Management reform and finance
The 5th (Administrative and Budgetary) Committee of the General Assembly recently completed a complex series of negotiations this autumn during the main part of the 62nd session. Details of the major issues are set out below.
UN regular budget for the 2008-09 biennium
The UN's Regular Budget is set every two calendar years. It funds UN core activities, including staffing costs, in eight headquarter locations. These headquarters are in New York (USA), Geneva (Switzerland), Vienna (Austria), and Nairobi (Kenya), as well as the HQs of the Regional Economic Commissions for Africa (in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), for Europe (also in Geneva), for Western Asia (in Beirut, Lebanon), for Asia and the Pacific (in Bangkok, Thailand) and for Latin America (in Santiago, Chile). UN activities financed by the Regular Budget include holding conferences, economic development activity, UN public information work and human rights promotion. The UN Regular Budget also pays for special UN missions in countries such as Afghanistan, Sudan and Iraq.
The Regular Budget for 2006-2007 was $3.9 billion. In December 2007 the General Assembly agreed on a Regular Budget for 2008-09 of $4.17 billion. There will, however, be a number of significant additional calls on the budget over the course of the biennium and will therefore be subject to further negotiation. The UK pays 6.642% of the Regular Budget. The UK contribution has increased by over a third since 2003, partly because of the rising budget level and partly because the UK's percentage share has increased as a result of the UK's strong economic performance.
The financing of the AU-UN Hybrid peacekeeping operation in Darfur
The Fifth Committee has an important role in approving and overseeing the financing of UN peacekeeping operations and in ensuring that they are run effectively and efficiently. The Committee traditionally does most of its peacekeeping business at its May session. In that session in 2007, in addition to agreeing mission budgets totaling some $5 billion for the 2007-8 financial year, the Committee also approved a major overhaul and strengthening of the UN's headquarters peacekeeping capacity. However, peacekeeping was back on the agenda this autumn because of the establishment of (and the need to finance) UNAMID - a large new peacekeeping mission in the Darfur region of Sudan, run jointly with the African Union. The size of this so-called "Hybrid" mission and the logistical challenges of mounting such an operation in an austere desert environment mean that the mission is the UN's most expensive - a budget of $1.27 billion was agreed for this financial year. In addition, it is the first Hybrid operation mounted by the UN, so the command and control and the financial management arrangements of the new mission required particular scrutiny in the Fifth Committee.
UN management reform
The World Summit in 2005 agreed that action was needed to improve the effectiveness of the UN Secretariat. In the intervening two years some significant steps have been taken - establishment of an Ethics Office, adoption of International Public Sector Accounting Stands, establishment of an Independent Audit Advisory Committee, agreement to modernise ICT, increased staff mobility and training and strengthening of Peacekeeping Capacity. Much remains to be done. There is still insufficient capacity for the Secretariat to respond to the greater demands and responsibilities placed on the UN. Despite having some limited autonomy to do so, the Secretariat is unable to shift staff and financial resources within the organisation to ensure priorities are delivered. There is also gaps in the level of controls and the degree to which Member States are genuinely able to hold the Secretariat accountable for the delivery of priorities. The priorities for the sixty second session of the UN General Assembly are:
- ensure an effective system for the Administration of Justice is in place building on the progress already made.
- improve the implementation of Results Based Management, and the use of Enterprise Risk Management, and put in place an accountability framework and an internal control framework that ensures managers in the Secretariat are properly held accountable to the Secretary-General and the Secretariat as a whole is fully accountable to Member States.
- Continue to modernise ICT across the UN by deciding how to move forward with a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.
- Ongoing reforms of Human Resource Management to ensure the establishment of a motivated, mobile, cadre of staff with the right contracts and conditions of service.
- Improve the management of UN Procurement and ensure an efficient and accountable system which really means best value for money from across the world.
Refurbishment of the UN HQ
In November 2007, the General Assembly gave the green light to an accelerated strategy for the Capital Master Plan - a project to renovate UN Headquarters complex in New York to bring it into compliance with building and fire safety codes and modern standards for security, energy efficiency, sustainability and accessibility. The accelerated strategy now means that the renovation will be completed in five years rather than seven, within the approved budget of $1,876.7 million. Building will begin in 2008 with the construction of temporary conferencing facilities on the North Lawn of the UN complex. The project is scheduled for completion in 2015. We will continue to work to ensure the project remains on schedule and within budget.
