VZCZCXRO7087
PP RUEHBZ
DE RUCNDT #0052/01 0241637
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 241637Z JAN 07
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1178
INFO RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI PRIORITY 0570
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 2470
RUEHRO/USMISSION UN ROME PRIORITY
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA PRIORITY 0635

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 USUN NEW YORK 000052 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: UNGA AORC KUNR
SUBJECT: UN BUDGET: GENERAL ASSEMBLY APPROVES ADDITIONAL 
$375 MILLION FOR 2006-2007 AND INITIAL ESTIMATE FOR THE 
BIENNIUM 2008-2009 
 
REF: A. 2006 USUN 0050 
     ¶B. 2006 USUN 1877 
     ¶C. 2006 USUN 1879 
     ¶D. RASHKOW-LEIS EMAILS 12/20/06 AND 12/21/06 
     ¶E. 2006 USUN 2257 
     ¶F. 2006 USUN 1337 
     ¶G. 2006 USUN 2258 
     ¶H. SHAH-LEIS EMAIL 12/17/06 
 
¶1. SUMMARY: On December 22, 2006, the General Assembly (GA) 
adopted resolutions related to the program budget for the 
biennium 2006-2007: "Enhancing the role of the subregional 
offices of the Economic Commission for Africa" (A/RES/61/234) 
and "Questions relating to the program budget for the 
biennium 2006-2007" (A/RES/61/252), as well as a resolution 
on the program budget for the biennium 2008-2009, "Proposed 
program budget outline for the biennium 2008-2009" 
(A/RES/61/254).  Resolution 61/252 deals with a number of 
budget issues, including additional office/conference 
facilities at the Vienna International Center and the 
Economic Commission for Africa, the possible establishment of 
a contingent liability reserve for the UN Postal 
Administration, the Development Account, special political 
missions, revised estimates related to decisions of the Human 
Rights Council and Economic and Social Council, the financial 
implications of the reports of the International Civil 
Service Commission and UN Joint Staff Pension Board, the role 
of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, 
and the first performance report for the biennium 2006-2007. 
Based on decisions made since the adoption of the 2006-2007 
budget in December 2005, including those made during the 
resumed sessions of the sixtieth General Assembly and the 
main session of the sixty-first General Assembly, the General 
Assembly also approved a revised appropriation of 
$4,173,895,900 for the biennium, some $375 million higher 
than the initial appropriation for the biennium (A/RES/61/253 
A-C).  END SUMMARY. 
 
SUBREGIONAL OFFICES OF THE ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
¶2. In resolution 60/235, the General Assembly requested the 
Secretary-General to present to it a comprehensive action 
 
SIPDIS 
plan to strengthen the subregional offices of the Economic 
Commission for Africa (ECA), based on the recommendations of 
the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), which 
highlighted a number of managerial problems and resource 
issues at ECA (ref A).  The action plan submitted to the GA 
reflected a comprehensive review of ECA conducted by its new 
Executive Secretary and also reflected the recommendations of 
OIOS.  In his report, the Secretary-General noted that 
several posts had been re-deployed within ECA to support the 
subregional offices and that further posts would be requested 
in the context of the 2008-2009 proposed program budget.  The 
Group of 77 and China (G77) disagreed with the 
Secretary-General's decision to request further posts in the 
 
SIPDIS 
context of the next budget and sought immediate approval of 
the additional posts.  In the end, the General Assembly was 
able to take note of the Secretary-General's decision, 
effectively pushing off further discussion on resources for 
ECA until the next budget, when this G77 priority can be 
balanced with other considerations. 
 
UN POSTAL ADMINISTRATION 
-------------------------- 
 
¶3.  A number of questions regarding the contingent 
liabilities of the UN Postal Administration (UNPA) were 
raised during the Fifth Committee's consideration of the 
Secretary-General's recommendation to establish a reserve 
 
SIPDIS 
fund to deal with these liabilities.  In particular, 
questions were raised regarding the future net income that 
may be available to transfer to a reserve fund (the 
recommended funding mechanism), ongoing negotiations between 
the UN and postal authorities in the three countries in which 
UNPA operates, and the possibility of charging bulk mailers 
for security screening (which may both reduce the amount of 
mailings and UNPA expenses).  The General Assembly took note 
of the Secretary-General's report and requested further 
information and options to be submitted to the GA for its 
consideration during the second resumed sixty-first session 
in May. 
 
