A/48/PV.102 General Assembly

In a letter contained in the provisional version - in blue - of document A/48/853/Rev.1/Add.3, the Secretary-General informs me that since the issuance of his communications dated 9 March, 5 April and 26 May 1994 Haiti has made the necessary payment to reduce its arrears below the amount specified in Article 19 of the Charter. Through an apparent oversight, the Assembly was not informed earlier of this payment, which was made last June. Had Haiti been allowed to vote yesterday morning, it would have voted in favour of draft resolution A/48/L.60. I convey my regrets to the delegation of Haiti. May I take it that the Assembly duly takes note of this information?

The twelfth report of the General Committee (A/48/250/Add.11) concerns a request by a number of countries for the inclusion in the agenda of the current session of an additional item entitled "Observer status for the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in the General Assembly". The General Committee decided to recommend to the General Assembly that the item should be included in the agenda of the current session. May I take it that the General Assembly decides to include this additional item in its agenda?

The General Committee further decided to recommend to the Assembly that the item should be considered directly in plenary meeting. May I take it that the Assembly adopts this recommendation?

Members will recall that on 10 November 1993 I announced the establishment of an informal open-ended working group with a view to carrying out the tasks set forth in resolution 47/233 and to seeking a consensus text before the conclusion of the forty-eighth session. I indicated then that I had requested the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka, His Excellency Ambassador Stanley Kalpagé, and the Permanent Representative of Uganda, His Excellency Ambassador Karukubiro Kamunanwire, to serve as co-chairmen of this informal working group and thus to assist me in the task of advancing the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly. I am happy to report that under these two distinguished co-chairmen, the working group, which began its work on 27 January 1994, successfully completed its mandate on 8 July 1994 with the adoption by consensus of the draft resolution in document A/48/L.61 now before the Assembly. In the draft resolution, the General Assembly would recognize the usefulness of continuous improvement of its working methods to enable it to function more effectively, efficiently and in a comprehensive manner. The text establishes agreed procedures concerning the pattern of elections of the six Chairmen of the Main Committees respectively of the forty-ninth to the fifty-third sessions of the General Assembly. Provision is also made for the General Assembly to consider the creation of new bodies to facilitate the discussion of any question or any matter within the scope of the Charter as well as for making recommendations as appropriate to the membership of the United Nations or to the Security Council or both. Under the draft resolution the Assembly would encourage the Security Council in its submission of reports to the Assembly to provide in a timely manner clear and informative accounts of its work, and invites the President of the Assembly to propose ways and means to facilitate an in-depth discussion thereon. In operative paragraph 13 of the draft resolution, the Assembly, considering that the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly is an ongoing process, would request the Secretary-General to report to the fifty-second session on progress in the implementation of the resolution, after ascertaining the views of the Presidents of the forty-ninth, fiftieth and fifty-first sessions of the General Assembly. Against this background, I recommend this draft resolution for adoption by the General Assembly by consensus. In doing so, I would like to pay special tribute to Ambassador Kalpagé and Ambassador Kamunanwire for their untiring efforts in coordinating the work of the working group on my behalf, and for achieving the level of success which this draft resolution represents. My felicitations extend of course to all members of the working group on the effective discharge of its mandate, and to the Secretariat on the servicing of its deliberations. Our task, however, is far from completed. The Assembly must therefore remain committed to exploring further ways and means of enhancing its capacity to perform the functions assigned to it under the Charter of the United Nations. It is only by so doing that we can make it more responsive to the needs of our countries and peoples in the altered circumstances of the world today. The Assembly will now take a decision on draft resolution A/48/L.61. May I take it that the Assembly decides to adopt it?

I call on the representative of Malta, who has expressed the desire to speak following the adoption of the draft resolution.

