U.N.-U.S.: Debt Saga Enters New Phase

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 10 1997 (IPS) - The United Nations and the United States are embroiled in a new dispute over how much Washington really owes the world body.

Washington says it owes only about 1.0 billion dollars in arrears for both the regular and the peacekeeping budgets, while the United Nations says the figure is closer to 1.6 billion dollars. The disputed 600 million dollars, U.N. sources say, could eventually get lost in the shuffle.

Under a scale approved by the 185-member U.N. General Assembly, the United States is mandated to pay 25 percent of the United Nations’ regular budget and 31 percent of the peacekeeping budget.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard maintains that the numbers offered by the United Nations are authoritative, arguing that the discrepancy is due, in part, to a unilateral decision by the U.S. Congress last year to reduce Washington’s dues for U.N. peacekeeping from 31 percent to 25 percent.

A spokesman for the U.S. Mission told IPS that the U.N. Department of Administration and Management was willing to settle for the U.S. figure of 1.0 billion dollars. He says the discrepancy is due to several factors, including the issue of aid to Palestinian programmes, tax rebates, peacekeeping funds, and a longstanding dispute over U.N. spending on a multi-million-dollar conference centre in Addis Ababa.

He also cited book-keeping differences: While the U.S. fiscal year begins Oct. 1, the U.N. fiscal year begins Jan. 1.

The U.N. Secretariat said last week that the United Nations’ three top debtors were the United States (1.6 billion dollars), Japan (299 million dollars), and Russia (275 million dollars).

“The payment issue has a history of…nearly 20 years, when the U.S. withheld funds from the United Nations on matters relating to aid to Palestinians,” Eckhard explained, adding that there were other instances of Washington withholding funds, but that the United Nations “did not recognise the right of a member state to withhold any part of an assessment for any reason.”

The former Soviet Union also once owed millions of dollars to the world body because of its refusal, as far back as Jul. 1960, to pay for U.N. peacekeeping operations in the Congo.

Eckhard says that amount owed does not show up in the world body’s current budgetary assessments, but a record is kept, since member states have been known to change policy and pay. He cited the example of the former Soviet Union’s eventual decision to make payments for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon after withholding funds for several years.

The Clinton Administration last week sought Congressional approval for 100 million dollars to settle U.S. arrears in 1998 and a supplemental 921 million dollars as an advance for 1999. The administration wants the money approved now, but says it will only provide the funds to the United Nations in fiscal 1999 in order to ensure that U.S.-backed reforms of the United Nations are implemented.

Asked for his comments on the U.S. budget proposal, Eckhard told reporters last week that, in principle, the Secretary-General expected every member-state to pay in full and on time. In practice, however, the U.N. chief could accept the compromise reflected in the U.S. budget, Eckhard said.

“Although not consistent with the rules of the United Nations, the budget does represent a good faith effort by the U.S. to come to terms with its debt to the organisation,” he said.

When Kofi Annan met in Washington last month with Jesse Helms, the ultra-right-wing chairman of the U.N. Senate Foreign Relations Committee told the Secretary-General he was proposing funding legislation with benchmarks.

According to Eckhard, the Secretary-General’s message was: “Let’s discuss this before you lay down your benchmarks.” Eckhard said the U.N. chief argued that the goals for reform should be realistic and achievable.

Eckhard said Annan also told Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich that there were 184 other governments which needed to be consulted in the reform process, and that Washington needed to be sensitive to that fact.

“I think the Secretary-General succeeded in getting across his position, that he had 185 masters,” Eckhard said. “Only one of them, however, owes over a billion dollars, and that explains why he focused on the U.S. first (by visiting Washington)”.