Mr. Chairman,

        I have the honour to speak on behalf of Group of 77 and China on agenda item 140.

2. We would like to thank the Controller, Mr. Warren Sach, and the Director of the Administrative Support Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Mr. Philip Cooper, for introducing the various reports of the Secretary-General under this agenda item.  We would also like to thank the Chairman of the ACABQ, Mrs. Susan Mclurg, for introducing the related reports of the Advisory Committee.  We further wish to thank the Under-Secretary-General for the Office of Internal Oversight Services, Mrs. Inga-Britt Ahleniusthe.

3. Mr. Chairman, the Group of 77 and China attaches great importance to the consideration of policy matters that are cross cutting in nature and related to the administrative and budgetary aspects of the financing of the United Nations peacekeeping operations.  While we recognise that each peacekeeping operation has its own mandate, faces its own challenges, and functions in a unique environment, we believe that the cross-cutting resolutions can serve as an important policy tool providing comprehensive guidance to the DPKO and peacekeeping operations on issues that are common to United Nations Peacekeeping Missions. We also maintain the view that decisions on the resources and staffing of individual operations have to be taken in the relevant individual budget resolutions.  

4. While the Group appreciates the efforts made by the Secretariat to implement the provisions of resolutions 61/276, as well as other relevant resolutions, it wishes to stress that the full implementation of the cross-cutting resolutions are crucial to ensuring the efficient and effective functioning of the peacekeeping missions. The Group would, however, like to express its concerns that certain provisions have not been adequately addressed in the overview report of the Secretary-General (A/62/727).

5. The Group of 77 and China wishes to reiterate its request for the timely submission of the peacekeeping documents.  We remain concerned that the late submission of reports seriously undermines the work, the ability to prepare, and the quality of the deliberations of the ACABQ and the Fifth Committee.  The Group of 77 and China would like to reiterate that the Secretary General is accountable to the Member States for ensuring the timely submission of quality reports.

6. The Group of 77 and China regrets that no information is being presented to the General Assembly in response to requests made in resolution 61/276 for reports on the use of consultants and for developing an effective evaluation mechanism for the use of outside expertise as well as  on the death and disability claims. We will be looking forward to receiving full explanation from the Secretariat on the status of those reports.

Mr. Chairman,    

7. The Group of 77 and China would also like to express its concern regarding the high vacancy rates in all peacekeeping missions which may seriously constrain the ability of the operations to implement their respective mandates. The Group would like to emphasize the need for addressing the issues underlying the high vacancy rates. The Group takes note of the steps taken by the Secretariat in this context such as delegation of authority to missions for recruitment and temporary deployment of officers to accelerate recruitment in the mission facing high vacancy rates,   but would like to underline the need for appropriate accountability measures in this process.  The Group would also like to stress that these recruitment effort should pay due regard to the equitable geographic distribution and gender balance especially the recruitment of female candidates from the developing countries.  The Group would also further like to reiterate the importance of hiring the national staff as a means to overcome this continuous problem in all peacekeeping missions across the board.

8. In this regard, we utterly regret the fact that consensus could not be reached during the first resumed session over the need to improve conditions of service on the ground by harmonizing them as well as to streamline contractual arrangements. We feel that those proposals would have had a significant impact to reverse high vacancy rates and would have helped the Organization to retain valuable and experienced personnel in positions where they were needed. The abolition of the specific mission appointments would also have contributed a great deal to the management of human resources in peacekeeping. It is our hope that we can make significant progress in this regard during the main part of the 63rd session.

9. The Group wishes to reiterate it longstanding position in support of the quick impact projects, which make an important contribution towards the success of the peacekeeping missions. Every effort should be made to ensure their full implementation without artificial deadlines. The extension of the projects should be closely linked to the situation on the ground and the specificities of each and every mission.

10. With regards to the result based budgeting, the Group would like to emphasize that it is imperative to ensure the adoption of  coherent and consistent mandates and provision of related resources for their actual implementation.  The benchmarking of specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound mandates and objectives guarantee an effective implementation of the mandates as well as the resources.  The Group also likes to further add that the Secretary General should initiate appropriate measures to ensure the gradual implementation of the result-based management that would bring about improvement in implementation of pragmatic aspects of the budgets as well as the accountability of the programme managers including senior management.

11. The Group of 77 and China would like to express its serious concern over the instances of sexual exploitation and abuse reported by the Secretary General in relevant reports. The Group would like to state its unreserved support for the implementation of a zero tolerance policy to prevent acts of sexual exploitation and abuse. The Group takes note of the Secretary General's three-pronged approach of prevention, enforcement and remedial measures to address these issues. The Group would like to stress the importance of the training, awareness generation as well as appropriate measures in the context of development and quick impact projects as measures that can help in the prevention of such abuse.

12. Finally, the Group gives utmost importance to the consideration of the report on the contingent owned equipments adopted by consensus by the Sub-working Group in February of this year. We believe that we should take on this issue without delay during the current session. We are looking forward to receiving full explanations on the reasons for not having it before the Committee so far as well as how we can procedurally tackle this problem, taking into account that the related Secretary-General report was transmitted to the ACABQ two weeks ago.

13. The Group would also like to assure you of our constructive engagement on other issues in the related discussions.

 I thank You