My delegation welcomes the adoption by consensus of draft resolution A/48/L.61. That consensus was made possible by the leadership of your co-chairmen, Mr. President, and by the flexibility shown by all delegations throughout our discussions. We believe that the 13 meetings of the informal open-ended working group on the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly produced a resolution that will enhance The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malta, Mr. Guido DeMarco, as President of the General Assembly at its forty-fifth session, initiated and led the process of revitalization and was the driving force in ensuring the continuation of that process through the adoption by the General Assembly of decision 45/461, by which it decided to include the item in the agenda of the forty-sixth session of the General Assembly. Throughout his presidency, Mr. Guide DeMarco advocated the need for revitalizing the General Assembly, as well as the need to enhance the office of the President. In this connection, my delegation welcomes the invitation in paragraph 4 of the resolution just adopted to the President to propose ways and means to facilitate an in- depth discussion by the Assembly of matters contained in the reports submitted to it by the Security Council. We also welcome the acceptance in this resolution of our proposal for a report to the General Assembly at its fifty-second session by the Secretary-General on the progress achieved in the implementation of the resolution, taking into account the views and experience of the Presidents of the Assembly at its forty-ninth, fiftieth and fifty-first sessions. This provides a degree of continuity while at the same time ensuring an adequate time period for the measures envisaged in the resolution. My delegation looks forward to that report, and is confident that the process of revitalization will continue to retain the appropriate momentum.

May I take it that it is the wish of the General Assembly to conclude its consideration of agenda item 53?

The General Assembly will now consider the reports of the Fifth Committee on agenda items 121, 123, 136, 138, 149 and 166. I request the Rapporteur of the Fifth Committee to introduce the reports of the Fifth Committee in one intervention. Mr. Kabir (Bangladesh), Rapporteur of the Fifth Committee: I have the honour today to present to the Regarding agenda item 121, entitled "Review of the efficiency of the administrative and financial functioning of the United Nations", part III of the report of the Fifth Committee is contained in document A/48/801/Add.2. In paragraph 7 of that report, the Committee recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of a draft resolution, and in paragraph 8 of the report the adoption of two draft decisions. The Fifth Committee adopted the draft resolution and the two draft decisions without a vote. Also under agenda item 121, concerning the question of the deferral of items to the forty-ninth session, part IV of the report of the Fifth Committee is contained in document A/48/801/Add.3. In paragraph 5 of that report the Committee recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of a draft decision, which was adopted by the Committee without a vote. Regarding agenda item 123, "Programme budget for the biennium 1994-1995", part V of the report of the Fifth Committee, on several outstanding issues, is contained in document A/48/811/Add.4. In paragraph 15 of the report, the Committee recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of two draft resolutions. Draft resolution I relates to the question of reclassification of posts in the Professional categories, and draft resolution II relates to the question of a continuing United Nations human rights presence in Cambodia; both draft resolutions were adopted by the Committee without a vote. In paragraph 16 of the report, the Committee recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of two draft decisions. Draft decision I is entitled "Staffing and functions of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and of the Centre for Human Rights", and draft decision II is entitled "United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories". Both draft decisions were adopted by the Committee without a vote. I should mention that, with respect to agenda item 127, "Scale of assessments for the apportionment of the expenses of the United Nations", on the determination of the mandates and modalities of an ad hoc body of the General Assembly to study the implementation of the principle of the capacity to pay as a fundamental criterion for determining the scale of assessments, in pursuance of General Assembly resolution 48/223 C, after an oral report from the coordinator of that question the Fifth Regarding agenda item 136, "Financing of the United Nations Protection Force", part V of the report of the Fifth Committee is contained in document A/48/819/Add.4. In paragraph 5 of that report the Committee recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of a draft resolution, which was adopted by the Committee without a vote. On agenda item 138, "Administrative and budgetary aspects of the financing of the United Nations peace- keeping operations", part VI of the report of the Fifth Committee is contained in document A/48/807/Add.5. In paragraph 7 of that report, the Committee recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of a draft resolution entitled "Support account for peace-keeping operations", which was adopted by the Committee without a vote. In paragraph 8 of the report, the Committee recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of a draft decision entitled "Financing of the United Nations peace-keeping operations", which was also adopted by the Committee without a vote. Still under agenda item 138, part VII of the report of the Fifth Committee, on the question of the relocation of Belarus and Ukraine to the group of Member States set out in paragraph 3 (c) of General Assembly resolution 43/232, is contained in document A/48/807/Add.6. In paragraph 4 of that report, the Committee recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of a draft decision, which was adopted by the Committee without a vote. Concerning agenda item 149, "Financing of the United Nations Operation in Mozambique", the report of the Fifth Committee is contained in documents A/48/821 and A/48/821/Add.3. In paragraph 5 of that report, the Committee recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of a draft resolution, which was adopted by the Committee without a vote. Lastly, regarding agenda item 166, "Financing of the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia", the report of the Fifth Committee is contained in document A/48/827/Add.2. In paragraph 6 of that report, the Committee recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of a draft resolution, which was adopted by the Committee without a vote.

