UNITED NATIONS (CMC):
THE UN General Assembly formally adopted a two-year, US$3.80 billion budget, for the period 2006-2007.
The budget was approved on Christmas Eve by its Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Matters (Fifth Committee), chaired by Antigua and Barbuda's Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. John Ashe.
"Negotiations were deadlocked for weeks," said Ambassador Ashe, "and up until the very last minute the prospect of United Nations not having a budget for its operation was very real," he said.
STICKING POINT
The sticking point during the final round of the negotiations, which Ambassador Ashe led, was the insistence by the two largest contributors to the UN budget, the United States and Japan, that until there was real and measurable progress of management reform, expenditures for 2006 should be limited to the first six months of the year.
In the end, all other UN member states agreed with this proposal. What this means in effect is that the UN Secretary General would only be authorised to spend US$950 million on UN business at his discretion for the first half of the year, but he would have to request the remaining portion of the US$1.9 billion approved for 2006.
Ambassador Ashe noted that there was some merit in the argument that, for the first time in its history, the UN's budget is being used as a tool for accelerating the management reform. He also recalled the fact that heads of State and Governments had underlined the need for these reforms at the World Summit in September 2005. He also said that the use of a budget to achieve a particular socio-economic outcome was an uncommon device in the budgetary processes of many UN member States.
"However, it must also be recognised that the possibility does now exist that when the UN Secretary General, who praised the adoption of the budget, submits his proposals for improving the management of the UN within the first three months of 2006," member States may not be able to agree on them by June 2006," Ashe said. "This in turn could trigger a subsequent debate on whether or not the remaining funds for 2006 should be released."
This possibility was echoed by the representative of Jamaica, Ambassador Stafford Neil, who voiced dissatisfaction with the closed-door negotiations that led to the breakthrough, and said the $950 million cap effectively turned what is normally a two-year budget into a six-month budget. Jamaica holds the rotating chair of the influential 'Group of 77' developing countries and China.
However, a contrasting perspective was offered by the representative of the United States, Ambassador John Bolton, who welcomed the agreement as a means of allowing the UN to operate while Member States continued discussions on implementing the reforms agreed at the 2005 World Summit.
"All my colleagues can nevertheless agree on the fact that we have averted a real crisis for the organisation by adopting its biennial budget at this session of the General Assembly. And I am pleased that we also succeeded in establishing an Independent Audit Advisory Committee to help the UN General Assembly with its oversight responsibilities, and provided an interim budget for the Capital Master Plan renovation project of the UN Secretariat building," said Ambassador Ashe.
