Concerns Aired over Ebola Response Operation’s Top-Heavy Staff Structure as Budget Committee Examines 2015 Funding Proposals for Office, Special Political Missions

Additional $88.1 million was needed to support the “last mile” of the international response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the United Nations Controller told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today as delegates reiterated concern about significant resources spent to support the operation’s high-level staff positions.

Presenting the Secretary-General’s revised budget estimates for biennium 2014-2015 for the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), Bettina Tucci Bartsiotas, Assistant Secretary-General and Controller, said that $81.9 million of the additional requirement would be spent to provide field-level support to the affected countries, $2.7 million would go to the Office of the Special Envoy, and $3.5 million would fund 25 backstopping positions at Headquarters.

She explained that the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of UNMEER and his Special Envoy on Ebola — both at the Under-Secretary-General level — had separate responsibilities, noting that the former maintained a roving presence between the affected countries to ensure a regional perspective, as well as unity of purpose, among all responders, while the latter would focus on mobilizing the funds needed to ensure that the United Nations agencies, funds and programmes had sufficient resources to support vigilance against Ebola and bridge efforts to the recovery phase.

“The sustained support of Member States in this last mile of the response to finish the job is essential,” she said, stressing that the collective investments of the communities, Governments, and regional and international stakeholders were too large to allow for progress to be rolled back.

In its report, the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) noted that it continued to remain unconvinced of the need for two Under-Secretary-General level positions.  In particular, it questioned why the functions of the Head of UNMEER could not have been performed by an incumbent at the Assistant Secretary-General level under the strategic guidance of the Special Envoy, or why the functions of the three Ebola crisis managers heading the country offices could not be performed by incumbents at the D-2 level.

South Africa’s delegate, speaking on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, expressed disappointment over the Secretary-General’s proposal in favour of the top-heavy structure.  The Group did not see the need for two positions at the Under-Secretary-General level for an operation in the drawdown stage, and the Mission’s Head could assume the functions of the Special Envoy.

Sierra Leone’s delegate said that as UNMEER prepared for its drawdown, he looked forward to a seamless transitional strategy.  National sensitization and social mobilization campaigns should remain a high priority for United Nations specialized agencies in the subregion, and the Mission should consider further enhancing capacities for cross-border surveillance, collaboration and coordination.

The Budget Committee also began its discussion on the reports of the Secretary-General and ACABQ on proposed 2015 resource requirements for four special political missions, namely the Panel of Experts on South Sudan, United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), United Nations Electoral Observer Mission in Burundi (MENUB) and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

Togo’s delegate, speaking for the African Group, expressed concern over a proposed 47 per cent reduction in UNSMIL, and the possible negative consequences, noting that the Group would be keen to learn the current and future arrangements for the relocation of the Mission’s headquarters and its impact on staffing structure and mandate delivery.

With regard to the request for $125 million in additional resources, or 11.6 per cent over the initial approved resources for 2014-2015, the Group reiterated its position on the importance of establishing a separate and special account for special political missions, which continued to distort the regular budget.

A representative of the European Union Delegation also delivered a statement today.

Ms. Bartsiotas introduced the Secretary-General’s reports on UNMEER and the special political missions, and Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Chair of the ACABQ, presented his body’s corresponding reports.

The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. on Friday, 29 May, to conclude the current session.

2014-2015 Programme Budget for Ebola Mission and Special Political Missions

BETTINA TUCCI BARTSIOTAS, Assistant Secretary-General and Controller, introduced the Secretary-General’s report on the revised budget estimates for biennium 2014-15 for the Office of the Special Envoy on Ebola and the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) (document A/69/842).  She also presented the Secretary-General’s reports on the proposed 2015 resource requirements for special political missions, including the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and United Nations Electoral Observer Mission in Burundi (MENUB) (document A/69/363/Add.6), United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) (document A/69/363/Add.7) and the Panel of Experts on South Sudan (document A/69/363/Add.8).

On UNMEER, she said nearly 27,000 Ebola cases had been reported, resulting in more than 11,000 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.  The Mission was intended to cease to operate once the outbreak was contained and when the national Governments of those countries felt sufficiently capable of transitioning into routine Ebola prevention and response activities with continued United Nations support.  Significant strides had been made since the Mission’s establishment more than eight months ago.  Liberia was declared Ebola-free on 9 May.  The geographic dispersal of the outbreak had shrunk considerably to a narrow belt among coastal Guinea and Sierra Leone.  Weekly case totals declined to single digits in both countries in the past month.  But over the past fortnight, there was a disconcerting increase in cases, particularly in Guinea and in prefectures that had not previously seen cases.