If there is no proposal under rule 66 of the rules of procedure, I shall take it that the General Assembly decides not to discuss the reports of the Fifth Committee that are before it today.

Statements will therefore be limited to explanations of vote or position. The positions of delegations regarding the recommendations of the Fifth Committee have been made clear in the Committee and are reflected in the relevant official records. May I remind members that under paragraph 7 of decision 34/401, the Assembly agreed that "When the same draft resolution is considered in a Main Committee and in plenary meeting, a delegation should, as far as possible, explain its vote only once, i.e., either in the Committee or in plenary meeting unless that delegation’s vote in plenary meeting is different from its vote in the Committee." May I also remind delegations that, also in accordance with General Assembly decision 34/401, explanations of vote are limited to 10 minutes and should be made by delegations from their seats. Before we begin to take action on the recommendations contained in the reports of the Fifth Committee, I should like to advise representatives that we are going to proceed to take decisions in the same manner as was done in the Fifth Committee.

We will now consider the recommendations of the Fifth Committee contained in part III of its report (A/48/801/Add.2). We turn first to the draft resolution contained in paragraph 7 of the report. The Fifth Committee adopted

We turn now to the two draft decisions recommended for adoption by the Committee in paragraph 8 of part III of its report. Draft decision I was adopted by the Fifth Committee without a vote. May I take it the Assembly wishes to do the same?

Draft decision II was also adopted by the Committee without a vote. May I take it that the Assembly wishes to do likewise?

The Assembly will now take a decision on the draft decision recommended by the Fifth Committee in paragraph 5 of part IV of its report (A/48/801/Add.3). The draft decision, entitled "Action taken on certain documents", was adopted by the Fifth Committee without a vote. May I take it that the General Assembly wishes to do the same?

I shall now call on those representatives who wish to make statements in explanation of position.

