration of information technology in the workplace; the development of means to quantitatively measure productivity and efficiency; and support for the biennialization of the Pattern of Conferences agenda item.  On the first matter, she appreciated the collaborative planning approach towards ensuring more coordinated work among all duty stations, noting that such an approach in no way diminished the overall authority of the Under-Secretary-General, who remained accountable for all the relevant resources.  The application of information technology was not going as rapidly as had been forecast, and her delegation looked forward to the early completion of the transition to electronic workflow, based on concrete targets, and involving all duty stations.

She added that quantitative measures of productivity, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness were essential management tools, and was puzzled by the slow pace of progress in developing such means.  Finally, she proposed the biennialization of the Pattern of Conferences agenda item because, although important, it did not require annual treatment.

Mr. BERTI OLIVA (Cuba), fully endorsing the statement made by the chairman of the Group of 77 and China, noted that the efficiency of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management was essential to the proper unfolding of the legislative process and, therefore, was one of the greatest priorities for Member States.  He was concerned that the report of the Secretary-General on the reform of the Department contained some value judgements about sensitive and often controversial issues related to the revitalization of the General Assembly.  It was inappropriate for that document to refer to such items as the scheduling of the main committees, their agendas, and working methods.  That was the responsibility of the Member States.

Regarding the chronic documentation problem, a detailed analysis was essential.  He stressed that Member States had a right to request official documents, regardless of the number of pages therein, and that budgetary considerations should not be cited as an impediment.  Also, while paragraph 28 of the report noted a perceptible trend toward improvement in the timely publication of documents, that was a debatable claim if one considered the crisis faced by the Committee during the current session.  He asked which bodies were most affected by the delay in the presentation of documents.

On the issue of “printing on demand”, he noted that the General Assembly had legislated in an unequivocal fashion on the need for that change not to have any effect on the quality of services provided to the Member States.  He would be grateful if, at the appropriate time, the Secretariat could provide the foundation for assertions about the net savings that could be achieved by the introduction of that technology and its impact on the staff.  Also, it seemed that priority was being given to electronic documents over hard copies, and he sought statistical information on the average time period elapsing between the two forms of distribution.

Cuba did not endorse the proposed biennialization of the agenda item, especially during a time of reform.  His delegation did, however, support the proposed draft resolution, which would contribute to negotiations on this important topic.

Responding to questions and comments from the floor, Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management ANGELA KANE said that, while concerns had been expressed, she was grateful for the support expressed in the debate.  Many speakers had addressed the issue of late issuance of documentation and the slotting system, and she emphasized that the Department aimed to serve delegations better.  The Department had had a very short experience with the slotting system, with which it was experiencing some “teething problems”.  Those were not exclusively the fault of the Department, but author departments, as well.  The slotting system had been designed to improve planning of foreseeable workload.

Any document could be turned around in a shorter time, she continued, but at a cost.  It was exactly to reduce the costs that efforts had been made to make the system more predictable, putting submission of documents in time slots.  Some of the difficulties could be illustrated by the situation with a recent report on the “oil-for-food” investigation.  A 92-page document had been submitted on 5 October with a request to release it on 11 October.  While a day late, it had been issued extremely fast, coming out on 12 October.  The document was part of a series of such reports that would be requested with a very short time-line.

Another issue raised in the debate was the provision of services to regional groups, she said.  Earmarked funds in the budget would be required for that purpose.  That was not implemented in the current budget.  Thus, services were provided within the current parameters.  For example, the Department tried to match the requests to periods when cancellations were expected, without going beyond entitlements of bodies and sessions.  As the Group of 77 had pointed out, the percentage of regional and other major groupings’ meetings provided with interpretation in 2003-2004 had decreased to 90 per cent from 92 per cent in 2002-2003 and was 8 percentage points lower than in 2001-2002.  In fact, however, the number of meetings had increased over the same time-span.  The increase in the number of requests had overshadowed that achievement, however.

Responding to queries regarding the distribution of extrabudgetary and regular budget posts in Nairobi, she said that overall, Nairobi was receiving a combination of regular and extrabudgetary funding.  All 20 interpreters’ posts in Nairobi were funded from the regular budget and most had been filled, except for the Arabic Booth.  The translation service had 35 extrabudgetary and 12 regular budget posts.  It was difficult to attract candidates for extrabudgetary positions.  A request could be made for conversion of extrabudgetary posts to budgetary ones, but such a measure would be staggered over time.