Careful planning had commenced to ensure the coordinated and seamless transition of functions, capacities and assets from UNMEER to the United Nations country teams and national partners, she said.  The Mali and Liberia offices closed on 31 March and 30 April, respectively.  The Accra headquarters was downsized to a light footprint and would be further reduced in the coming month.  The Secretary-General’s Special Representative maintained a roving presence between the affected countries to ensure a regional perspective, as well as unity of purpose and clear operational focus among all responders, ahead of the rainy season.  The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Ebola and the World Health Organization (WHO) continued to provide the strategic and technical direction, respectively, on getting to and remaining at a resilient zero case.

“The sustained support of Member States in this last mile of the response to finish the job is essential,” she said, noting that the United Nations country teams, under the leadership of the Resident Coordinators, had taken the lead in preparing for the post-Ebola recovery phase.  The relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes were also preparing to assume several of UNMEER’s essential functions, such as logistics, field crisis management and information management, to sustain the response effort.  The Special Envoy would maintain a dedicated and critical focus on mobilizing the funds needed to ensure that the United Nations entities were equipped with the resources to support the vigilance necessary to reach and maintain a resilient zero, as well as to play the critical role of bridging efforts to the recovery phase.  The Envoy would need to carry out those functions until 31 December 2015.

The collective investments of the communities, Governments, and regional and international stakeholders were too great to allow for the progress to be rolled back, she said, noting that $88.1 million (net of staff assessment) in additional resources would be required for the Office of the Special Envoy and UNMEER in the period from 19 September 2014 to 31 December 2015.  Of that amount, $81.9 million provided for field-level support to the affected countries, including some positions at the Regional Service Centre at Entebbe.  And $2.7 million was proposed for the Office of the Special Envoy, consisting of 11 positions, for the period through 31 December 2015 and $3.5 million for the financing of 25 backstopping positions at the Headquarters for the period until September 2015.

Turning to the other reports, Ms. Bartsiotas said the total requirements for the Panel of Experts for South Sudan, UNSMIL, UNAMA and MENUB amounted to $237.1 million (net of staff assessment) for 2015.  The resource requirements for the Panel of Experts in the amount of $947,500 covered the cost of three positions, fees and travel of experts, travel of staff and other operational requirements for eight months from 1 May to 31 December 2015.

For UNSMIL, an interim-funding of $31.4 million in lieu of a comprehensive 12-month budget had been approved by the General Assembly for the first half of 2015, due to a lack of clarity on its operational needs under the uncertain political situation, poor governance and deteriorating security conditions in Libya, she said.  The current proposal of $48.1 million for all of 2015 was based on the recommendations of a recently conducted strategic assessment of the Organization’s presence in that country.  The proposal reflected a decrease of $21.3 million, or 30.7 per cent, from the approved budget for 2014 and a reduction of 179 positions from the previously authorized 384 positions.

An additional $65,300 was required for MENUB to finance two positions of national security officers at the United Nations compound in Bujumbura, bringing the total estimate to $11.76 million, including 90 positions, for 2015, she said.  For UNAMA, an interim-funding of $93.5 million had been approved for the first half of 2015.  As a result of a review, $188 million was proposed for the whole of 2015, down $3.4 million, or 1.8 per cent, from 2014.  But as security of staff and assets would continue to remain a priority, the budget would still finance 1,680 positions, down 10 positions from 2014.

CARLOS RUIZ MASSIEU, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), introduced his body’s reports on revised estimates relating to the programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015 of the Office of the Special Envoy on Ebola and UNMEER (document A/69/903).

Welcoming the progress in achieving a decline in the disease transmission rate, the Advisory Committee welcomed the Secretary-General’s intention to conduct a specific lessons learned exercise on UNMEER, he said.  Given the Mission’s unique nature, it was important to conduct an in-depth review of all organizational, operational, administrative and planning aspects and to document lessons learned for the future.  ACABQ’s report offered several suggestions regarding UNMEER’s organizational structure; the efficiency and effectiveness of its air services; the acquisition, transportation, distribution and disposal of vehicles; and compliance with United Nations Regulations and Rules.  It also contained recommendations for adjusting proposed resources for the Mission, particularly that proposed additional requirements under certain budget sections could be accommodated within the existing appropriation and that certain proposed posts should not be approved.