DEVELOPMENT ACCOUNT 
-------------------- 
 
¶4.  In paragraph 14 of resolution 60/246, the General 
 
USUN NEW Y 00000052  002 OF 004 
 
 
Assembly requested "recommendations on how additional 
resources in the region of 5 million dollars could be added 
to the Development Account."  The Fifth Committee began its 
consideration of the related report early in the main 
session, but lack of viable recommendations from the 
Secretary-General and disagreements over the interpretation 
 
SIPDIS 
of paragraph 14 quickly led to stalled discussions.  The G-77 
lead negotiator for this item, Jamaica, had been closely 
involved with the budget negotiations in December 2005 when 
Jamaica was the chair of the Group and made lengthy, 
emotional statements regarding the interpretation of the 
language.  She noted that the agreement on recosting the 
Development Account and on the $5 million was part of a 
larger, "more difficult" budget negotiation, both implicitly 
and explicitly referring to the agreement on the spending 
cap.  The G-77 continually stated that the GA had made a 
political commitment to add $5 million to the Development 
Account when it adopted paragraph 14 of resolution 60/246 and 
also that the agreement to recost the Account was a permanent 
change and not a one-time exercise.  The U.S., EU, Japan and 
CANZ noted that the GA had committed to reviewing 
recommendations on how to add additional resources, and then 
only within the mandate already set for the Account (that 
additional amounts should be found through gains in 
efficiency and productivity).  Western delegations also 
challenged the notion that recosting should be permanent, 
supporting the point that had been raised by the ACABQ in its 
report. 
 
¶5.  As it became clear that there was no agreement on either 
the addition of funds or on further recosting, the G-77, 
through the current chair, South Africa, began to make 
threats in various formal and informal statements, that 
additional resources would be added to the Account in one way 
or another.  In the end, the Committee agreed to add $2.5 
million as an exceptional measure and also requested the 
Secretary-General to submit a report that would set out 
 
SIPDIS 
recommendations on how additional resources of at least $2.5 
million could be identified for transfer to the Development 
Account.  The GA also asked for an assessment of the impact 
of the Development Account.  The U.S. disassociated from the 
consensus, as instructed (ref D), due to the unwillingness of 
other Member States to include any language on mandate review 
as a possible source of funding for the Development Account 
in the future. 
 
SPECIAL POLITICAL MISSIONS 
--------------------------- 
 
¶6.  The GA reached a consensus decision on financing the 2007 
requirements for special political missions (SPMs) despite 
the attempts of the Syrian delegate to change the financing 
scale for SPMs from the regular budget to the peacekeeping 
scale and to provide only short-term funding for all SPMs due 
to objections with the expected accomplishments, indicators 
of achievement, and Special Representative of the 
Secretary-General for the implementation of UN Security 
 
SIPDIS 
Council resolution 1559 (UN presence in southern Lebanon). 
All delegations, other than Syria, were ready to move forward 
with a short resolution that would have endorsed the ACABQ 
recommendations, including its funding recommendation. 
Syria's unwillingness to agree to that compromise blocked a 
decision on SPM financing for several days.  The G-77 had no 
group position on SPM financing, which hindered the Chair's 
ability to put pressure on one of its group members. 
Attempts to isolate Syria by declaring broadest possible 
consensus led to veiled threats of a vote, though many, 
including USDel, believed it was a bluff. 
 
¶7.  Financing for SPMs became the last remaining issue on the 
Fifth Committee agenda for the main session and held up the 
Fifth Committee's formal meeting to adopt all outstanding 
resolutions, as well as the General Assembly's final meeting 
for the main session.  As a result, the attention of the 
Chairman of the Fifth Committee, the Office of the President 
of the General Assembly (PGA), P-5 Ambassadors and the Syrian 
and South African Ambassadors was drawn to the Fifth 
Committee and the lack of consensus on financing important 
missions.  Ambassador Wallace joined other P-5 Ambassadors, 
the Fifth Committee Chairman (Algeria) and 
Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Gambari in 
order to discuss a way forward.  The Chairman of the Fifth 
Committee was hamstrung due to national considerations and 
was unable to offer a solution. 
 
¶8.  The Egyptian and South African delegates, as well as the 
former Egyptian delegate (now with the PGA's office) worked 
 
USUN NEW Y 00000052  003 OF 004 
 
 
to broker a compromise, whereby no specific mission or envoy 
would be singled out for mandate reinterpretation or 
criticism.  The GA did acknowledge the need to improve the 
implementation of results-based budgeting and requested the 
Secretary-General to review the logical frameworks, which set 
 
SIPDIS 
out expected accomplishments and indicators of achievement, 
for all SPMs in order to ensure their consistency with 
mandates and to report back to the Assembly no later than the 
early part of the second resumed session in May. 
 
