132. Administrative and budgetary aspects of the financing of the United Nations peacekeeping operations

Financing of the United Nations Logistics Base at Brindisi, Italy
At its sixty-second session, the General Assembly noted with appreciation the offer of the Government of Italy of six additional buildings and 12 open areas to the United Nations Logistics Base; and approved the transfer of those additional buildings and open areas to the Base (resolution 62/231).

At its resumed sixty-second session, in June 2008, the General Assembly approved the cost estimates for the United Nations Logistics Base amounting to $45,769,000 for the period from 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009 and decided on the financing of the cost estimates for the same period; and decided to consider at its sixty-third session the question of the financing of the United Nations Logistics Base (resolution 62/251).

Support account for peacekeeping operations
At its forty-fifth session, in 1991, the General Assembly established the support account for peacekeeping operations, effective 1 January 1990 (resolution 45/258). It became operational on 1 May 1990 through the incorporation of resources relating to the overload posts that were funded from the separate budgets of the five peacekeeping operations that were financed at the time outside the scope of the regular budget.

The Secretary-General proposed to the General Assembly at its fiftieth session that the support account funding methodology be changed so that the Assembly would appropriate the Headquarters backstopping requirements for the 12-month period ending 30 June of the following year and Member States would be assessed on the same scale as that used for peacekeeping assessments (A/50/876). In its related report (A/50/897), the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions recommended approval of the Secretary-General’s proposal and stated that the requirements would be prorated among the individual peacekeeping operations rather than appropriated and assessed separately. On 7 June 1996, the Assembly approved on a provisional basis, for the period from 1 July 1996 to 30 June 1997, the new support account funding arrangements (resolution 50/221 B).

At its resumed sixty-second session, in June 2008, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to ensure a clear chain of command, accountability, coordination and maintenance of an adequate system of checks and balances; to address systemic issues that hampered good management of the Organization, including by improving work processes and procedures, and in that context stressed that structural change was no substitute for managerial improvement; also requested the Secretary-General, when submitting his budget proposals, to include details of the full annual cost of posts for the subsequent budget; reaffirmed the need for effective and efficient administration and financial management of peacekeeping operations, and urged the Secretary-General to continue to identify measures to increase the productivity and efficiency of the support account; reaffirmed that the support account funds should be used for the sole purpose of financing human resources and non-human resource requirements for backstopping and supporting peacekeeping operations at Headquarters, and that any changes in that limitation required the prior approval of the General Assembly; approved the support account requirements in the amount of $273,922,800 for the financial period from 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009, including 1,122 continuing and 98 new temporary posts and their related post and non-post requirements; and decided on the financing of the requirements for the support account for the same period; reaffirmed paragraph 67 of its resolution 61/279, and requested the Secretary-General to include information on measures taken to address the management challenges posed by the new organizational structure of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations/Department of Field Support, and the improvement that it had brought in ensuring efficiency in the support of peacekeeping operations and special political missions, and coordination with the Department of Political Affairs, in the context of the comprehensive report to be submitted at the second part of its resumed sixty-third session; and reiterated its request in paragraph 13 of its resolution 60/268 and paragraph 32 of its resolution 61/279, and urged the Secretary-General to submit the comprehensive report on the evolution of the support account at the second part of its resumed sixty-third session within the context of his next budget proposal for the support account (resolution 62/250).

Also at its resumed sixty-second session, in June 2008, under item 126, the General Assembly decided to defer until its sixty-third session consideration of three reports of the Secretary-General (A/62/727, A/62/758 & A/62/593 & Corr.1); a note by the Secretary-General (A/62/676), a report of the Advisory Committee (A/62/781) and a report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (A/62/281 (Part II) & Add.1) (decision 62/545 C).

Performance report on the budget of the support account for peacekeeping operations for the period from 1 July 2007 to 30 June 2008 (resolution 62/250)