Snippets from Liquidity Situation Presentation by ASG Chandramouli Ramanathan, Controller missions allowing focus on programme delivery instead of liquidity management meaning spending restrictions will not be needed during 2023 and most probably 2024 also. •
Monthly regular budget collections continue to fluctuate significantly each year, making it more difficult to implement the budget efficiently or effectively.
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For peacekeeping operations, the total amount outstanding at the end of April 2023 was $2.8 billion, compared to $2.1 billion at the end of both June 2022 and the year before. Assessments for the current peacekeeping fiscal year were issued at a level of $6.3 billion, compared to $6.2 billion for the previous fiscal year. Collections for the current fiscal year, up to April, totaled only $5.6 billion, resulting in an increase of outstanding assessments.
By Mark Kaheru, Public Information Officer, RSCE
HIGHLIGHTS:
CHANDRAMOULI RAMANATHAN, United Nations Controller and Assistant Secretary-General for Programme Planning, Finance and Budget in the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance (DMSPC), briefed UN staff on the current financial situation. He said that the Secretary-General works actively with Member States on the Organization’s liquidity situation and the lagging monthly collection rates for the Organization’s 2023 regular budget require careful monitoring. 12
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Large inflows of payments by Member States in April and November 2021, along with controlled spending, meant the Organization’s regular budget ended 2021 with a cash surplus of $307 million. The cash position at the end of 2022 improved slightly in relation to 2021. In June 2022, Member States agreed to a $100 million increase in the Working Capital Fund, using a part of the surplus returnable in 2023. The General Assembly also approved the use of the surplus cash in closed Tribunals for regular budget liquidity, while approving the return of the surplus cash in closed peacekeeping
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The $2.8 billion outstanding as of 30 April comprises $2.3 billion owed for active missions and $516 million for closed missions. For active missions, out of the $2.3 billion, $1.8 billion relates to the current fiscal year, while $531 million relates to assessments in prior fiscal periods. By 31 December 2022, 51 Member States had paid all peacekeeping assessments that were due and payable, 5 fewer than 31 December 2021.
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The status of peacekeeping cash over the last three years, as of 30 April 2023, cash balance consisted of approximately $1.5 billion in the accounts of active missions, closed missions, and the Peacekeeping Reserve Fund.
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First-quarter collections were 43 per cent in 2021, dropped to 42 per cent in the first quarter of 2022 and remained at 42 per cent for the first quarter of 2023. By the end of the second quarter, collections were 80 per cent in 2021 and 58 per cent in 2022. Collections in the third quarter are usually the weakest and in 2022, more money was collected in December than November, an unwelcome reversal from the pattern of collections in 2021, where larger collections were received in November than December.
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For most of 2022, cumulative monthly collections trailed estimated collections and caught up only at the end of the year. At the end of April 2023, collections had fallen short of estimates by $370 million.
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In 2021 and 2022, the full amount of the Working Capital Fund was borrowed towards the end of the year, but it was not necessary to use either the Special Account or the cash available in closed peacekeeping operations.
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For information media. Not an official record.
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