Sixty-first General Assembly

Fifth Committee

21^st Meeting (AM)

FIFTH COMMITTEE TAKES UP REVISED 2006-2007 BUDGET FOR CÔTE D’IVOIRE MISSION

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budget) today took up the revised budget of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) for 2006-2007 and also briefly revisited its agenda item on the financial situation of the Organization.

Delegations expressed their satisfaction with the Secretariat’s presentation of the revised requirements, which called for an increase of $52.7 million to cover the expansion of the mission, including 1,500 additional military and police personnel approved by the Security Council last June.  The revised budget for the period will total $472.9 million.

The representative of Nigeria, speaking on behalf of the African Group, paid tribute to the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union, and the mediation led by the President of South Africa in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as the untiring efforts of the Secretary-General and the Security Council to find a lasting solution to the conflict.  She also commended the Secretariat for providing details in the budget proposal in a clear and comprehensive manner.  She said every effort must be made to ensure that the mission can fully implement the mandate recently agreed to by the Security Council in its resolution 1721 -- based on the decision of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union -– to hold elections in Côte d’Ivoire by 31 October 2007.

At the same time, she sought assurance that the mission would be able to fully execute its mandate expeditiously, and that the 29 new posts would help the mission meet the responsibility associated with the increased workload.  She especially appreciated the cooperation of the downsizing the United Nations missions in Sierra Leone and Burundi in identifying staff for positions in UNOCI, and also noted that the trend of a reduction in UNOCI vacancy rates should be maintained and further improved.

Côte d’Ivoire’s representative said that resolution 1721 reflected the desire of the international community to find a way out of the difficult situation in his country.  The necessary actions included disarmament, demobilization and reintegration; identification of population and registration of voters for the voting rolls; efforts to re-establish the authority of the Government over the whole territory; and restructuring the armed forces.  UNOCI, which had an important role to play, must have the material and human resources needed to help his country return to normal life, he added.

The reports before the Committee were presented by Warren Sach, United Nations Controller, and Rajat Saha, Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ).

Also participating in the debate were representatives of Brazil (also on behalf of Argentina), Japan, Cuba and Iran.

The Committee will next meet at 10 a.m. Friday, 17 November, to take up the financing of the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste.

Background

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) met this morning to take up financing of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) and conclude its discussion of the financial situation of the United Nations.

On UNOCI, the Committee had before it the revised budget for the Operation for the period from 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2007 (document A/61/468), in which the General Assembly is called on to make an appropriation of the additional amount of $52.71 million for the maintenance of the Operation for the 12-month period, and an assessment of that amount at a monthly rate of some $4.39 million, should the Security Council decide to continue the mandate of the Operation beyond 15 December -– the date through which the Council extended the mission by its resolution 1652 of 24 January 2006.  Subsequently, by its resolution 1682 of 2 June 2006, the Council authorized, until 15 December 2006, an increase in the strength of the Operation of up to 1,500 additional personnel, including a maximum of 1,025 military personnel and 475 civilian police personnel.

The report provides an analysis of variances based on alterations to the mandate, the occurrence of external factors, changes to the cost parameters, and management actions.  The single greatest dollar amount rise is the need for an additional $25.17 million to increase the strength of the Operation by adding 1,025 military personnel, while an $8.8 million hike to add 375 police personnel is the single greatest percentage increase in requirements from a change in mandate.  Changes to the staffing levels at both the international and national levels and additional needs for accommodation for personnel, ground transportation, information technology and communications, medical services and other equipment accounts for much of the rest of the need for greater resources.

In a related report, the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) (document A/61/551) recommends acceptance of the proposal of the Secretary-General on raising the 2006-2007 appropriation from $420.18 million to $472.89 million, as UNOCI is in an expansion phase.

ACABQ notes that the average budget implementation rate for UNOCI is 88 per cent, with an average unencumbered balance of $30.47 million, and recommends refinement of budget assumptions and closer scrutiny of expenditure patterns by UNOCI and Headquarters.  It also notes an improvement in the mission’s vacancy rates and, in particular, commends efforts by downsizing missions in Sierra Leone and Burundi to advise their staff to apply for positions with UNOCI.  It recommends approval of the establishment of 29 new posts and positions proposed by the Secretary-General, as the deployment of 1,500 additional military and police personnel will represent an increased workload for the support component of the mission.

