Fifth Committee

Delegations of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today voiced their concerns with the cost overruns of the Organization’s two-year, multibillion-dollar budget that ends on 31 December 2013, as well as with the significant financial demands of nearly two dozen special political missions for the upcoming two-year budget cycle that begins in January.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) charted progress made in building new office space at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) headquarters in Addis Ababa, delegates voiced serious concern over architectural and contracting mishandling that had significantly delayed its completion and given rise to extra costs.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today took stock of the financing requirements for the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia, as it heard Secretariat officials shed light on progress in completing those bodies’ work and the transferring of their functions to a residual mechanism.

The unknown financial consequences of the Secretary-General’s proposed mobility framework for moving hundreds of staff around the globe each year evoked apprehension from many delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this afternoon.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today took stock of progress in the planned refurbishment of the United Nations Geneva headquarters, delegates raised concerns over the project’s growing cost estimates and potential delays in implementation.

With the approval of two draft resolutions today, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) endorsed the Board of Auditors’ scrutiny of the Organization’s 2012 financial statements and backed the oversight work of the Office of Internal Oversight Services.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today discussed the conditions of service of United Nations staff worldwide, delegates differed over how to address growing compensation costs and the widening pay gap between the Organization’s employees and their counterparts elsewhere.

With nearly $45 billion in assets at year-end 2012, the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund was paying out $2 billion a year in benefits to more than 67,000 people around the globe while preparing to meet its obligations to 85,000 beneficiaries by the end of the decade, the Chairman of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Board told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) took up the pattern of conferences today, delegates stressed the need for improvements to the system of preparing documents, calling for more timely availability of documentation in all six official United Nations languages and for higher quality translation.