United Nations, Oct 23: The United Nations is once again facing shortage of funds for its regular expenses because several member states have failed to pay their annual contributions to the regular budget which became due in January. As a result, UN had to dip in the peacekeeping account to cover expenses for October and might have to borrow up to 125 million dollars in November from it, a senior official said.
Under-secretary-general for management Catherine Bertini has told the General Assembly's administrative and budgetary committee that unpaid regular budget assessments from 78 countries totaled 693 million dollars which is more than half of the regular budget. Besides, member states owe 1.56 billion dollars in peacekeeping contributions.
"The financial stability of the organization is under pressure," she said. "We must be able to rely on payment in full and on time to provide the predictable resource base needed to carry out all our mandated activities."
The United States contributed 31 million dollars of its regular dues earlier in the year and said it would send in another 233 million to 341 million dollars, depending on congressional action, by the end of the year. If it got the lower amount, the United Nations would be 5 million in the red at the end of the year. If it got the higher amount, it would have a surplus of 103 million dollars, Bertini said.
At the end of September, the United States owed 732 million dollars for peacekeeping, but it paid $252 million of that on Monday, she said. Fourteen other major contributors owed 464 million dollars.
Nonetheless, she said the organization is reimbursing member states for troops and equipment as promptly as possible. It had paid 339 million dollars in troop costs and planned to pay another 64 million dollars by year's end, she said. Bureau Report