The adoption of the draft resolution in document A/48/801/Add.2 constitutes a historic step forward for the United Nations. The new Office of Internal Oversight Services (IOS) will make this Organization more efficient, more effective and more accountable. That will be good for the United Nations; it will be good for millions around the world who rely upon the United Nations for services; it will be good for those who do business with the United Nations; and it will be good for those - all our taxpayers - who pay the United Nations bills. We should all understand that in this new era, efficiency at the United Nations has a human face. When we waste dollars through poor planning, misdirected priorities, politicized personnel practices, badly designed The major lifesaving and peace-keeping agencies of this Organization are desperately short of funds. They are striving heroically to provide medicine, vaccines, food, shelter and safe haven to millions of people in urgent need. The availability of those resources is a matter of life and death, and it is directly related to the efficiency and professionalism of all components of the United Nations. My Government has worked actively with others to create this new Office of Internal Oversight Services. We have done this because we believe deeply in the purposes for which the United Nations was created and because we believe that effective instruments of international cooperation are essential to the well-being of all citizens in the modern era. We believe there is ample room for improvement in the design, management and implementation of many United Nations programmes, and we believe that the IOS can contribute substantially to improvements in each of these areas. The resolution approved by the General Assembly today establishes an independent oversight office with the authority and responsibilities my Government has endorsed. It is high-level, at the rank of Under-Secretary- General; it is independent; it will have full authority to carry out inspections and evaluate programmes; it will have access to documents, information and United Nations officials; it will be able to report to members of the General Assembly on key matters, including the adequacy of its own budget, and to request the Secretary- General to establish procedures to protect whistle-blowers and provide for the implementation of recommendations. The understanding of my Government with respect to specific provisions of the resolution was spelled out during the negotiating process, and I summarized them in my statement before the Fifth Committee on 19 July. It is necessary that the Secretary-General promulgate procedures and regulations in some areas to ensure the implementation of the resolution in a manner consistent with the intent. In addition, the Secretary-General must also select a qualified individual to head the IOS, subject to the approval of the Assembly. The purpose of this proposal is to make the United Nations better able to serve its constituency, which is us - all of us. This institution, like other institutions, public My Government is pleased by the broad support that this resolution has attracted. Many individuals and States have contributed to its development and success. This resolution has many authors, just as it will have many beneficiaries. This is a historic day for those of us who believe deeply in the potential of the United Nations to address effectively an array of urgent, unmet global needs. This resolution, implemented vigorously and faithfully, will inspire greater confidence within our own countries about the ability of the United Nations to use scarce resources wisely. It establishes a mechanism with the independence, resources and clout to make a real difference in how this institution operates, and it will help prepare the United Nations, as it enters its fiftieth year, to cope with the daunting challenges yet to come.

The negotiating process for the resolution we have just adopted was flexible, arduous, difficult and, in the view of my delegation, hasty and badly timed. We believe it would have been appropriate and, above all, sensible to defer the consideration of the item for some time in order to facilitate the study of other equally relevant aspects of the question of enhancing the administrative and financial efficiency of the United Nations. There is no question but that it would have been appropriate before adopting this resolution to know what the Assembly was going to decide on in regard to a system of accountability and responsibility of programme managers. At the same time, good sense would have dictated that we should have available the views of Member States concerning the results of the Working Group set up pursuant to resolution 48/218. However, a negotiating process was initiated without this background information and we have today endorsed its results without a vote. That process is in essence designed to set up an Office of Internal Oversight Services whose head will be a new Under-Secretary-General. The resolution we have adopted strikes a delicate balance which must necessarily be preserved when the Secretary-General, in his capacity as the chief The text as approved contains a set of important elements that have made it possible for my delegation, along with many others, to accept its adoption without a vote. Paragraph 5 (a), which establishes that the new Under-Secretary-General will have strictly operational independence, is very important. My delegation interprets this as reaffirming the existing links between all high- level officials and the Secretary-General. The clear-cut distinction between the field of application of the functions of the new entity and that of the external oversight bodies is also a key element in the text. Although one of the mandates of the new Office will be to monitor compliance with the recommendations of those bodies, it can and should at the same time be the subject of evaluation, oversight and auditing by the Joint Inspection Unit and the Board of Auditors, as may be deemed necessary. With respect to reporting procedures, one of the most hotly debated items during the negotiating process, my delegation has accepted these procedures for a trial period, and we hope that at the fifty-third session the Secretary-General will submit to the General Assembly an exhaustive analytical report on the new procedure that we are now deciding upon. In deciding to respect the operational independence of the Under-Secretary-General, the General Assembly has authorized him to submit his budget proposals to it through the Secretary-General. But at the same time it has agreed that the remaining established budgetary procedures will also apply to the Office. My delegation hopes that this decision will be fully implemented. As far as my delegation is concerned, an analysis of the measures designed to enhance the effectiveness of, and possibly to strengthen, the external oversight machinery is an inseparable part of this exercise, and we I should like, furthermore, to express the hope that the new Under-Secretary-General will be cooperative in interpreting the wishes of Member States, which have determined, pursuant to paragraph 5 (d) of the resolution, that the Office’s function is also educational, to forestall problems, to ensure that the way in which it functions - administratively and financially - will enhance the Organization’s effectiveness.

