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Budget Committee Debates Funding For Development Account.

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M2 PRESSWIRE-31 October 2007-United Nations: Budget Committee Debates Funding For Development Account(C)1994-2007 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

RDATE:30102007

Noting that the funding mechanism for the Development Account had not been successful up to now, several members of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today insisted that decisive action was needed to deal with the issue.

Created in 1997 to fund technical cooperation projects for the benefit of developing countries, the Account was initially established through the identification of savings in administration and other overhead costs, as part of the reform activities of that period. In that connection, several speakers today recalled that, when proposing to create a dividend for development, the Secretary-General had maintained that it would be possible to deliver an efficiency dividend of some $200 million by 1 January 2002.

In 2006, however, the Secretary-General had reported to the Assembly that no efficiency savings had been identified to be transferred to the Account, due to the difficulty of identifying savings in the absence of dependable methodologies, such as a cost-accounting system. He had added that, even if such a system were in place, the tendency of the programme managers would be to retain savings to meet additional mandates and workloads, rather than to surrender them for transfer to the Development Account.

The representative of India today stressed that the beneficiaries of the Account had always been highlighting its relevance and utility. It was puzzling that, despite its evident effectiveness and relevance, there was reluctance to provide greater resources for it. It was inexplicable that the level of the Account was stuck at $16.48 million 10 years after its creation, given the indicative target of $200 million by 2002.

All the speakers today expressed dissatisfaction with the options presented in the Secretary-Generals report, which had been prepared pursuant to the Assemblys call for a review of the funding of the Account; a definition of procedures to identify efficiency or gains for transfer to the Account; and recommendations on identifying a further $2.5 million for the Account. The options outlined in the report included the use of efficiency gains or savings identified by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS); better identification of efficiency savings in the context of results-based management, cost-accounting principles and implementation of an enterprise resource planning system; and realignment of priorities within the overall budget level.

Speakers also supported the view of the Advisory Committee on Administrative...

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