UNITED NATIONS, Dec 23: After weeks of wrangling over the UN Budget, President of the UN’s General Assembly Jan Eliasson said on Thursday that the 191-member body may adopt it by the weekend. The world body’s operations may come to a grinding halt if the budget is not adopted by the year’s end.
United States Ambassador John Bolton threw the budget negotiations into a quandary when he insisted that the UN General Assembly should only adopt a three-month budget instead of for two years until an agreement is reached on the reforms package adopted at the UN world summit in September.
United Nations officials argued that a three-month interim budget could undermine the organisation’s ability to function normally as the members assessment were based on two-year increments to keep it solvent and functioning.
The US pays almost 22 per cent of UN budget and has threatened to cut its contribution if the reforms package was not approved by the UN General Assembly.
The G-77 plus China objected to many proposals which seek to undermine the authority of the UN General Assembly by empowering the office of the Secretary-General.
UN diplomats said they hoped the compromise plan put forward by Japan, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, a group known in UN-speak as Juscanz, could keep UN programmes functioning in 2006 while diplomats continue working on reforms.
Rich countries and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan are pushing hard for management reforms and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called for “a revolution of reform” following allegations of UN corruption and mismanagement.
Mr Eliasson said: “As I write, intense discussions on the 2006-07 budget are under way. I know that work is going on to bring them to a satisfactory conclusion by tomorrow. It is crucial and critical for the UN that we now reach a decision on the budget.”
Mr Eliasson said the cost of establishing an ethics office, the external evaluation of the UN’s auditing and oversight system and proposals on an independent oversight advisory committee were also part of the budget talks.
