Secretary-General warns of deficit reaching $250 million in 1986.

• Position: Javier Perez de Cuellar

Secretary-General warns of deficit reaching $250 million in 1986

Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar has warned that in face of a cumulative deficit likely to reach some $250 million in 1986, the United Nations faces "immediate and longerterm problems' that go far beyond the authority of the Secretary-General to correct.

The Secretary-General made his statement on 25 February at the first meeting of an 18-member Group of High-Level Intergovernmental Experts set up by the General Assembly to review the efficiency of the administrative and financial functioning of the United Nations.

In the immediate future, he said, the Organization must deal with a "very large financial shortfall' due mainly to the withholding of assessed contributions to the regular budget. The Working Capital Fund had been depleted in covering past withholdings, which now amounted to some $100 million.

"To this must be added the anticipated withholding by the largest contributor of $80 million or more from its 1985 and 1986 assessments and a further shortfall of some $70 million due to delays in payment of assessed contributions', he stated.

Mr. Perez de Cuellar suggested three areas for special attention by the Group--the budgetary process; setting relative priorities and utilizing resources in accordance with them; and possible structural and procedural adjustments in the Organization, including the Secretariat, which could bring about greater effectiveness, efficiency and economy.

As for the budgetary process, he said that for the long-term financial viability of the Organization, broad agreement among Member States was needed concerning content and level of the programme budget, scale of assessments, payment of assessed contributions, and procedures for reaching agreement on those matters.

Regarding priorities, he said that taking into account the important connections beween Charter obligations, establishment of the Organization's programmes, and the budgetary process, "an improved framework is needed which will encourage agreement on programmes and the allocation of resources'.

Regarding the Group's review of administrative matters, he said that, for the Secretariate to effectively and fully serve the Organization's objectives, its quality and independence must be guaranteed.

One of his principal tasks, he said, which was both "complex and sensitive', was to assure those objectives, along with equitable geographical distribution. It was a task that required...