EU Presidency Statement - UN Administrative and Financial Functioning

Mr. Chairman,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The acceding countries Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, the associated countries, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and the EFTA countries, members of the European Economic Area, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, declare that they align themselves with this statement.

Mr. Chairman,

Let me first of all thank for the introductions, respectively, of the JIU and ACABQ reports referring to the efficiency of the administrative and financial functioning of the United Nations.

This is a very important item of our agenda indeed, insomuch as it receives nowadays further momentum by its connection with the wide - ranging reform of the U.N. presented by the Secretary General during the 57th UNGA.

Mr. Chairman,

The E.U. welcomes the activity undertaken by the Secretary General in compliance with G.A. Res. 54/236 for assessing the progress and impact of management improvement measures, and in particular the new online tool for tracking management reforms called "PIRS".

In this respect, we take note of the remarks by the Secretariat in its Report A/58/70, as far as "Electronic United Nations" is concerned, where it reports that the implementation of measures in this field is less advanced than in other areas.

Coming to the outsourcing practices in the United Nations and United Nations Funds and Programmes, the E.U. takes note of the Report of the S.G. A/57/185 on outsourced activities between 1999 and 2001, and supports the recommendations contained in the report of the Joint Inspection Unit A/58/92, which have received further comments by the Secretariat (A/58/92/Add.1). In particular, the EU shares the concern of the JIU that outsourcing practices remain, as in the past, a relatively small proportion of the organizations financial resources and that the services and activities outsourced continue to be concentrated in specific areas such as information and communication technologies and systems, as well as in facilities and site management functions.

With reference to the common and joint services of the United Nations system organizations at Vienna, the E.U. commends the JIU for its thorough examinations of the functioning of the concerned administrative mechanisms (Report A/58/ 258), and supports JIU's recommendations for fostering integration of services for UNIDO, IAEA, CTBTO, and UNOV through the establishment of a single unit.

Mr. Chairman,

We wish finally to address the issue of reviewing duplication, complexity and bureaucracy in U.N. administrative process and procedures. This is once again an issue tightly connected to the very soul of the reform of the U.N. In this respect, the O.I.O.S. found that the Secretariat's administrative environment is not fully leveraging the advantages of technology, nor is it applying modern process management practices. The E.U. fully supports the recommendations expressed by OIOS in its report A/58/211.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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• EU Presidency Statement - Improving the Financial Situation of the UN (28/10/2003)
• EU Presidency Statement - Art. 19 of UN Charter (8/10/2003)
• EU Presidency Statement - Financial reports and reports of the Board of Auditors (7/10/2003)
• EU Presidency Statement - Joint Inspection Unit (7/10/2003)
• EU Presidency Statement - Organization of work of the Fifth Committee (30/9/2003)