Administrative and Budgetary Aspects of Financing of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations : Cross-Cutting Issues

A/RES/60/266View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 136 Administrative and budgetary aspects of the financing of the United Nations peacekeeping operations, published in 2006.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

3 reports · 2007–2012

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2012	A/67/329/Add.1	Composition of the Secretariat : gratis personnel, retired staff and consultants and individual contractors report of the Secretary-General : addendum	A/RES/60/266
2010	A/65/350/Add.1	Composition of the Secretariat : gratis personnel, retirees and consultants report of the Secretary-General : addendum	A/RES/60/266
2007	A/62/477	Information and communications technology security, disaster recovery and business continuity for the United Nations report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/60/266

What’s in this document?

45 operative paragraphs

I

Reaffirms its resolution 59/296, and requests full implementation of its relevant provisions;

Appreciates the efforts of all peacekeeping personnel in the field and at Headquarters;

Decides to consider the report of the Secretary-General on the overview of the financing of the United Nations peacekeeping operations³ and other relevant reports on the administrative and budgetary aspects of the financing of the United Nations peacekeeping operations at the main part of its sixty-first session;

³A/60/696.

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-first session on progress in training in peacekeeping;

II.Budget presentation

Recalls the unique nature and mandate of each operation, and stresses that the resource requirements should respond to the mandates and circumstances of each operation;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to undertake the review of staffing requirements, function and level of posts that would reflect evolving mandates, changing operational requirements, actual responsibilities and functions performed, with a view to ensuring the most cost-effective use of resources;

Recalls section I, paragraph 6, of its resolution 49/233 A, and requests the Secretary-General to include in all performance reports in respect of peacekeeping operations, the United Nations Logistics Base at Brindisi, Italy, and the support account, details of monthly expenditure patterns, as well as to provide, in the context of the consideration of the budget submission, to the extent possible, supplementary information on the most up-to-date financial data available on actual expenditures for the current period;

Regrets the late issuance and receipt of budgets of some peacekeeping operations, which has placed some considerable strain on the ability of the General Assembly to engage in a detailed consideration of the requirements, and requests the Secretary-General to make every effort to improve the timely submission of peacekeeping budgets;

Notes the practice of allowing peacekeeping staff to take up temporary duty positions in other peacekeeping missions, and requests the Secretary-General to review this practice, including for staff currently seconded on temporary duty, to consider ways to limit the length of temporary duty secondments as well as to elaborate on the exceptions and ensure that such secondments do not impact adversely on the operational activities of the parent mission, in particular when the parent mission has existing vacancies;

III.Use of consultants

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure full utilization of synergies present in the United Nations system and to develop an effective evaluation mechanism for the use of outside expertise;

Also requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the commissioning of external consultants in the Organization by senior management and programme managers is conducted according to established administrative procedures and financial regulations and rules, with full respect for the mandates of internal and external oversight bodies and the oversight role of the General Assembly, and to report thereon;

IV.High vacancy rates

Requests the Secretary-General to intensify his ongoing efforts, including through innovative approaches, to ensure the expeditious filling of all vacant posts;

Also requests the Secretary-General to continue to ensure greater use of national staff in peacekeeping operations;

Further requests the Secretary-General, cognizant of the continuously high international staff vacancy rates in many missions, to consider, when formulating budget submissions, greater utilization of national staff, as appropriate, commensurate with the requirements of the mission and its mandate;

Requests the Secretary-General to strengthen coordination between the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the Secretariat and the United Nations Volunteers programme for the use of volunteers in peacekeeping operations and to evaluate the contribution of United Nations Volunteers as a component of peacekeeping operations;

V.Accountability, fraud, corruption, mismanagement, misconduct and conflict of interest

Notes with concern the observations contained in the reports of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions,Error: Reference source not found the Board of Auditors⁴ and the Office of Internal Oversight Services,⁵ concerning instances of non-compliance with established guidelines, rules, regulations and procedures;

⁴Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixtieth Session, Supplement No. 5 and corrigendum (A/60/5 and A/60/5 (Vol. II)/Corr.1), vol. II.

