Statement Delivered by Chris Plunkett, Second Secretary, Permanent Mission of Canada, to the United Nations General Assembly: Fifth Committee on behalf of Canada, Australia and New Zealand on Item 117: Review of Efficiency: Budget Outline
December 19, 2008
(As delivered)
Mr Chairman
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the delegations of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. We thank the Controller, Mr Jun Yamazaki, for introducing the report of the Secretary General on the Budget Outline for 2010-11, and the ACABQ Chairman, Ms. Sue McClurg, for introducing the ACABQ report.
To begin, we must express our disappointment in having the budget outline presented to us after the official closing date of the Fifth Committee. CANZ supports the concept of a Budget Outline, as set out in resolution 41/213, and believes that it should strengthen the budget process by increasing its predictability. In this regard, we find it inappropriate that we should find our time to consider the proposal so constrained.
Given the amount of time the outline took to produce, we are particularly disappointed to note that many elements currently before the 5th Committee or soon to be presented are neither included in the estimates, nor mentioned in the accompanying report. This estimate, therefore, risks continuing the ‘piecemeal’ approach to budgetting that this committee has repeatedly cricitzed.
While we acknowledge that the Outline is a preliminary estimate, presenting the budget outline in this way inhibits any attempt to produce a realistic budget figure upon which member states can plan. Taking into account the many proposals before us, the final figures for 2010-11 will inevitably be much higher than that which is presented to us today.
In this regard we would like to thank the ACABQ for their report, as we believe the additional information provided will be very useful in our consideration of the Outline.
Mr Chairman
We are also concerned about the accuracy of the figure presented for Special Political Missions. Considering the particular nature of Special Political Missions for which the budget tends to fluctuate considerably more than other parts of the regular budget, we feel it is almost impossible for the Secretariat to accurately predict these budgets two years in advance.
For this reason we think there would be merit, while maintaining the place of special political missions in the budget, for the Secretary-General’s analysis to distinguish between changes relating to ongoing programmes and those driven by the needs of political missions. Further, while the revised appropriation for this biennium is the point of departure for the preparation of the next budget, we expect that Special Political Missions should be accurately costed in next biennium's budget proposal - and the overall budget should rise or fall accordingly.
CANZ is well aware that the organisation is being called on to deal with important new challenges and responsibilities. But as the demands on limited overall resources continue to grow, the importance of budget discipline, transparency and of strengthening results based budgeting and management processes, have become even greater.
We as Member States, together with the Secretary General, must do our best to ensure that decisions about the resourcing of the organisation promote overall effectiveness and efficiency.
Thank you Mr Chairman.