United Nations entities and their senior managers have been given delegated authority to make decisions, but they are also held accountable for results, speakers said today, as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) examined ways to improve the Organization’s accountability.
Speakers considered the impact on staff and spending, as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today reviewed some key proposals to better serve United Nations Secretariat staff worldwide and achieve greater efficiency in the procurement of goods and services annually costing the Organization $3 billion.
Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), on the second day of the first part of its resumed session, turned their attention today to the way in which United Nations staff members travel the world, taking up a proposal from the Secretary-General aimed at limiting their use of business class.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today opened the first part of its resumed seventy-third session, adopting its work programme, reviewing the Joint Inspection Unit’s annual report and considering progress in implementing the United Nations information and communications technology (ICT) strategy.
As it managed the first year of the 2018-2019 budget cycle and zeroed in on ways to make the Organization run more effectively, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today tended to its fiscal responsibilities by approving the complex methodology used to calculate the annual contributions of Member States.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) took up a raft of reports from the Secretary-General today on topics as varied as the revised budget for the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) to the ongoing deployment of flexible workspace at Headquarters, in addition to the programme budget implications of several draft resolutions going before the General Assembly.
Speakers at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today reviewed the performance report for the first year of the Organization’s 2018‑2019 budget cycle, while deliberating on the financial resources for about three dozen special political missions, as well as the new Mission in Iraq tasked with investigating crimes committed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh).
Speakers at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today urged the Secretary-General to move on filling a director’s post at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in Arusha while supporting a $303,500 revision in the nearly $200 million appropriation that is keeping the crucial legal mechanism running smoothly during the 2018-2019 budget cycle.
Speakers at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today voiced their support for the Secretary‑General’s request for an $8.93 million appropriation in 2019 to support the ongoing upgrade of facilities at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, including the renovation of the iconic Africa Hall.
Speakers in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today requested clarity on the benefits deriving from the Umoja enterprise resource planning project — and reiterated their concern about its spiralling cost and implementation delays — as the Secretariat made its case for an additional $15.5 million to complete the ambitious initiative by the end of 2019.
