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Statement by Mr. Sho Ono
Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations
Agenda Item 132:
Study on recosting and options for the Organization
in dealing with fluctuations in exchange rate and inflation
Fifth Committee
Main part of the Sixty-Ninth Session
Of the United Nations General Assembly
10 December 2014
Mr. Chairman,
At the outset, my delegation would like to thank Mr. Johannes Huisman, Director Programme Planning and Budget Division and Mr. Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, for introducing their respective reports Study on recosting and options for the Organization in dealing with fluctuations in exchange rate and inflation. My delegation would like to also express our gratitude to the six members of the High-level Panel of Experts for their strenuous work in issuing this insightful report. I wish to briefly outline my delegation's views on this issue.
First and foremost, my delegation would like to express its deepest regret over the late issuance of the report of the Advisory Committee on this agenda item. While the note by the Secretary-General on this agenda item was issued early September, it took three months for the Advisory Committee to issue its report.
My delegation supports the leadership of the chairman of the fifth committee to tackle this issue in a holistic manner after the end of this main session. At the same time, as my delegation is currently proposing under the agenda of operational arrangements of the Advisory Committee, the Secretariat should come forward with proposals for improvements and efficiencies which would enhance the effectiveness of the Advisory Committee and the alignment of its work with the needs of the General Assembly.
Mr. Chairman,
The methodology of recosting, which is unique to this Organization, is no longer a sustainable method for financing this Organization. Recosting leads to a loose sense of the budgetary envelope of this Organization against the backdrop the largest biennium budget to be proposed in the history of this Organization. The habit of managers who have become accustomed to expecting that more resources will always come at the end of the budgetary cycle rather than operating within the resources initially approved, needs to be corrected. I would like to underscore the fact that most of the national governments, unlike the United Nations, are not allowed to spend beyond the initially approved resources.
In this context, my delegation would like to welcome the report of the High-level Panel of Experts on the study on recosting as setting groundwork for the Member States in an objective manner to discuss this complicated matter. This report should be merely a start for Member States to discuss the arcane issue of recosting, not the end of it. At the same time, since there are no views expressed by the Secretariat on this study, my delegation would like to have views of the Secretariat on the recommendations of the report to advance the discussion among Member States in the upcoming informal meetings.
As stated at the opening of this session, my delegation has been fully engaged in the budget reform discussion, including the issue of recosting. Allow me to conclude by saying that my delegation will continue to be engaged in the discussions under this agenda item in a positive and constructive manner.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