Now that the General Assembly has adopted the draft resolution contained in paragraph 7 of document A/48/801/Add.2, my delegation would like to record its position, which is based on the following points. First, the main reason why the Office of Internal Oversight Services (IOS) has been established under the authority of the Secretary-General, as a part of the Secretariat, is so that it can assist the Secretary-General in discharging his executive responsibilities and his functions under Article 97 of the United Nations Charter. This Office has been established to help the administration play a more effective role. Another objective is to develop and strengthen the system of accountability and responsibility of programme managers, which will start functioning on 1 January 1995. Secondly, concerning the reports to be prepared and submitted to the Secretary-General by the new Office, we must distinguish between two kinds of reports that would be submitted to the programme managers after the Office has completed the required evaluation and inspection of their programmes. On the one hand, there are the reports designed to inform the programme managers of the deficiencies in the programmes for which they are responsible so that they can remedy them. On the other hand, there are the periodic reports that the Office will transmit to the Secretary-General when necessary, and not less than twice a year, which will describe what has been done in response to recommendations made by the Office to programme managers. My delegation believes that it is only the latter category of reports that the Secretary-General should transmit to the General Assembly in accordance with paragraph 5 (e) of the resolution we have just adopted. We believe that not all the reports produced by the Office Thirdly, the delegation of Egypt fully supports paragraph 13 of the resolution we have just adopted, dealing with the evaluation and review, at the fifty-third session of the General Assembly, of the performance of the Office and its relation to the Secretariat. At that time we will be able to pass a balanced judgement on the performance of this Office and its impact on the performance of the Secretariat as a whole. We might find that all we have done is to establish an additional bureaucratic layer in the Secretariat; on the other hand, we might find that our decision to establish this Office was, on the basis of its achievements, indeed the right one. We hope the Office’s performance will lead to progress in the Secretariat’s performance in the years to come so that it will be able to respond appropriately to the great challenges lying ahead of it. For all those reasons, my delegation was glad to join the consensus on the resolution. We hope this resolution will pave the way for an objective consideration of the real causes of the problems of management, which are to be found essentially in the constant financial crisis of the United Nations.

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union in explanation of position after the adoption of the resolution on agenda item 121, creating an Office of Internal Oversight Services of the United Nations. First, I should like to express our thanks to our Belgian colleague Peter Maddens, who as coordinator chaired the long informal consultations in the Fifth Committee and succeeded in achieving a consensus on the content of this resolution. The European Union expressed its support for the creation of this Office in its statement of 29 November 1993 in the Fifth Committee. We agreed with the Secretary-General and other delegations that the The resolution before us reflects our guiding principles, which throughout the negotiations were shared by many other delegations: that the functions of external oversight should be preserved; that internal and external oversight functions and responsibilities should be strictly separated; that respect for the rights of staff should be guaranteed; and, finally, that the reform should not create a new and costly institution disproportionate to its mandates. Through this resolution we have provided the Secretary-General and the Organization with an oversight mechanism that has the necessary authority and operational independence and will enable the Secretary-General to manage the administration more effectively and, therefore, more in line with the wishes of the Member States. The appointment procedures for the Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services as head of this Office, its operational independence, its functions and its procedures for reporting to the Secretary-General and the General Assembly constitute a sound basis and a comprehensive legislative mandate for oversight within the United Nations. The question of adequate resources for internal oversight will have to be addressed. For example, with only one resident auditor in a peace-keeping operation of the scale of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), not much can be done. The new structure must be developed and given the necessary resources to become an effective instrument to support the Secretary-General in his task of making effective use of the limited resources of the Organization and in facing new challenges. We should not believe that with this resolution all problems concerning effective management and use of resources will be solved. It will not cure all the Organization’s ills. Other measures will have to follow. The skills and motivation of the staff members will have to be further developed and adapted to new requirements. In this respect, we expect the Office to play a major role in improving the competence, working environment and management systems of the Organization. Indeed, at this juncture we must reiterate firmly that if the Organization is to function efficiently and to fulfil the mandates given it by Member States, all Member States We are looking forward with interest to the report of the Secretary-General on a system of accountability and responsibility of programme managers. Questions of management initiatives and personnel policy will have to be broadly addressed at the forty-ninth session of General Assembly. With this resolution and the further development of the new Office, Member States will receive more information on how their contributions are being managed, and the increase in accountability and transparency thus achieved should encourage Member States to make their full financial contributions to the United Nations.

