STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF THE GROUP OF 77 AND CHINA BY MRS. NORMA TAYLOR ROBERTS, PERMANENT MISSION OF JAMAICA TO THE UNITED NATIONS, ON REDEPLOYMENT OF POSTS UNDER AGENDA ITEM 108, PROGRAMME BUDGET FOR THE BIENNIUM 2004-2005, DURING THE FIRST PART OF THE RESUMED FIFTY-NINTH SESSION OF THE FIFTH COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY (New York, 30 March 2005)

Mr. Chairman,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

The Group would like to thank the representative of the Secretary-General for presenting his report on "Redeployment of posts" (A/59/753).

We recall that the report is presented at this session as required by General Assembly resolution 58/270.

We are surprised to find in the report some aspects that are not related to this experiment at all.

Firstly, the reference in paragraph 6 to redeployment of 810 posts in the programme budget is not relevant since the experiment bears no relation to resource requirements sought through the instrument of the budget.

Secondly, the report refers in paragraph 5 to temporary re-deployment of 12 posts, under temporary administrative arrangements pending the completion of recruitment and placement process. This is a normal procedure and bears no relation to the experiment.

The Group of 77 and China would like to be informed whether the ACABQ received periodic information on actions taken to implement this exercise in accordance with paragraph 14 (j) of resolution 58/270.

The Group of 77 and China wishes to reiterate the principles enumerated in operative paragraph 14 of General Assembly resolution 58/270, and in this regard the Group would like to emphasize that the authority to redeploy posts shall in no way prevent the Secretary-General from requesting additional posts during the course of this experiment. In addition, the experiment shall not be implemented as a result of General Assembly resolutions calling for the implementation of decisions "within existing resources". It further should not exacerbate high vacancy rates in any budget section.

The Group notes that over the last 15 months of this experiment, only 5 posts have been identified for redeployment. This raises serious questions about the feasibility of the exercise and the Group would have expected to find in the report an elaboration of the difficulties encountered in its implementation. We also would have expected an elaboration of the implications of the experiment for the human resources management policies, as requested in paragraph 16 of General Assembly resolution 58/270.

I thank you, Mr. Chairman.