⁵A/60/717.

Regrets any incidence of fraud, corruption, mismanagement and misconduct;

Requests the Secretary-General, within his purview, to address all cases of fraud, corruption, mismanagement and misconduct and to ensure that United Nations staff are held accountable for any proven wrongdoings;

Also requests the Secretary-General to entrust the Office of Internal Oversight Services with ensuring that all current and future investigations by the Office are conducted impartially, thoroughly, expeditiously, taking into account current capacity, and with full respect for due process, and that they are not subject to any unnecessary delays;

Further requests the Secretary-General to take all necessary steps to recover financial and other losses and to take appropriate measures to prevent fraud, corruption, mismanagement and misconduct;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the application and enforcement of accountability in the United Nations system is carried out impartially at all levels and without exception;

Notes with concern the increase in the level of fraud and presumptive fraud in respect of fuel abuse within some peacekeeping operations, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that lessons learned from addressing these cases are shared systematically with all missions;

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-first session on the implementation of paragraphs 1 to 7 above;

Reiterates paragraph 28 of its resolution 52/226 A of 31 March 1998 and paragraph 30 of its resolution 54/14 of 29 October 1999, related to the issue of conflict of interest, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure their expeditious implementation and to submit the proposals requested in the aforementioned paragraphs to the General Assembly at the main part of its sixty-first session;

VI.Integrated missions

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to refine the concept and functioning of integrated missions, strengthening the mission planning process, and to clearly detail lines of responsibility and accountability within integrated missions as well as the interaction between such missions and the different partners;

Also requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the utilization of mission assets by United Nations agencies is fully justified and reimbursed and that such utilization is duly recorded and reported properly;

VII.Procurement opportunities

Requests the Secretary-General, taking fully into account the observations of the Board of Auditors, in paragraphs 71 to 74 of its report,Error: Reference source not found to increase efforts to improve procurement opportunities for vendors from developing countries and countries with economies in transition, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly, and to report to the Assembly at its sixty-first session on the implementation thereof;

Recalls section XVI, paragraph 4, of its resolution 59/296, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to ensure that information on procurement opportunities in peacekeeping operations is made available to business communities, in particular in developing countries and countries with economies in transition, through, inter alia, continued cooperation between the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat and the Procurement Service of the Department of Management of the Secretariat, utilizing the United Nations information centres and offices, as appropriate;

Requests the Secretary-General to make the United Nations Procurement Manual available to Member States through the website of the Procurement Service no later than August 2006;

VIII.Quick-impact projects

Welcomes the inclusion of quick-impact projects in the budgets of peacekeeping operations, and recognizes the important contribution that they make towards the successful implementation of the mandates of peacekeeping operations;

Stresses that quick-impact projects are an integral part of mission planning and development, as well as of the implementation of comprehensive strategies to meet the challenges facing complex peacekeeping operations;

Emphasizes the need for a comprehensive policy, including on resource allocations, for quick-impact projects, and, bearing in mind the unique nature and mandate of each operation, requests the Secretary-General to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-first session, addressing, inter alia: the definition of quick-impact projects and the selection processes; the duration of such projects; how, and if, quick-impact projects complement the activities of other United Nations bodies on the ground; the role of the Mission, other United Nations bodies and implementing partners in managing and implementing quick-impact projects in the short and longer term; and how administrative costs can be minimized;

IX.Regional cooperation

Welcomes the efforts to increase collaboration between missions, in particular those in the same region, and emphasizes the importance of further enhancing collaboration, to the extent possible, with a view to achieving greater synergy in the effective and efficient use of the resources of the United Nations and the implementation of missions’ mandates, bearing in mind that individual missions bear a responsibility for the preparation and for overseeing their own budgets and for controlling their own assets and logistical operations;

