UN BUDGET: BUDGET OUTLINE FOR BIENNIUM 2008-2009

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 002236 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AORC UNGA KUNR SUBJECT: UN BUDGET: BUDGET OUTLINE FOR BIENNIUM 2008-2009 ¶1. This is an action request. The Fifth Committee will soon consider the Secretary-General's proposed budget outline for the biennium 2008-2009 (A/61/576). USUN requests guidance for the upcoming discussion. ¶2. The Secretary-General's preliminary estimate for the biennium 2008-2009 is $4,138.5 million, as compared to a current 2006-2007 appropriation of $3,839.5 million. The proposal for the 2008-2009 biennium includes a two year estimate for special political missions, whereas the current appropriation only includes one year of funding. The Secretary-General's estimate does not include one-time costs SIPDIS incurred in the current biennium, the results of further decisions that may be taken by the General Assembly during the course of the sixty-first session, and the impact of inflation and exchange rate changes. The Secretary-General seeks approval of his estimate in order to prepare his proposed program budget for the biennium 2008-2009. In addition, he recommends that the General Assembly agree to the same priorities for the biennium 2008-2009 as were included in the proposed strategic framework, namely: maintenance of international peace and security; promotion of sustained economic growth and sustainable development in accordance with relevant General Assembly resolutions and recent United Nations conferences; development of Africa; promotion of human rights; effective coordination of humanitarian assistance efforts; promotion of justice and international law; disarmament; and drug control, crime prevention and combating international terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. The Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) recommends that the General Assembly agree to preliminary estimate for the biennium that includes figures at revised 2006-2007 rates or $4,219.7 million (A/61/615). ¶3. The Secretary-General also proposes to increase the level of the contingency fund from 0.75 percent of the outline estimate to 1.35 percent, due to concerns about the potential exhaustion of the fund at early stages of a biennium. The ACABQ, in its report, notes that the contingency fund is a percentage of the overall level of resources, therefore it increases as the budget level increases. The ACABQ also states that the level of the contingency fund has almost never been exceeded and recalls the additional discretion for budgetary implementation that has been provided to the Secretary-General through resolution 60/283. Therefore, SIPDIS ACABQ recommends that the contingency fund remain at 0.75 percent. BOLTON