In its report, ACABQ noted that UNMEER’s staffing structure continued to include a large number of senior posts.  Although not recommending downgrading any of the proposed posts, ACABQ, however, continued to remain unconvinced of the need for two Under-Secretary-General level positions.  In particular, it questioned why the functions of the Head of UNMEER could not have been performed by an incumbent at the Assistant Secretary-General level under the strategic guidance of the Special Envoy, or why the functions of the three Ebola crisis managers heading the country offices could not be performed by incumbents at the D-2 level.

Turning to special political missions, he introduced the Advisory Committee’s reports on the proposed resource requirements for 2015 of UNSMIL and MENUB (document A/69/628/Add.1) and UNAMA (document A/69/628/Add.2).  He also introduced ACABQ’s report on the proposed resource requirements from 1 May to 31 December 2015 of the Panel of Experts on South Sudan (document A/69/628/Add.3).  He noted that the Secretary-General was seeking an additional appropriation of $94.01 million net for the 2014-2015 biennium.

Taking into account that amount and the $31.5 million extra appropriated by Assembly resolution A/69/262, the total additional resources required would be $125.51 million, or 11.6 per cent, over the initial approved resources of $1.08 billion for special political missions for 2014-2015 under section 3 of the programme budget, he said.  He noted that in the context of the proposed 2015 resource requirements for the Organization’s 35 special political missions, the Secretary-General had proposed interim resources for the first six months of the year for UNAMA and UNSMIL, representing a technical roll-over of 50 per cent of the levels of projected expenditures for 2014.  The presentation of the six-month financing arrangement and the 12-month full budget entailed the Assembly’s consideration of two proposals pertaining to the same financial period for a given mission.  That unnecessarily complicated the budget approval by the Assembly, he said.

On the proposed 12-month UNSMIL budget for 2015, the Advisory Committee recommended a reduction of $293,300, he said.  The Committee believed that some functions of consultants could be performed using existing United Nations expertise and thus recommended a 5 per cent reduction in the proposed resources in that regard.  The Committee recommended a 5 per cent reduction on official non-training-related travel outside the Mission area.  After the security situation in July 2014 that interrupted operations on the ground resulted in international staff members relocating to Tunisia and Italy, the United Nations Secretariat’s January 2015 review of the Organization’s presence recommended that the Mission should focus on key priorities and establish a small, defensible and continuous footprint inside Libya.  As such, the Advisory Committee had been informed that the proposed 2015 budget incorporated those recommendations.

Turning to other missions, he said that with regard to MENUB, the Advisory Committee did not object to the Secretary-General’s proposed establishment of two Security Officer positions, noting that the proposed resource requirements reflected conditions on the ground at the time the proposal was prepared.  With regard to the proposed 2015 budget for UNAMA, the Advisory Committee recommended a $501,900 reduction.  For the backstopping of the Mission in the Department of Political Affairs, ACABQ recommended against the establishment of one of the six new positions proposed by the Secretary-General.  On proposed resources for 1 May to 31 December 2015 for the Panel of Experts on South Sudan, ACABQ recommended that the Assembly approve the proposed two positions to support that Panel’s mandate.  ACABQ also recommended against the proposed establishment of one position in the Executive Office of the Department of Political Affairs at the current stage, he said.

LYLE DAVIDSON (South Africa), speaking on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, said that he was disappointed to learn that the Secretary-General continued to present similar proposals despite Assembly resolution 69/262, in which the 193-nation body expressed regret over the proposed top-heavy structure of UNMEER.  The Group did not see the need for two positions at the Under-Secretary-General level for an operation in the drawdown stage.  The Mission’s Head could assume the functions of the Special Envoy.  The Group would critically examine the merits of other posts and budgetary elements, as well as the need for proposed backstopping arrangement at Headquarters, and would present concrete proposals to address its concern during informal consultations.

KODJOVI DOSSEH (Togo), speaking for the African Group, said that since the December 2013 Ebola outbreak, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone had faced colossal socioeconomic and humanitarian crises, exposing the fragility of their health-care systems.  Pleased that the crisis was reaching an end, due to the unprecedented and outstanding international efforts, including by UNMEER, he said success to date should be celebrated with cautious optimism.  There was a need to focus on surveillance and contact tracing until zero cases existed in the entire region.  Because the disease’s exponential spread rate among those countries revealed their level of fragility, the Mission’s drawdown must be properly structured to ensure the Governments of affected States and implementing partners could sufficiently address all post-Ebola challenges, particularly in building resilient health-care systems, and that hard-earned achievements were not reversed.

