Summary: May 7, 2003: Statement by H.E. Ambassador Adamantios Th. Vassilakis, Permanent Representative of Greece to the UN, on behalf of the European Union. Administrative & budgetary aspects of the financing of the UN peacekeeping operations: Overview of the financing of UN peacekeeping operations. Consolidation of accounts of peacekeeping operations. 2nd Resumed Session of the Fifth Committee of the 57th UNGA - Item 126 (New York)
Mr. Chairman,
I have the honor to speak on behalf of the European Union and the acceding countries Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The associated countries Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey as well as the EFTA countries Liechtenstein and Norway associate themselves with this statement.
We welcome the introduction of a report on the overview of the financing of the United Nations peacekeeping operations, covering the performance of peacekeeping budgets from the period from 1 July 2001 to 30 June 2002 and budgets for the period from 1 July 2003 to 30 June 2004 (A/57/723). The report is important since it provides us with a snapshot of all peacekeeping activity and the European Union is grateful for the time and effort which have gone into its preparation. Particularly useful
are the tables with summary presentations on individual missions, the support account and the Logistics Base at Brindisi.
We agree, however, with the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (A/57/772) that the report should be, in future, more comprehensive and include such crosscutting issues as contingent-owned equipment, memoranda of understanding, air operations, procurement and inventory management.
We note that the overall estimated budget level for 2003-04 is some 16% less than the previous year, which will enable, the E.U. hopes, Member States to pay their contributions in full and on time. But the priority of peacekeeping as one of the core U.N. activities is undiminished, as is the importance of its effective implementation.
With reference to the support account and the budget for the Logistics Base at Brindisi, the European Union, while reaffirming the crucial role of U.N.L.B. for increasing the rapid deployment capability of peacekeeping operations, will examine these items in detail during this session.
Concerning the performance of the budgets for the period 2001/02, we understand that they are presented in a transitional format. We welcome the small improvement of the overall budget implementation rate for the period under review (amounting to 92%), compared to the previous one. However, we still consider that the amount of unencumbered funds could be even further reduced, helped by a more rigorous application of results-based budgeting.
We express our satisfaction with the effort made, in the proposed mission budgets for 2003/04, to improve objective-setting. We have noted the attempt to have a uniform framework of planned results for all missions, comprising four components (political, military, civilian police and support). We agree with the Advisory Committee that it might be appropriate, for some missions, to have additional components. In general, we encourage the Secretariat to take further steps to strengthen the
budgeting techniques used for missions, including by engaging more closely senior management in peacekeeping operations when devising objectives and milestones, and by linking them closely to the relevant mandates of each mission. Objectives must be linked to requests for resources and measurement of accomplishments must be based on specific indicators of achievement.
The European Union believes that reducing the time needed for recruiting civilian staff in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and field missions is absolutely crucial to operating effectiveness. We welcome the target of 95 days from the posting of the vacancy announcement. This is an important issue which we will follow closely, also considering the views of the Advisory Committee.
The report also covers training and information technology, the costs of which are distributed among the mission budgets, the support account and UNLB. The European Union stresses that investments in these two important areas should, ultimately, lead to significant and measurable efficiency savings and operational benefits for the Organization, which need to be reflected in future budgets.
Given that the requirements for training in peacekeeping for 2003/04 amount to 8,2 million dollars, we would like to see a clearer analysis of that amount. For example, training costs in the support account amount to approximately 4 million dollars. However, remarkably, training does not appear as an object of expenditure in the overall resource table for the Department of Peacekeeping Operations in the separate report on the budget for the support account (A/57/732).
Regarding information technology, we would like to stress the need to avoid duplication of databases and, in this regard, we fully agree with the Advisory Committee that a review be undertaken to this effect. We would also like to reiterate the observations we made on the occasion of the introduction of the information and communication technology strategy in March, namely that we envisage this strategy "integrating already existing infrastructure across the United Nations system as a whole
and, in particular, peacekeeping missions, to ensure full interconnectivity". The European Union would welcome clarification from the Secretariat on how the U.N. intends to apply these precepts to the field of peacekeeping.
Another issue of perennial concern to the European Union is air services, which account for a large proportion of costs within peacekeeping operations. The European Union notes the comments of the ACABQ and welcomes its request for the Board of Auditors to ascertain whether an effective and adequate capacity exists to plan, manage and monitor the configuration and utilization of air assets. We must act on this and would be grateful for the Secretariat views about current capacity and possible
deficiencies which need to be addressed.
Let me now turn to the report on the possibility of a consolidation of accounts of peacekeeping operations (A/57/746).
The report presents, as one possible approach, the consolidation of accounts of active peacekeeping missions retroactively, while separate accounts would be maintained for closed missions. In this case, as we understand, unencumbered balances would not be apportioned between Member States, but offset against the total next appropriations for peacekeeping. The assessment for peacekeeping would then be de-linked from Security Council mandates and take place once a year.
The proposed changes raise a number of questions, included, but not limited to, those of a legislative nature, as also pointed out by the ACABQ.
Furthermore, if the overall objective is to increase the total cash flow in peacekeeping, the General Assembly would have to be requested to give authorization to the Secretary-General to transfer funds between active peacekeeping operations, which would require a change in current rules and regulations.
In conclusion, the European Union would like to hear more arguments explaining the merits of this proposal, as well as other possible ways in which the assessments process could be simplified.
I thank you Mr. Chairman.
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