¶9.  The total budget level approved for 2007 for all missions 
is $326,500,000, a reduction of nearly $40 million compared 
to the Secretary-General's proposal, based on the expenditure 
patterns in 2006.  As reported in ref F, the 
Secretary-General's report noted that there was a significant 
 
SIPDIS 
amount of underexpenditure for most missions in 2006, but in 
particular with the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI). 
Based on the level of underexpenditure in 2006, the Advisory 
Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions 
recommended that the General Assembly apply a 10 percent 
overall reduction to the budgets for 2007, resulting in a 
total budget of $328,384,080 and an appropriation of 
$232,500,480 (total budget is offset by the amount unspent in 
2006 ($95,883,600).  During its discussions, the Fifth 
Committee agreed to endorse ACABQ's conclusions and 
recommendations, but decided to further reduce the budget to 
$326,500,000, with a related appropriation of $230,616,400. 
 
¶10.  The further reduction from the ACABQ level reflected the 
Syrian desire to cut funding for the implementation of 
resolution 1559.  The Committee did not agree to cut funding 
for any specific mission, but agreed to further reduce the 
ACABQ recommendation generally.  The Secretariat and Fifth 
Committee understood this reduction to be applied at the 
Secretary-General's discretion and based on expenditure 
 
SIPDIS 
patterns.  The GA decision was not an across-the-board 
reduction nor did it target any one mission.  In endorsing 
the ACABQ's conclusions and recommendations, the GA decision 
reduced funding for the Counterterrorism Executive 
Directorate (CTED)'s fifth special meeting in Africa.  Noting 
that these meetings were generally funded by voluntary 
resources, ACABQ encouraged CTED to continue its efforts to 
find extrabudgetary resources, but allows for the 
Secretary-General to report on any requirements in the second 
 
SIPDIS 
performance report.  As there was a lack of time to consider 
the report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services on 
the management of SPMs by the Department of Political 
Affairs, the GA decided to revert to the report during its 
consideration of the proposed budget for 2008-2009. 
 
¶11.  Total SPM budgets for the biennium 2006-2007 now stand 
at a little over $700 million, nearly twice the level in the 
biennium 2004-2005, with two additional missions in Nepal and 
Burundi expected to be approved by the Security Council in 
the coming weeks.  Fifth Committee discussions were made 
especially difficult due to several issues raised by the 
Syrian delegate.  USUN fully expects that these issues will 
come up again in the next discussion; further thoughts and 
analysis, as well as a request for guidance are being sent 
septel. 
 
REVISED APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE BIENNIUM 2006-2007 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶12.  In light of GA decisions made earlier in 2006 and based 
on the Fifth Committee's consideration of revised estimates 
and program budget implications of resolutions adopted by 
other Main Committees or the plenary, the General Assembly 
agreed to a revised appropriation for the biennium of 
$4,173,895,900, some $375 million higher than the initial 
appropriation approved in December 2005.  The bulk of this 
increase, some $270 million, represents the net additional 
requirements for special political missions since December 
2005 (changes made during the resumed sessions of the 
sixtieth General Assembly and during the main session of the 
sixty-first General Assembly).  Changes in exchange rates, 
notably the declining value of the U.S. dollar vis-a-vis the 
Euro, also had a significant impact on the revised 
appropriation. 
 
THE NEXT BUDGET: THE BUDGET OUTLINE FOR THE BIENNIUM 2008-2009 
--------------------------------------------- ----------------- 
 
¶13.  Based on the revised appropriation for the biennium 
2006-2007, the General Assembly approved an initial estimate 
for the biennium 2008-2009 of $4,194,726,800.  After a 
lengthy discussion as to whether the level of the contingency 
 
USUN NEW Y 00000052  004 OF 004 
 
 
fund should be increased from .75 percent to 1.35 percent, as 
requested by the Secretary-General and supported by the G-77, 
the Fifth Committee agreed to keep it at .75 percent (or 
$31,460,500).  However, there was agreement to request a 
report that provides further information on the utilization 
of the contingency fund, for the GA's consideration during 
the sixty-second session.  This estimate will be used to 
prepare the proposed program budget for the biennium 
2008-2009. 
WOLFF