Administrative and budgetary issues

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) adopted its programme of work for the sixty-sixth session today, delegates underscored the challenge of an intensive agenda which aims, among other things, to agree on a proposed budget for the 2012-2013 biennium by 9 December.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) met this morning to elect the remainder of its Bureau for the upcoming sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), following days of what its Chairman called “very difficult and at times unorthodox” negotiations, closed its second resumed session this morning by approving the budgets for 13 United Nations peacekeeping operations, and agreed also on a one-time supplemental payment of $85 million over the next year to troop-contributing countries.

A draft resolution concerning the financing of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was introduced today in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) by the representative of Argentina, on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today considered the financing requirements of two special political missions, as well as revisions to the way in which Member States contributing troops to United Nations peacekeeping operations were reimbursed for their equipment.

While noting the Organization’s improved financial situation at year-end 2010, Member States gathered at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) session today reminded each other of their obligation to pay their assessments in full and on time so as to keep the United Nations running smoothly. Their debate came a week after the Under-Secretary-General for Management, Angela Kane, gave the Committee her semi-annual snapshot of the Organization’s financial picture.

Secretariat officials today laid out their financing proposals for the 2011/12 period for four peacekeeping operations — the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS), the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) and support for African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) — to the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today at its second resumed session.

The United Nations top management official told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today that the Organization’s overall financial situation had improved, as the number of Member States that had paid in full as of 10 May 2011 was above the level of a year ago across all funds except for one, the Capital Master Plan.

The Fifth Committee today heard the United Nations top officials responsible for peacekeeping and the mission support needed to sustain it review the successes and difficulties of the restructuring of operations begun in 2007, and lay out the approach they developed to ensure the support account for the operations strengthened the capacity to manage them in a changing world of greater financial constraints.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning heard the budgetary reports of 13 United Nations peacekeeping missions, as well as proposals for the disposition of $230.7 million of unspent funds from 18 closed operations and deficits of $86.7 million from 5 others.