By Wayne Dean Doyle (WIT Media Relations Manager)

Chair Mr. Miguel Berger (Germany)

Vice-Chair Ms. Juliana Gaspar RUAS (Brazil) Ms. Anna REICH (Hungary) Mr. Bilal Taher Muhammad WILSON (Saudi Arabia)

Rapporteur – Mr. Justin KISOKA (United Republic of Tanzania)

Annual Budgetary deliberations began in a jam packed conference room at the United Nations headquarters in New York this morning with great anticipation and expectations. To say that this budget isn’t extremely important would be an understatement, the United Nations annual expenditure has consistently increased annually for the past ten years. The conference began as business as usual but quickly became heated when certain delegations raised questions about allocated funds and repayment of loans. Ms. Anna Reich of hungry quickly quenched temperatures with riveting justifications and explanations in relation to allocation of funds and the need to stick firmly by past commitments and future endeavors.

“An Additional eight million needed in order to continue peace keeping operations, furthermore, a reduction of 12.8 million within the construction and maintenance departments of the organisation is much needed”, stated an undeviating Mr. Miguel Berger.

All member states must fulfill the financial commitments as set outlined the UN Charter. A review of energy usage within global operations also need‘s to happen with the view of reducing the current amount of allocated funds substantially. Abolishment of the third post in planning also needs serious consideration, which would save $180,000. A complete reconstruction of the communications and information technologies sectors in order to improve and enhance the work being carried out. The United Nations is currently going through a digital transformation in terms of transitioning from hard copy to digital. This is an area where saving must and can be made, getting a framework and malleable structure up and running will take some time with initial costs also coming to the fore of concerns being expressed.

A statement on behalf of the group of 77 and China by Mr. Sai S. Navoti of the permanent mission of Fiji expressed deep concerns by the shortcomings and inconsistencies identified by the Board of Auditors in the management of financial, human and material resources of the United Nations Global Service Centre of Brindisi and requests the Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon to take all appropriate steps to find adequate solution to rectify this situations.

The areas of concern and distribution of funds remained similar to that of the previous biannual year:

• Strengthening the Peace building Support Office

• Strengthening the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

• New initiatives to strengthen the Rule of Law activities

• Administration of justice

• Activities of the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services

• Disarmam

The United States representative concluded with stating that nearly seventy percent of the United Nations Budget is comprised of employees, and continuation on this financial path is simply no longer viable, “we need to end the cycle”.