Advisory Body Recommends Smaller Team, Budget for Liquidating Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan, as Fifth Committee Considers Proposed 2024 Funding
A team handling the liquidation of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in the Sudan (UNITAMS) could be smaller, the Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today, as he recommended that the Mission’s proposed budget for 2024 be reduced accordingly.
The Fifth Committee had before it the Secretary-General’s report on revised estimates relating to the Mission’s programme budget for 2024 (document A/78/6(Sect.3)/Add.8) and ACABQ’s related report (document A/78/7/Add.44). The Security Council terminated UNITAMS effective 3 December 2023. The Mission’s liquidation period began on 1 March 2024 following its transition period.
Chandramouli Ramanathan, United Nations Controller and Assistant Secretary-General for Programme Planning, Finance and Budget in the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, reported that the proposed revised budget for UNITMAS amounts to $22.4 million in 2024, down 66 per cent from $66.1 million appropriated for 2023.
The revised estimates include requirements for the gradual drawdown and withdrawal of six military observers and 181 civilian personnel by 29 February; liquidation activities from 1 March to 31 December 2024, including the phase-out of 65 civilian personnel; and additional transitional support from the UN Logistics Base in Brindisi, the Regional Service Centre in Entebbe and UN Headquarters.
However, ACABQ — an Assembly subsidiary organ that examines and advises on administrative and budgetary matters — “is not convinced of the operational need for a large liquidation team with 18 positions in Nairobi until 31 August 2024,” said Abdallah Bachar Bong, its Chair, noting that another 16 staff members concurrently located in Port Sudan will be tasked with duplicative functions, such as human resources, finance, administration, information and communications, and property and facilities management.
ACABQ therefore expects that the liquidation team staffing in Nairobi will be reduced, he said, requesting that an update be provided to the Assembly during the consideration of the present report.
Furthermore, the Advisory Committee believes that with most locations in Sudan inaccessible (see Press Release SC/15615), operational costs can be reduced by 10 per cent, or $218,300, by achieving efficiencies under official travel, facilities and infrastructure, communications and information technology, and other supplies, services and equipment.
He then recommended that the Assembly appropriate $22.16 million in 2024, adding that this would supersede the commitment authority of $21.5 million previously approved for the first four months of 2024.
Additionally, the Advisory Committee considers that 99.3 per cent of assets cannot be verified or retrieved and that an environmental clean-up is not possible due to the situation on the ground, he said, noting that assets with a residual value of $6,677 are the only ones that appear to be orderly dispositioned.