United Nations Financial Indicators ‘Generally Sound and Positive’, Top Management Official Tells Budget Committee
The Organization’s financial indicators for 2015 were “generally sound and positive,” except for the cash position of the regular budget, whose funds had been depleted, the United Nations senior management official told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today.
Briefing on the status of the Organization’s four major financial categories, namely the regular budget, peacekeeping operations, tribunals and the Capital Master Plan, Yukio Takasu, Under-Secretary-General for Management, explained that each category had been assessed using four indicators: assessed contributions, unpaid assessed contributions, available cash, and outstanding payments to Member States. [The Secretariat will incorporate this information into a report, which will be released for the Committee’s discussion at its 22 October 2015 meeting.]
On the regular budget, he said assessments were $159 million higher in 2015 than in 2014, and payments received were up by $217 million. As of 2 October 2015, unpaid assessments stood at $1.053 billion, up 16 million from a year earlier. However, the number of Member States that had paid their regular budget dues in full by that date increased to 128, compared with the same time last year. Since 2 October, Cameroon and Jordan had also paid in full. He urged the remaining States to make their full payments as soon as possible. A few Member States accounted for the bulk of the outstanding amount, with the United States owing $813 million, Brazil $124 million and Venezuela $35 million. The final cash position at the end of 2015 would depend largely on their incoming contributions.
Regular budget cash had been exhausted and reserves were being drawn from that budget’s Working Capital Fund, he said. As of 2 October, the cash shortfall was $73 million; the cash position, including reserves, stood at $276 million. The cash squeeze had been heightened by the use of the General Fund’s budget as a temporary financing vehicle to meet cash flow requirements of the Capital Master Plan. Mr. Takasu stressed that without the receipt of sufficient contributions, the Organization would experience severe cash problems the rest of this year.
Regarding peacekeeping operations, he said the changing demand for peacekeeping activities made it difficult to predict the missions’ financial needs. In addition, peacekeeping activities ran along a different financial period from 1 July to 30 June, rather than over a calendar year. The assessments were based on each applicable scale of assessment period that was issued separately for each operation. Since assessment letters could only be issued through the mandate period approved by the Security Council or each mission, the letters were issued for difference periods throughout the year. All of these factors made a comparison between peacekeeping operations and the regular budget complicated.
The total amount outstanding for peacekeeping operations as of 2 October 2015 tallied about $1.5 billion and $6.2 billion had been assessed for peacekeeping operation in 2015. Contributions received so far in 2015 tallied about $6 billion, nearly matching the amounts assessed this year, he said.
The Secretariat knew it could be more difficult for Member States to keep fully current with their peacekeeping assessments because the amounts and timing of payments, as well as the fiscal year of each Member State, varied. As of 2 October, 23 Member States had fully paid their peacekeeping assessments, Mr. Takasu noted. Unpaid peacekeeping assessments totalled about $1.46 billion, with the United States leading the list of Member States with $362 million. Italy’s unpaid peacekeeping assessment of $142 million had been reduced by a payment of $67 million that was received after the 2 October cut-off date. Also after the cut-off date, Hungary and Luxembourg had paid in full. The list showed that the Ukraine owed $128 million, Brazil $121 million; Spain $101 million, and others at $606 million.
The total cash available for peacekeeping as of 2 October 2015 was about $4.3 billion, including the Peacekeeping Reserve account, he said. That included $3.9 billion for active missions, $255 million for closed missions and $139 million for the Peacekeeping Reserve Fund.
Regarding its outstanding payments to Member States, the Secretariat was making every effort to minimize their level, which was expected to drop to $577 million by the end of this year, down from $779 million at year-end 2014, he said. As of 2 October 2015, $314 million was owed to Member States for troops and formed police units; and for contingent-owned equipment claims, $638 million was owed to active missions and $86 million for closed missions. Together, those components totalled slightly more than $1 billion and additional payments of $441 million made on 9 October had cut the outstanding amount to $597 million.
Of the $1.038 billion owed to 86 Member States which contributed troops, police and equipment as of 2 October 2015, the largest amount owed was to Pakistan at $97 million; followed by Ethiopia at $87 million; India at $85 million; Bangladesh at $84 million; Rwanda at $55 million; and Nepal at $44 million.
Mr. Takasu reassured Member States that the Secretariat was monitoring peacekeeping cash flows constantly and tried to maximize the quarterly payment, based on available cash and data. Yet the Secretariat depended on Member States to meet their financial obligations to the United Nations in full and on time and on the prompt finalizing of memorandum of understandings with troop contributors for provisions of equipment.
Turning to the two International Criminal Tribunals — one for Rwanda and the other for the former Yugoslavia — the overall financial position of the two and their International Residual Mechanism remained generally sound in 2015 and unpaid assessments for the International Tribunals totalled $69 million, Mr. Takasu said. That was $9 million higher than the outstanding total on 2 October 2014. By 2 October 2015, 94 Member States had paid their assessed contributions to both International Tribunals and the International Residual Mechanism in full, four less than the number in 2014.
But 99 Member States had not paid their assessed contribution in full to the International Tribunals and the United States led the list with an obligation of $29 million. The Russian Federation followed with $11 million in unpaid assessments; Brazil at $9 million; Indonesia at $4 million; Venezuela with $4 million; and 94 other States owing $12 million. Since 2 October, India had fully paid up.
On the Capital Master Plan, a total of $1.87 billion was assessed under the Special Account for the Plan. As of 2 October 2015, 183 Member States had paid their dues in full, with $0.3 million still outstanding. The Plan had experienced cash shortfalls since December 2014. In April this year, the General Assembly decided on the arrangements to finance the final shortfall through resolution 69/274, which authorized the transfer of $154.9 million from the General Fund to the Plan. A total of $109.9 million had been transferred so far ($36.6 million from the Special Account and $73.2 million from balance of the biennium 2012-13), with the remaining $45 million to be financed and transferred in the context of the next regular budget assessment under the General Fund. He acknowledged that over the years, Member States had extended full support to the project.
Wrapping up his presentation, Mr. Takasu said that as of 15 October, 24 Member States had made their full payments in all four categories. They were Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand and the United Republic of Tanzania.
Cash positions were currently positive for all categories, except the regular budget, he said, noting that given the limited reserves, the financial health of the Organization continued to depend on Member States meeting their financial obligations in full and on time.
The Fifth Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 20 October, to discuss the topics of administration of justice and the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2016-2017, in particular, a revised estimate for the International Trade Centre.