Requests the Secretary-General to develop and implement regional coordination plans aligned to the missions’ objectives, while mindful of the specific mandate of each mission, and to report on the progress achieved in the context of his next overview report;

X.Fuel management

Requests the Secretary-General to review all aspects of fuel management, including the preparation of a comprehensive fuel management manual, implementation of the electronic fuel accounting system, development of standard operating procedures on fuel management and preparation of an annual fuel procurement plan, and to report on the status of implementation;

XI.Costing structure for air operations

Welcomes the efforts to enhance the optimal use of air assets, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that operations share best practices in order to increase utilization of air assets;

Requests the Secretary-General to undertake an analysis of the impact of the new costing structure relating to air operations, bearing in mind the relevant observations and recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions1 and the Board of Auditors,3 to determine whether the application of the new costing structure for air operations contracts has resulted in savings or brought about other benefits and to report thereon to the General Assembly at the sixty-second session in the context of his overview report;

Also requests the Secretary-General, mindful of the importance of air services to the effective operational activities of peacekeeping operations, to review, in all peacekeeping operations, the ongoing necessity and current frequency of flights, to ensure the optimal use of air assets, to reconfigure them to respond to changing circumstances, to increase the utilization of air assets, inter alia, by continuing to review flight schedules to accommodate more passengers and cargo and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-first session;

Further requests the Secretary-General to continue to explore ways to increase regional management of air assets and further strengthen the coordination between the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and relevant United Nations departments and entities, with a view to sharing air assets, when feasible;

XII.Spare parts

Encourages the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to limit the acquisition of new spare parts in the light of the current high level of holdings, requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-first session on optimal levels for spare parts in all missions, and also requests that the budget proposals for the period from 1 July 2007 to 30 June 2008 not exceed those levels;

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-first session on the possible establishment of a mechanism for global management of spare parts at United Nations Headquarters, including the ongoing identification of spare parts requirements, the capacity to redeploy them from other missions and any efficiencies to be achieved from such a mechanism;

XIII.Better use of technology

Requests the Secretary-General to make greater use of videoconferencing facilities and e-learning programmes for training and other purposes and to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-first session on improvements and efficiencies made through greater utilization of those tools;

XIV.Staffing of field missions, including the use of 300-series and 100-series appointments

Having considered the report of the Secretary-General on the staffing of field missions, including the use of 300-series and 100-series appointments⁶ and the related report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions,⁷

⁶A/60/698 and Corr.1 and 2.

⁷A/60/851 and Corr.1.

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on the staffing of field missions, including the use of 300-series and 100-series appointments;Error: Reference source not found

Recalls section VIII of its resolution 59/296;

Decides to continue to suspend the application of the four-year maximum limit for appointments of limited duration until 31 December 2006;

Authorizes the Secretary-General, bearing in mind paragraph 3 above, to reappoint, under the 100 series of the Staff Rules, those mission staff whose service under 300-series contracts has reached the four-year limit by 31 December 2006, provided that their functions have been reviewed and found necessary and their performance has been confirmed as fully satisfactory, and requests the Secretary-General to report thereon to the General Assembly at its sixty-first session;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue the practice of using 300-series contracts as the primary instrument for the appointment of new staff;

XV.Disaster recovery

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its resumed sixty-first session a comprehensive report on the proposed establishment of and justification for mission onsite, mission in theatre and off site, and off site and out-of-theatre redundant data centres for disaster recovery and business continuity in peacekeeping missions, as well as on a secondary active communications facility and a disaster recovery and business continuity centre for information technology;

XVI.Strategic deployment stocks

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its sixty-first session a comprehensive report on the implementation of strategic deployment stocks and the use of logistics base and installations, as well as all mechanisms for rapid deployment, including on the evolving concepts used in this regard, taking fully into account the surge in peacekeeping operations, the location, operational and strategic requirements of peacekeeping operations and the need to ensure the utmost efficiencies in the use of resources.