On the vacancies in translation and interpretation, she said that the situation would improve as new interpreters’ exams were held, particularly in Arabic and Chinese services.  A solid roster of successful candidates would be established.  Interviews were to be held in the next two weeks in New York and Geneva and Nairobi staffing needs would be given high priority.  As for translation, high vacancy rates were attributable to a large number of retirements.  The Department had planned actively for the succession, but between 2000 and 2005 the number of retirements in Arabic and Chinese services was 19 each, 12 people had retired in the Spanish service, 8 in English, 7 in French and 3 in Russian.

Another reason was mobility, she added, which was encouraged in keeping with human resources policies.  There had been 13 transfers in recent years.  Translation services held more frequent competitive examinations now.  The Spanish service had held three such exams in six years, the English had held them in 2000 and 2002; the Chinese in 2001, the Arabic in 2002, and another one had just taken place.  A Russian examination was scheduled for 2005.

Turning to summary records, she said that, in response to General Assembly requests, the Department had outlined five options for future treatment of summary records, including replacing summary records with digital recordings, reducing the number of bodies entitled to summary records, restricting their length and concentrating précis writers in the English translation service.  If requested to do so, the Department would present a pilot project in that regard at the sixtieth session.  The usefulness of summary records was for Member States to decide.

Further explaining the situation, she said that, while summary records in the original language were normally completed within two days, translation lagged behind.  Summaries were now issued months after the meetings.  To issue them in a more timely manner, staffing needed to be reinforced or additional funding provided for contractual translation.  Alternatively, the General Assembly may conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the current system and the list of bodies entitled to summary records.  Under the circumstances, in the current budget no request had been made for a special provision for summary records, on the understanding that the Department would continue to do its best under existing resources.

On information meetings regarding language services, she said that the Department used to hold them annually, but had recently agreed to hold them twice a year.  The last one had taken place in July and the next would take place early next year.  For the time being, until a special Web site was ready, the Department would be happy to receive feedback from Member States through e-meets.  A briefing on the use of that system would be held next week.  As for the issue of the posting of meetings on plasma screens, the boards could only show limited information, and the options were to follow the chronological or hierarchical order.  The Department had so far opted for the chronological order, but was willing to change that if the majority of delegations felt it should be done.  As for free access to the Official Document System, the Joint Inspection Unit had addressed the issue of different levels of access.  Conference room papers and restricted documents would not be available to the public without a password.

NORMA GOICOCHEA (Cuba) noted that the questions asked by her delegation had not been answered, while acknowledging that the queries were posed only this morning.  She asked when they should expect replies.  Her delegation believed that questions put forward in a formal meeting should be answered in a formal meeting.

NAJIB ELJY (Syria), speaking on the question of issuing summary records in official languages, repeated the concern expressed in his statement made yesterday that referred to a document whose annex was issued in English only.  Documents and their annexes must be considered as a whole, integrated piece, and should be made available simultaneously in all official languages.  He also noted that the administration had not requested a budget allocation for the issuance of summary records, even though the programmatic mandates had called for the issuance of those records.  He hoped to receive written clarification of all those issues at a later stage.

Mr. OLAGO OWUOR (Kenya) requested that the responses to the questions be provided in writing.

NONYE UDO (Nigeria) sought clarification from the Secretariat on the issue of summary records.  From the comments made this morning, it seemed there was an increase in requests for summary records, and yet no provision was made in the budget for those records.  Why was there such an apparently contradictory posture?  She also strongly endorsed the request by the representative of Kenya for a written transcript of comments made by the Assistant Secretary-General this morning.

Ms. KANE responded that the number of bodies entitled to summary records had remained steady, but what had increased was the number of meetings those bodies held.  As for another question, of course, the six-week rule had not been abandoned.  As an interim internal measure, the Department had used a four-week rule, which would have to be considered in the light of this year’s experience.  She also promised to look into other questions raised today.

On free access to the ODS, Inspector LOUIS DOMINIQUE OUEDRAOGO of the Joint Inspection Unit, added that the Unit report described various levels of access.  Currently, most users received access to documents available for general distribution (levels 1 through 4).  Level 5 was granted to delegates and allowed access to documents meant for distribution to participants only, such as a conference room paper.  Only a few staff members in the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management were granted access to level 6, which enabled users access to restricted documents.  Level 7 was reserved for the ODS administration.  Once free access was implemented, access to currently limited documents, like draft resolutions, would be provided.  Other limited-level documents would still be restricted.  On the ODS, a password would be needed to access such documents as conference room papers.  He felt it was important to make sure that free access covered conference room papers, as well.  The move to free access would still be accompanied by registration.  Delegations would still have access to documents, including restricted ones.

Mr. OLAGO OWUOR (Kenya) said another meeting was needed on the agenda item under consideration, for some of his questions had not been answered.

Mr. ELJY (Syria) added a question about the method for free access to official documents.

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