We have thus concluded this stage of our consideration of agenda item 121.

We shall now take decisions on the two draft resolutions recommended by the Fifth Committee in paragraph 15 of part V of its report (A/48/811/Add.4) and on the two draft decisions recommended by the Fifth Committee in paragraph 16 of the same document. We turn first to the two draft resolutions. Draft resolution I is entitled "Reclassification of posts". The Fifth Committee adopted this draft resolution without a vote. May I take it that the Assembly wishes to do the same?

Draft resolution II is entitled "Continuing United Nations human rights presence in Cambodia". It was adopted by the Fifth Committee

We turn now to the two draft decisions. Draft decision I is entitled "Staffing and functions of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and of the Centre for Human Rights". The Fifth Committee adopted the draft decision without a vote. May I take it that the Assembly wishes to do the same?

Draft decision II is entitled "United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories". It was adopted by the Fifth Committee without a vote. May I take it that the Assembly wishes to do likewise?

We have thus concluded this stage of our consideration of agenda item 123.

The Assembly will now take a decision on the draft resolution recommended by the Fifth Committee in paragraph 5 of part V of its report. The draft resolution was adopted by the Fifth Committee without a vote. May I consider that the Assembly wishes to do the same?

We have thus concluded this stage of our consideration of agenda item 136. Administrative and budgetary aspects of the financing of the United Nations peace-keeping operations (a) Financing of the United Nations peace- keeping operations: Report of the Fifth Committee (Part VI) (A/48/807/Add.5) (b) Relocation of Belarus and Ukraine to the group of Member States set out in paragraph 3 (c) of General Assembly resolution 43/232: Report of the Fifth Committee (Part VII) (A/48/807/Add.6)

We shall first consider part VI of the report of the Fifth Committee, on sub-item (a) of agenda item 138, entitled "Financing of the United Nations peace-keeping operations". The Assembly will now take a decision on the draft resolution recommended by the Fifth Committee in paragraph 7 of part VI of its report (A/48/807/Add.5) and on the draft decision recommended by the Fifth Committee in paragraph 8 of the same document. We turn first to the draft resolution, entitled "Support account for peace-keeping operations". It was adopted by the Fifth Committee without a vote. May I consider that the Assembly wishes to do the same?

We turn next to the draft decision, entitled "Financing of the United Nations peace-keeping operations". It was adopted by the Fifth Committee without a vote. May I take it that the Assembly wishes to do the same?

The Assembly will now consider part VII of the report of the Fifth Committee, on sub-item (b) of agenda item 138, entitled "Relocation of Belarus and Ukraine to the group of Member States set out in paragraph 3 (c) of General Assembly resolution 43/232". The Assembly will take a decision on the draft decision recommended by the Fifth Committee in paragraph 4 of part VII of its report (A/48/807/Add.6).

We have thus concluded this stage of our consideration of agenda item 138.

The Assembly will now take a decision on the draft resolution recommended by the Fifth Committee in paragraph 5 of part IV of its report (A/48/821/Add.3). The draft resolution was adopted by the Fifth Committee without a vote. May I take it that the Assembly wishes to do the same?

The Assembly will now take a decision on the draft resolution recommended by the Fifth Committee in paragraph 6 of part III of its report (A/48/827/Add.2). The draft resolution was adopted by the Fifth Committee without a vote. May I take it that the Assembly wishes to do the same?

We have thus concluded this stage of our consideration of agenda item 166. The meeting rose at 11.35 a.m.