Turning to information on actual expenditure and the revised budget, the African Group had taken note that, as of 31 March 2015, $63.3 million had been spent and an additional $24.6 million was projected to be disbursed by 30 September 2015, he said.  The Group had also taken note that the proposed additional resource requirements for 19 September 2014 to 31 December 2015 was estimated at $90.9 million gross ($88.1 million net).  That was $13.6 million lower than the level of the commitment authority granted to the Secretary-General by Assembly resolution 69/262.  Had the Assembly approved the Secretary-General’s initial $189.6 million proposal for revised estimates, it would have led to a more than $100 million over-assessment of Member States’ contributions to the regular budget.

Agreeing with the Advisory Committee, he said the planning assumptions underlying the Secretary-General’s initial budget proposal had been proven to be unrealistic.  The Group expected that the ongoing review of UNMEER would result in documenting lessons learned with a view to ensure the Organization was more prepared to deal with such a crisis in the future.  On staffing, however, the Group deeply regretted that the Secretary-General had disregarded paragraph 6, section X of resolution 69/262 and the proposed staffing complement for the Mission continued to include a large number of high-level positions.  The Group would examine the proposals contained in the Secretary-General’s report — including those related to information and communications technology, human resources and the acquisition and transfer of vehicles, and would seek clarifications during informal consultations.

Turning to the special political missions, Mr. Dosseh said the Group attached great importance to their roles in conflict prevention and resolution and peacebuilding and strongly believed that the allocation of adequate resources was critical in discharging their given mandates.  Taking note of additional resource proposals and of ACABQ’s contributions, the Group would scrutinize a number of issues in the proposed additional budgets for the missions and would be seeking clarification on key elements.

Concerned about staff reductions, including a proposed 47 per cent reduction in UNSMIL, and the possible negative consequences, the Group would be interested to learn the current and future arrangements for the relocation of the Mission’s headquarters and its impact on staffing structure and mandate delivery.  With regard to the request for $125 million in additional resources, or 11.6 per cent over the initial approved resources for 2014-2015, the Group reiterated its position on the importance of establishing a separate and special account for special political missions to bring transparency, good governance and accountability in management of the resources allocated to them, which continued to distort the regular budget.  The Group would like to receive updates on the status of implementation of a provision of paragraph 11, section IV of resolution 69/262 in relation to the appointment of the Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union, which was currently vacant and, therefore, was undermining the mandate’s delivery.

FRANCESCO PRESUTTI, representative of the European Union Delegation, said, as coordinated and collective efforts, in which the Union had played an important role in aid delivery, had succeeded in overcoming the acute phase of the Ebola crisis, he welcomed the Secretary-General’s proposals to facilitate the transition of UNMEER responsibilities to parties best suited to respond to medium- and longer-term challenges.  He noted the ongoing work of the Office of the Special Envoy to support the transition.  As the Secretary-General was not in a position to provide detailed budget proposals at the time the Mission was established, he welcomed the current report, which would be reviewed and scrutinized.

AMADU KOROMA (Sierra Leone), aligning with the statements of the Group of 77 and the African Group, commended and appreciated efforts, including the Secretary-General’s establishment of the High-Level Panel on the Global Response to International Health Crises, which was mandated to make recommendations to strengthen national and international systems for prevention and management.  The collective efforts of Governments of the three most-affected States and partners had achieved impressive results.  With Liberia declared Ebola-free, Guinea and his country continued to grapple towards sustaining zero cases, he said, noting that all new cases were stemming from people that were under surveillance, making it likely that they would be treated faster.  “Victory against the virus is in sight,” he said, “but we must guard against complacency.”

Describing the devastating effects on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, including ravaged health and education sectors and economies pushed into recession, he said lasting recovery must respond to the ways Ebola made the three countries more fragile and vulnerable.  As UNMEER prepared for its drawdown, he looked forward to a seamless transitional strategy that would support capacity in the affected countries.  National sensitization and social mobilization campaigns should remain a high priority for United Nations specialized agencies in the subregion.  The Mission should consider further enhance capacities for cross-border surveillance, collaboration and coordination.  He anticipated continued support from development partners for the successful implementation of the Mano River Union Marshall Plan, formulated by the three affected countries as a subregional socioeconomic recovery programme to ensure a return to stability and prosperity.