Delegates at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) opened their seventy‑fourth session with the election of Andreas D. Mavroyiannis of Cyprus as their chairman as they urged each other to collaborate to handle a heavy workload that includes preparing the Organization’s first annual budget.
Concluding the second part of its resumed session, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today sent 22 draft resolutions and 1 draft decision to the General Assembly, asking it to authorize an annual United Nations peacekeeping budget of $6.51 billion and have the Secretary-General explore options to improve the Organization’s cash position.
Warning that the United Nations is in the midst of a financial crisis that has been years in the making, the Secretary-General presented the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) with a set of proposals today designed to put both the regular and peacekeeping budgets of the Organization on more solid ground.
Concerned about the cash deficits of several closed United Nations peacekeeping missions, delegations today called for the speedy reimbursement of expenses to countries that supply personnel and equipment, as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) reviewed the financial position of those operations.
Continuing its consideration of the United Nations peacekeeping budget, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today took up the proposed 2019/20 budget of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and heard the introduction of a draft resolution on financing the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Drawing attention to deepening liquidity problems and continued delays in reimbursing countries that provide peacekeeping troops and police, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today urged all Member States in arrears, especially those with ample capacity to pay, to promptly fulfil their financial obligations to ensure that the United Nations continues to deliver its mandate.
Speakers questioned a request from the Secretary-General for a $56.1 million increase in the support account for peacekeeping operations for 2019/20 as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) entered the second week of its consideration of the United Nations peacekeeping budget.
Continuing their consideration of the Secretary-General’s proposed budget of $6.6 billion for United Nations peacekeeping operations in 2019/20, speakers in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) expressed hope today that delegations will, for the first time in three years, achieve consensus on cross-cutting issues, including ongoing efforts to combat sexual exploitation and abuse.
As its regular budget continues to face severe liquidity issues, the United Nations is depending on Member States meeting their financial obligations in full and on time to deliver on its mandate, the head of the Organization’s management department told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today as she laid out the Organization’s semi-annual financial situation.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) opened the second part of its resumed seventy‑second session today with several speakers insisting that the Secretary-General’s proposal to cut a total of $382.2 million from the United Nations peacekeeping budget for 2019/20 must not come at the expense of delivering mandates authorized by the Security Council.
