Mr. Chairman,

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

2. The Group of 77 and China would like to thank the Controller, Mr. Warren Sach, for presenting the report of the Secretary-General on the financial situation of the United Nations.

Mr. Chairman,

3. The Group would like to reaffirm that full and on time payment of the assessed contributions to the United Nations budgets is a Charter obligation. It is imperative for the predictability of financial resources to the Organization and to ensure effective implementation of all legislative mandates.

4. The Group of 77 and China regrets that overall financial situation of the organization remains weak. We see the recurrence of the pattern of the last few years. There is no major improvement in the payment of assessed contributions since the last year. The Organization would have to depend on borrowing from the reserve account as well as the closed peacekeeping mission accounts to continue its business. This is mainly due to the large outstanding payment by one Member State. The Group would like to reiterate that this systemic problem needs to be resolved permanently.

5. The Group understands the procedural difficulties that lead to short delays in the payment of assessments to peacekeeping budgets. However, it should be possible for all Member States to settle the unpaid assessments within a certain time period. The negative implications of persistent non-payment of assessments need to be taken seriously by the concerned Member States.

6. The Group would like to reiterate its opposition to the cross-borrowing among the peacekeeping operations. The cash surpluses in any peacekeeping mission should preferably be utilized for the outstanding liabilities such as troops and equipment payments or returned to individual Member States.

7. The Group is concerned over the outstanding amount of 597 million US dollars in debt to Member States for providing troops and equipment to peacekeeping operations. Despite some improvements in the payment of these debts, the overall picture remains grim. In this regard, the late payment to troop contributors is of particular concern to the Group of 77 and China since most troops contributing countries are also developing countries and not in position to sustain their troops and maintain their equipments on their own for an indefinite period of time.  The Group of 77 and China understands that the principal reason for such a situation is the delays in the payments of contributions. We hope that the payment of the major contributors, critical to the financial stability of the Organization, be made in full, on-time and without condition.

8. The Group of 77 and China notes the positive developments with regard to the financial situation of the international tribunals.  The Group of 77 and China notes that 181 members have already made payments to the Capital Master Plan budget. We would urge the Secretary-General to ensure the full and effective implementation of the past and future resolutions on CMP project.

9. The Group of 77 and China would like to express its appreciation to all those Member States who have paid all their assessed contributions to the Organization. We hope that others would also follow their example.  The Group would also urge the states with unpaid assessments on their account to settle them as soon as possible. This is especially applicable to those who have the capacity to pay.

        I thank you.