Statements

United Nations Controller, WARREN SACH, introduced the report of the Secretary-General on the revised budget of UNOCI.

The ACABQ report was presented by the Chairman of the Advisory Committee, RAJAT SAHA.  Recognizing that UNOCI was in an expansion phase, the Advisory Committee had recommended approval of the full amount requested by the Secretary-General, he said.  In so doing, it also recommended that budgetary assumptions continued to be refined in order to avoid high unencumbered balances.  Among other things, ACABQ had also noted continued improvement in the mission’s vacancy rates and trusted that the trend would continue.

NONYE UDO (Nigeria), speaking on behalf of the African Group, paid tribute to the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union and the mediation led by the President of South Africa in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as the untiring efforts of the Secretary-General and the Security Council to find a lasting solution to the conflict.  She also commended the Secretariat for providing details in the budget proposal in a clear and comprehensive manner.  She took note of Security Council resolution 1721 on UNOCI, which called for elections to be held by 31 October 2007, and she said every effort must be made to ensure that the mission can fully implement that mandate.  She said the revised estimates for the mission had merit, as they were based on Security Council resolution 1682, which authorized an increase of up to 1,500 additional military and police.

She sought assurance that the mission would be able to fully execute its mandate expeditiously, and that the 29 new posts would help the mission meet the responsibility associated with the increased workload.  She was pleased to learn that deployment of the additional troops was under way, and called for every effort to conclude the deployments in a timely fashion, including through negotiations with, and assistance to, troop-contributing countries.  She appreciated the cooperation of the downsizing United Nations missions in Sierra Leone and Burundi in identifying staff for positions in UNOCI, and also noted that the trend of a reduction in UNOCI vacancy rates should be maintained and further improved.

FERNANDO DE OLIVEIRA SENA ( Brazil), speaking also on behalf of Argentina, welcomed the recommendation of ACABQ for acceptance of the Secretary-General’s proposal for UNOCI.  He was pleased with the clarity of the presentation of the revised estimates, particularly the effort to identify accomplishments to be achieved and the dates by which they were to be completed.  He hoped that the positive trends on vacancy rates could be continued and that the mission would guarantee adequate staffing.  He fully supported the work of UNOCI and all of its United Nations staff, including its military contingents, and recognized the efforts made by the leaders of the African Union and ECOWAS towards attainment of peace and development in Côte d’Ivoire.

HITOSHI KOZAKI ( Japan) directed some questions to the Chairman of ACABQ. In its previous report, he said, the Advisory Committee had recommended -– and it had been endorsed by the General Assembly -- that the Côte d’Ivoire Operation should try to adjust budgetary assumptions to anticipated activity when establishing the revised budget for 2006-2007.  Had that been implemented by the Secretary-General in his budgetary submission?  He also sought clarification regarding the conclusion in paragraph 14 of the current ACABQ report regarding the mission being in an expansion phase.  In that paragraph, ACABQ recommended acceptance of the Secretary-General’s proposal pending any further action by the Security Council.  He wondered whether the ACABQ anticipated further expansion of the mission.

MARC-AUBIN BANNY ( C ôte d’Ivoire) said that, on 1 November, the Security Council had unanimously adopted resolution 1721, which now determined an exit from the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire.  It reflected the desire of the international community to find a way out of the difficult situation in his country.  The necessary actions included disarmament, demobilization and reintegration; the re-establishment of the authority of the Government over the whole territory; the organization of elections; and restructuring of the armed forces.  UNOCI, which had an important role to play, must have the material and human resources needed to help his country to return to normal life.  He thanked the international community for its support.

Responding to questions, Mr. SAHA said that the information in paragraph 3 of the ACABQ report -– where the Advisory Committee referred to the authorized increase in the strength of the mission by up to 1,500 additional personnel -- had triggered the reference to the expansion phase.  In connection with paragraph 23 of document A/60/896, he reminded the Committee that the Operation’s expansion was continuing, and many issues needed to be looked at in the framework of the performance report.

