Statement by H.E. Gary Quinlan, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations Fifth Committee on behalf of Canada, Australia and New Zealand regarding Item 132: Proposed Program Budget: biennium 2010-2011, delivered on 29 October 2009.
(as delivered)
Mr Chairman, Deputy Secretary-General
I have the honour today to speak on behalf of Canada, Australia and New Zealand. We would like to thank the Secretary General and the Chair of the ACABQ for introducing their reports this morning. We would also like to thank the Secretary-General himself for his personal commitment to trying to bring greater coherence to this very difficult area.
Mr Chairman
As we all know, this biennium budget coincides with the most significant financial and economic crisis since the 1930s. As one would expect, therefore, Member States will be looking closely at the Organisation’s finances. CANZ delegations are no exception.
CANZ delegations will, of course, take a pragmatic approach to forthcoming negotiations. We will carefully assess the reasonableness of the Secretariat’s estimates and the ACABQ recommendations and focus our efforts on areas where we can legitimately promote effectiveness, efficiency and overall financial discipline, while still providing for necessary reforms and for the resources to ensure United Nations mandates can be met.
Mr Chairman
We certainly understand that the Secretariat has tried hard this year to provide Member States with the requisite documentation for us to make early and informed decisions on the budget, and we are grateful for that. We understand the difficulties. But we are disappointed that, nonetheless, Member States have been presented with an incomplete budget. So-called “add-ons” include additional, and in some cases significant, provisions for important items such as Enterprise Resource Planning and safety and security.
Irrespective of the merit of these individual proposals, CANZ countries are concerned about the piecemeal nature of this approach, which undermines budget discipline, obscures full budget requirements and puts Member States in the difficult position of having to make important financial decisions without knowing the overall effect on the budget.
At this late stage, Member States can only guess at the final budget level, and work on the basis of conjecture.
The late provision of detail on items that will form part of the additional budget envelope is of particular concern to us, because a number of these items have, as we know, important implications for the future of the Organisation and its staff.
The ERP project, for example, should be a fundamental piece of organisational modernisation. If we are to hold the Secretariat accountable at the highest levels for the effective and efficient implementation of mandates, then we simply need to give them the appropriate tools to do so. Although late documentation will make it difficult to engage in the timely and substantive debate required for a project of this magnitude, CANZ delegations will, of course, examine closely the proposal before us with a view to reaching a timely outcome.
Likewise, once again, information on safety and security management has been delayed. CANZ delegations are committed to an effective security management system that helps protect the staff and the work of the United Nations, above all in very difficult field missions. We are only too aware of the grim fact that there have been nearly 40 deaths of UN staff in the field since June last year. Attacks on UN staff are attacks on the very purposes of the United Nations and on all of us. Yesterday’s contemptible attack is yet again a shocking reminder of the peril in which UN staff so often operate.
CANZ countries expect the safety and security management review and associated budgetary proposal to offer a comprehensive picture of the improvements required and the means to ensure their quick and effective implementation.
Mr Chairman
Our delegations note that the Secretary General has been very active in recent months seeking Member State opinion on budget process reform and in urging the extension of the limited budgetary discretion. We look forward to a specific proposal in this respect. We are also keen to ensure that debate around broader budget process reform and, as part of that, reform of the working methods of the Fifth Committee and the ACABQ takes place, and we will look closely at the request from the ACABQ for additional resources in this context.
On the separate, yet related, matter of budget presentation our delegations believe that more work needs to be done on results based budgeting. This was important breakthrough some nine years ago. But we await the application of better costing, measuring and benchmarking tools that can provide more useful information on performance and resource implications.
Mr Chairman
In conclusion, I should reiterate that CANZ delegations will work constructively with other delegations towards an outcome that promotes and protects both fiscal discipline and the important reforms and necessary positions proposed in this biennium budget.
We trust that those negotiations will take place around a real desire from all sides for an outcome that benefits the Organisation, promotes reasonableness, appropriateness and the financial and operational health of the Organisation, and which recognises that we are all working within the parameters of very difficult global financial circumstances.
Thank you.