Statement by Mr. Sho Ono
Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations
Agenda Item 132: First performance report
On the programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015
Fifth Committee
Main part of the Sixty-Ninth Session
Of the United Nations General Assembly
17 December 2014
Mr. Chairman,
At the outset, my delegation would like to thank Mr. Chandru Ramanathan, Officer-in-Charge, Office of Programme Planning, Budget and Accounts, and Mr. Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, for introducing their respective reports on the first performance report on the programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015. I wish to briefly outline my delegation’s views on this issue.
Mr. Chairman,
Last December, the Member States agreed on a regular budget for this biennium at a level of $5.530 billion, which is 0.63% less than the previous budget of $5.565 billion. I would like to emphasize again that we cannot afford to go back to the previous trend of expanding the UN regular budget, which has more than doubled since the year 2000.
According to the report of the ACABQ, the current figure presented for this biennium amounts to as much as $5.886 billion, which, if approved by the General Assembly, will not only be larger than the previous budget by $321 million, but will also be the largest budget in the history of the United Nations, despite the severe financial constraints which many Member States currently face.
Furthermore, with further possible additions from the SPMs, which would be the outcome of the deferral of the consideration of the latter halves of two missions’ budgets, the total amount of this biennium budget could exceed $6 billion, which represents an increase of around 10% from the previous biennium.
Though we had managed to contain the rate of the budgetary increase from 2010 until 2013, most of us did not imagine, when we agreed on this biennium budget in December 2013, that one year later we would risk going back to business as usual with a proposal for such a substantial increase to the initial budget amount.
While some part of this increase might be attributed to the Member States through the creation of new mandates, as the Secretary-General has recently indicated, my delegation would like to reiterate its urgent call to explore among the Member States a better way forward on two particular issues:
The first is how we might enable this Organization to prioritize its activities and its commensurate staffing, such that we can tackle emerging and urgent issues like the establishment of UNMEER, while at the same time discontinuing other obsolete activities which can be addressed in other ways.
The second is how we might make sense of the budgetary envelope of this Organization, and correct the habits 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.
In relation to this second point, under this agenda item, the Secretary-General requests the General Assembly to decide on around $12 million that derives from so-called recosting, which is comprised of changes in exchange rates, inflation rates, standard costs, and vacancy rates. In this regard, Japan emphasizes the importance of the Secretary-General’s efforts to meet additional recosting requirements within the level of the approved envelope through further efficiency and cost saving measures.
In particular, as the ACABQ points out in part, adjustments to standard staff costs, which resulted in an increase of $32.1 million, lack clarity. The secretariat should also be actively engaged in the management of vacancy rates, since failure to do so has so far resulted in an additional request of $9.6 million.
Mr. Chairman,
Finally, my delegation would like to recall that two years ago under the same agenda item, the General Assembly urged the Secretary-General to ensure that oral statements detailing resource requirements are presented to the General Assembly in a timely manner before the adoption of substantive resolutions in accordance with rule 153 of the rules of procedure of the Assembly and to provide information on the full scope of additional resources needed.
My delegation would like to point out that since then this request has not been duly implemented by the Secretariat, which is a wide concern shared by the Member States of all committees. While such additional resource requests have been considered under other agenda items, I would like to reiterate this call to the Secretariat.
Mr. Chairman,
I would like to assure you that my delegation will participate actively in the consultations on this agenda item under your able guidance.
I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
