Administrative and budgetary issues

Secretariat officials told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today that the multibillion dollar renovation of the United Nations historic Headquarters complex was still on track despite the blow wielded by Hurricane Sandy that shuttered the doors of the New York City compound for three days last week.

Even as the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund posted near record assets of $44 billion as of this month, the increase in the Fund’s actuarial deficit drew the concerns of delegates at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) meeting today.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) discussed today the pattern of United Nations meetings and conferences, delegates lauded the Secretariat’s recent steps to release documents on time, use less paper and increase the use of the Organization’s meeting facilities.

While encouraged by the United Nations overall financial health, delegates gathered at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today voiced their concerns about the Organization’s outstanding payments to Member States, the likelihood of a cash flow crunch at the end of 2012, and the possibility of additional assessments for the Capital Master Plan next year.

While giving clear auditing opinions for the 2010-2011 biennium to nearly all entities in the United Nations Systems, the Organization’s top auditing watchdog warned the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today of the weaknesses in governance found throughout the Organization.

The United Nations top management official today told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) that the Organization’s financial indicators for 2012 were generally “positive and sound” though the regular budget’s cash level was under pressure with $855 million of the $2.4 billion budget still outstanding.

Despite “significant risks” posed by its contractor’s performance, the United Nations project team in Ethiopia had succeeded in containing construction costs for new office space at the Addis Ababa-based Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and was expected to complete the project within budget, a senior management official told the Fifth Committee this morning as it considered the status of both that venture and a similar project at the United Nations Headquarters in Nairobi.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today took up the scale of assessments for determining Member States’ contributions for the Organization’s 2013-2015 peacekeeping operations budget, with speakers strongly cautioning against any changes to the methodology that would place extra financial burdens on small developing countries and did not reflect the “special responsibility” of permanent Security Council members to maintain international peace and security.

Despite laudable progress in lowering its overall vacancy rate to 11 per cent and streamlining and strengthening work processes, the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) still had work to do to improve its capacity to analyse risks and investigate complex financial and procurement cases, speakers said today as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) discussed programme monitoring and reviewed the efficiency of United Nations administrative and financial functioning.

As they considered the proposed scale for assessing Member States’ financial contributions to the Organization during the 2013-2015 period, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today differed over whether the scale was suitable to achieve their common goal of keeping the United Nations financially sound in an era of economic belt-tightening around the globe.