UNITED NATIONS: U.N. Head Seeks Equal Opportunity Payment System

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 7 1996 (IPS) - U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has implicitly called for a sharp reduction in the payments the United States is called on to make to the United Nations’ regular budget.

If Washington kept up with its dues, the United States would pay 25 percent of the budget. But the most influential country at the United Nations is also the world body’s biggest deadbeat.

Boutros-Ghali told a High-Level Working Group on Finances Tuesday that a ceiling of 15 or 20 percent on the contribution of any state would better reflect the fact that the United Nations was “the instrument of all nations.” There should be a change in the scale that stipulates how much each of the 185 countries should pay to the regular budget, he said.

Joseph Connor, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management, said last week that since the United States fell so far behind in payments, its dues amounted to 12 percent — not 25 percent — of the U.N. budget.

“The U.S. shortfall in payments is very severe,” Connor said, adding that only 94 member states had paid their dues in full last year, with 22 states making no payments at all.

As one U.N. source told IPS, “Simply put, the U.S. continues to exercise its political clout on the basis that it pays 25 percent of the budget when in reality it has paid only 12 percent.”

The United Nations is struggling under the weight of a cash crisis, which has been caused in large part by the non-payment of dues.

As of last Dec. 31, countries owed almost 2.3 billion dollars for 1995 — an amount that was 500 million dollars higher than 1994 arrears and 800 million dollars higher than the 1992 figure. The United States alone owed more than 1.2 billion dollars.

Boutros-Ghali says he plans to appeal directly to the leaders of those countries in arrears.

“I will also ask each of those countries which are in arrears now to provide me with their proposed payment plan to make up those arrears,” he said.

Connor estimates that 10 percent of the U.N. staff will be cut during the 1996-97 biennium because of the cash crisis.

The total number of budgeted posts at the Secretariat is 10,115. This amount rises to about 14,000 when temporary staff and consultants are added. Plans to cut more than 1,100 staffers include a buy-out programme which would offer incentives to staffers who want to leave.

For 1996, the United States is to pay 25 percent of the regular budget, followed by Japan (15.4 percent), Germany (9.0 percent), France (6.4 percent), Britain (5.3 percent), Italy (5.1 percent), Canada (3.1 percent), Spain (2.3), Russia (4.4) and Brazil (1.6 percent).

The assessments are based on the real capacity of member states to pay. The U.N. General Assembly has fixed a maximum of 25 percent of the budget for any one contributor and a minimum of 0.001 percent — an amount paid by most developing nations.

But a change could also mean that newly industrialised countries of Asia — such as Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea — will be called upon to pay more.

“The realities of international relations today differ from those which pertained at the time of the United Nations’ founding,” Boutros-Ghali said. “The scale of assessments should reflect current political and economic realities.”

The financial crisis has “brought the United Nations to the edge of insolvency”, Boutros-Ghali told delegates. “The Organisation is totally dependent on cash inflows from member- states’s assessments to provide liquidity.”

The U.S. share of the regular budget is about 315 million dollars a year — the equivalent of 1.30 dollars per U.S. national. U.S. nationals also hold a majority of U.N. Secretariat jobs, as well as the top posts at the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, and the World Food Programme (WFP).

Jeff Laurenti of the U.N. Association of USA (UN-USA) notes that a proposal for a reduction of countries’ contributions came as far back as 1988.

“U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz thought it was outrageous and described the proposal as a terrible idea,” he told IPS, adding that if the right-wing Republicans in the U.S. Congress had their way, Washington’s contribution would drop to about 10 percent.

Demonstrating an increasingly anti-U.N. and isolationist mood, the Republican-led Congress has sought sharp cuts in Washington’s dues.

For now, Boutros-Ghali is proposing a resumed or special session of the U.N. General Assembly to discuss the financial crisis.