Sixty-third General Assembly

Fifth Committee

16^th Meeting (AM)

BUDGET COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS APPOINTMENTS TO SUBSIDIARY BODIES

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning made recommendations to the General Assembly regarding appointments to the Committee on Contributions, Investments Committee of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund, International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), United Nations Staff Pension Committee, and the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ).

As it filled vacancies to various subsidiary and other bodies, the Committee recommended the appointment or reappointment of the following candidates to the Committee on Contributions:  Hae-yun Park of the Republic of Korea; Wu Gang of China; Vyacheslav Anatolievich Logutov of the Russian Federation; Courtney H. Williams of Jamaica; Richard Moon of the United Kingdom; and Thomas Thomma of Germany -- by acclamation.  Their term of office will begin 1 January 2009 and run for three years.

Masakazu Arikawa of Japan, Madhav Dhar of India and Nemir Kirdar of Iraq were recommended as nominees for the Investments Committee of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund.  Their three-year term of office will begin on 1 January 2009.  Ivan Pictet of Switzerland was confirmed for reappointment as an ad hoc member of the Investments Committee for a one-year term, also beginning 1 January 2009.

Further, informed of the resignation of Khaya Ngqula of South Africa and Afsaneh Beschloss of Iran from the Investments Committee, effective July 2007, the Committee decided, by acclamation, to recommend to the General Assembly confirmation of the appointment of Linah K. Mohohlo of Botswana for the remainder of Mr. Ngqula’s term effective 1 January 2009 and expiring on 31 December 2009, and of Simon Jiang of China as an ad hoc member to replace Ms. Beschloss commencing 1 January 2009.

Proceeding to the appointments of five members to the International Civil Service Commission, the Committee decided to recommend for reappointment, again by acclamation, Faith Bouayad-Agha of Algeria and El Hassane Zahid of Morocco for the Group of African States; Shamsher M. Chowdhury of Bangladesh and Xiaochu Wang of China for the Group of Asian States; and Vladimir Morozov of the Russian Federation for the Group of Eastern European States.

Turning to the appointment of four members and four alternate members of the United Nations Staff Pension Committee to a four-year term beginning 1 January 2009, the Committee recommended by acclamation the following eight delegates for appointment or reappointment:  Valeria María González Posse of Argentina; Andrei Vitalievitch Kovalenko of the Russian Federation; Gerhard Kuntzle of Germany; Lovemore Mazemo of Zimbabwe; Muhammad A. Muhith of Bangladesh; Philip Richard Okanda Owade of Kenya; Thomas Repasch of the United States; and Jun Yamada of Japan.

Considering appointments to ACABQ, the Committee recommended, by acclamation, for a three-year term of office, beginning on 1 January 2009:  Aïcha Afifi of Morocco, for the Group of African States; Alejandro Torres Lepori of Argentina for the Group of Latin America and Caribbean States; and Renata Archini of Italy and Susan McLurg of the United States for the Group of Western European and Other States.

As two candidates from the Group of Eastern European States –- Vladimir Alekseevitch Iosifov of the Russian Federation and Alexander Petriashvili of Georgia –- had been put forward for one seat on ACABQ, a secret ballot was held.  The vote on their candidacies was Mr. Iosifov of the Russian Federation, 116 votes; Mr. Petriashvili of Georgia, 57 votes.  Thus, Mr. Iosifov was recommended for a three-year term of office beginning on 1 January 2009.  (The number of ballots cast:  173; invalid ballots:  0; number of valid ballots:  173; abstentions:  0; number of delegations voting:  173; required majority:  87.)

The Committee will meet again at a time to be announced.

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For information media • not an official record