Statistical report of the ACC on the budgetary and financial situation of the organizations of the United Nations system (1991)

This is the first of a series of statistical reports to be issued by the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC), at the request of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. With a few modifications, it contains the statistical information previously included in the reports submitted by the Advisory Committee to the General Assembly under the agenda item on administrative and budgetary coordination of the United Nations with the specialized agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In accordance with the practice followed the Advisory Committee, ACC had intended to issue reports in this series on a yearly basis, starting at the forty-sixth session. However, given the biennial approach to the programme of work of the Fifth Committee, which was adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 46/220 of 20 December 1992, the present report has been delayed to the forty-seventh session to coincide with consideration of the item under which it is issued. The second report in this series will be issued before the end of the present session. ACC would appreciate the guidance of the General Assembly on the periodicity of the report.

The statistical data in the present report are set out in tables which may be grouped under four subject headings, as follows:

(a) Regular budgets and assessed contributions:

Table 1. Approved regular budgets (1983-1992). This table corresponds to table A.1 in the previous reports. It shows, for each of the organizations appearing in the report which has an assessed regular budget and for each of the years from 1983 to 1992, the total amount of approved regular budget appropriations, including any supplementary estimates.

Table 2. Assessed contributions (1983-1992). This table corresponds to table A.1 in the previous reports. It shows, for each of the same organizations and the same years as in table 1, the assessments payable by Member States under approved regular budgets. Assessed contributions relating to extrabudgetary activities, such as certain peacekeeping operations of the United Nations, are not included.

Table 3. Percentage assessments (1992).This table corresponds to table F in the previous reports. It shows, for each of the member States of the organizations in the preceding tables, the percentage amounts of the assessed contributions payable under approved regular budgets in the last year covered by the report (1992).

Table 4. Collection of assessed contributions (1990 and 1991). This table corresponds to table G in the previous reports. It shows, for each of the same organizations as in the preceding tables, the percentage of the current year's assessed contributions under approved regular budgets that was collected at 30 June and at 31 December of the two most recent years for which such data are available (1990 and 1991). The table also shows by organization the total amount of all assessed contributions under approved regular budgets that were outstanding at 31 December of the same two years. (The figures at 31 December are included on an exceptional basis in view of their availability for the present report; in normal circumstances figures at 30 September would be shown in their place.)


(b) Working capital funds:

Table 5. Working capital funds (1992). This table corresponds to table E in the previous reports, except that budget data are presented on a net rather than a gross basis for the sake of consistency with table 1. The table shows, for each of the same organizations as in the preceding tables, the level of working capital funds in relation to the level of approved regular budget appropriations for the most recent year covered by the report (1992), and for the corresponding financial period.

(c) Expenditure and receipts of voluntary contributions

Table 6. Extrabudgetary resources: expenditures (1989 and 1990). This table corresponds to table D.2 in the previous reports. It shows expenditures of resources in cash or in kind outside approved regular budgets by each of the same organizations as in the preceding tables and by organizations financed by voluntary contributions, in the two most recent years for which such data are available (1989 and 1990). Expenditures for all activities for which organizations are executing agents are taken into account except that, as in table 2, data relating to extrabudgetary peace-keeping operations are excluded.

Table 7. Extrabudgetary resources: receipts of voluntary contributions in cash (1989 and 1990). This table corresponds to table D.1 in the previous reports, subject to some simplification in the interest of clarity. It shows voluntary contributions in cash received by each of the same organizations as in table 6, in the same two years (1989 and 1990). The figures represent cash resources contributed directly to the organizations concerned, and are thus less comprehensive than the extrabudgetary expenditure data in table 6.

(d) Staff resources

Table 8. Staffing levels (31 December 1990). This table corresponds to the table entitled "Number of staff" in the General observations section of the previous reports. It shows regular budget and extrabudgetary staff in post, as well as participants in the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF), in each of the same organizations as in table 1, at the most recent date for which such data are available (31 December 1990).


Since it is increasingly the practice of organizations of the system to operate budget systems under which staff requirements are provided for in the form of work months, and established posts have thus become less meaningful as an indicator of budgetary commitments and an instrument of budgetary control, it has been agreed with the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions that table B in its previous reports ("Established posts") would not be maintained. On the other hand, table C in the reports ("Regular budget contributions to technical cooperation activities"), also omitted in the present report, will be reinstated in revised form as soon as data can be collected in the new format to be devised for the related ex post facto reports on agency support costs prepared for the Governing Council of UNDP.