Fifth Committee

Opening the second meeting of its sixty-fifth session with a discussion on the scale of assessments, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today heard delegates stress the need for all Member States to fulfil their legal obligations to the Organization by making their payments on time and in full.

Taking two weeks longer than planned, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today concluded its second resumed session by recommending to the General Assembly a peacekeeping budget of $7.2 billion for the period from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011 — slightly less than that approved in the previous financial year. It also produced a consensus draft resolution on cross-cutting issues, which had eluded the Committee for three years.

Approaching the end of its four-week second resumed session, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today took up the proposed budget for the United Nations Office to the African Union, estimated to require $10.6 million, with speakers expressing regret at its late submission by the Secretary-General, leaving barely a day to consider possible gaps, as described by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today took up proposals to give the Secretary-General authority to commit $380.4 million in the next six months to the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and $246.6 million in the next six months to the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT), whose most recent budgets reached $732.4 million and $690.8 million respectively.

Encouraged by the decrease in arrears to both the United Nations regular budget and its peacekeeping account compared to last year, speakers in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning urged that States do even more to ensure that outstanding payments were paid on time and in full, and that the Secretariat reciprocate by making administrative processes more transparent and efficient.

Taking up the Secretary-General’s proposed $313.9 million budget for next year’s peacekeeping backstopping activities — known formally as the peacekeeping support account — speakers at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) said increases must be proportionate to need, and called for “utmost prudence” in determining its size.

Resuming its consideration of peacekeeping finance and field support against the backdrop of an unprecedented $8 billion-plus peacekeeping budget, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today heard calls for a “clear message” to be sent to the Secretary-General on cross-cutting issues relating to peacekeeping administration and budgeting, on which agreement had eluded the Committee in the past two years.

In the midst of a broad agenda — covering the financial situation of the United Nations, cross-cutting issues in peacekeeping finance and the new global field support strategy — the Fifth Committee approved a draft resolution that would authorize the Secretary-General to enter into commitments of $120.64 million for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, to support a rise in troop and police levels, as endorsed by the Security Council following the disastrous January earthquake.

Meeting for the second day of its resumed session, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today heard the proposed budgets of nine United Nations peacekeeping and integrated missions for the 2010/11 financial year, which ranged from $1.44 billion for the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) to $47.9 million for the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), tasked with maintaining the 1974 Israel-Syria ceasefire.

The General Assembly’s Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) opened today the second part of its resumed substantive session, what its Chairperson called the “final lap” in its annual marathon to take action on vital issues, such as funding United Nations peacekeeping operations and improving the Organization’s financial situation.