'Unpaid assessments down'.

• Position: GA 56 - Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary

Three economic indicators determine the financial health of the United Nations: the level of unpaid assessments of Member States; the level of cash balances; and debt owed by the United Nations to Member States that provided peacekeepers. In his presentation to the Fifth Committee, Under-Secretary-General for Management Joseph E. Connor summed it up: "Unpaid assessments are down, cash is up, and debt to Member States has been drastically reduced."

Ambassador Nana Effah-Apenteng of Ghana, Chairman of the Fifth Committee, also said that "the optimism derived from the projected payment of $4.7 billion for 2001, far in excess of any other year, enabled financial flexibility to be restored in the UN budget". He told the Chronicle that the decision of the United States to pay its arrears was significant, and that the challenge was to stretch this picture of optimism into 2002. "It is the hope that for fiscal year 2002 Member States would fulfil their Charter obligations by paying their contributions in full, on time and without conditions", the Ambassador said.

In this session, the Fifth Committee had to finalize a budget for 2002-2003. The United Nations had requested around $2.7 billion, and the Committee, in its decisions that evolved over forty meetings, granted $2.625 billion in the end.

The Committee submitted to the Assembly 28 texts on issues ranging from multilingualism, financing of UN missions and tribunals, to transitional administrations, the services of private management consulting firms and "pattern of conferences" (see p.59). The Assembly adopted 27 without a vote, while the text relating to financing the UN Interim Force in Lebanon was adopted by a vote of 123 to 2 (Israel, United States), with 2 abstentions.

Michel Tilemans of the Belgian Mission, who also spoke on behalf of the European Union in the Committee, said: "The results of the budget 2002-2003, in my view, were very satisfactory, because it's a balanced budget which took two concerns on board: to finance adequately the Organization's agreed objectives, mandates and programmes, while continuing to pursue budgetary discipline, efficiency and the general concept of value for money."

A few consider the shortfall of around $75 million between the Secretariat's proposal and the Committee's final amount as savings, while others saw it as cost cutting. Mr. Tilemans said that this shortfall, in his view, was an across-the-board savings. "In parallel, you had across-the-board cuts in travel of staff, contractual services, general operating expenses, supplies and material, furniture and equipment, consultants and experts, and information technology. It is also important to mention that the regional Economic Commissions and the Department of Economic and Social Affairs were exempted from some of these savings...