PABLO BERTI OLIVA ( Cuba) said that many measures for administrative and budgetary reform had been presented to the General Assembly and the proposal for limiting spending had been raised, although it had been strongly opposed.  A new scale of assessments for the next biennium needed to be set by January 2007.  While there had been slight improvements, he said, many problems remained, particularly the uncertainty of relying on a few countries for most of the Organization’s finances.  States clamouring for reform were forgetting that all Members had committed under the 2005 World Summit Outcome document to provide sufficient resources in a timely manner to discharge the mandates and to achieve the goals of the Organization.  But, the main contributor had not complied with that commitment.  As of 31 October 2006, its arrears included 80 per cent in the regular budget contribution, 31 per cent in the peacekeeping budget and 67 per cent to the International Tribunals.  He noted that, in the year 2000, the General Assembly, with resolution 55/5, had reduced the maximum assessed contribution from 25 per cent to 22 per cent of the budget, which was based on the agreement that the country in question pay its arrears.

He noted that that decision had brought about a substantial increase in assessments for other countries, with a negative impact on many.  It was unacceptable that the United States, after exerting great pressure to reduce its contribution, had not honoured its financial commitments.  He added that the United States arrears to the regular budget as of 30 September 2000 had been 81 per cent of its contribution and, after six years, that situation had not changed.  It was time to consider whether the ceiling should be revised upwards.

He then noted Cuba’s genuine commitment to the Organization, and the substantial payments it had made in the current year, in spite of the difficulties from the embargo it had experienced for the past 47 years.  Cuba’s inability to use the United States dollar in transactions made it constantly subject to monetary fluctuations, and there were additional difficulties when it had to carry out transactions through third countries.  Further, he also stated his dissatisfaction with the fact that delegations had not received the Secretary-General’s report on the subject in a timely fashion.  The report deserved substantial debate and close follow-up, both in informal consultation and through the adoption of a draft resolution.  Given the nature of the topics before the Committee this year, his delegation reserved the right to use other items of the agenda related to this one to raise its concerns.

MOHAMMAD HASSANINEJAD PIRKOUHI ( Iran) supported the position of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China and stressed the unacceptability of endangering the Organization’s financial resources and linking them to any preconditions.  Such an approach had not proven to be constructive in achieving even sensible goals, let alone one-sided biased ends.  The bitter experiment at the end of 2005 reminded delegates of unjustifiable attempts to link the budget to reforms.  The spending cap, which had been imposed with the excuse of increasing effectiveness, had, in fact, threatened the performance of the Organization as a whole, and put it on the verge of a financial crisis.  New mandates and responsibilities should go along with fresh additional resources.  Some Member States were trying to soak up benefits from the United Nations, while depriving it of adequate resources.  A single country accounted for 80 per cent of overall outstanding dues to the regular budget.

The main impediment to having a prudently financed United Nations was the imposition of a ceiling, which had initially been introduced to avoid further reliance on a single Member State and later reduced in exchange for having that country pay its arrears.  The current situation demonstrated that the ceiling was an ineffective, even harmful, measure in its impact on the financial situation of the United Nations.  Providing financial obligations to the Organization on time, in full and without conditions was the only possible way to deliver more, with higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness.

Responding to the assurances sought by the African Group, Mr. SACH said that the resources sought in the revised budget for UNOCI reflected full implementation of resolution 1682.  However, since that time, the Security Council had adopted resolution 1721, which called for the establishment of a High Representative to restart the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process, and to look at the role of the Prime Minister.  He said his Office was still assessing the resulting requirements and, should it become clear that more was needed, the first attempt would be to operate within the revised levels now being sought.  If that was not sufficient, revised estimates would need to be presented in the future.  It was too early to give additional assurances on the matter.

With regard to the African Group’s request for assurance that the military and police in UNOCI could be fully provided for, he said the troop levels were regulated by the Security Council.  With the addition of 1,500 troops, the mission had adequate resources based on the present revised estimates.  But, if the Council expanded the size of the military and police force, it would then be necessary to take another look at the situation.

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For information media • not an official record