Part 6
Administration and Budget
UN Financial Situation

"At the end of 2003, outstanding assessments by UN member states totaled $1.603 billion. This represented a small decrease from the 2002 total. The largest portion of the outstanding assessments came from UN peacekeeping operations ($1.066 billion), followed by the UN regular budget ($442 million), the International War Crimes Tribunals ($88 million), and the design phase of the UN Capital Master Plan ($7 million).

Seven member states comprised 87 percent of the total outstanding assessments with the United States accounting for $762 million and Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, China, Japan, and Ukraine accounting for $628 million. The majority of the total sum owed by the United States related to UN peacekeeping operations ($482 million) and the UN regular budget ($268 million). The delay in the U.S. budget appropriation for fiscal year 2004 affected the U.S. payment for the UN regular budget, resulting in a payment shortfall of approximately $100 million. Overall, U.S. payments in 2003 for all UN assessed activities totaled $1.012 billion of the $3.720 billion in payments made by all 191 UN member states.

The UN's Under Secretary-General for Management (currently Catherine Bertini, a U.S. citizen) provides a semi-annual update of the UN's financial situation to the Fifth (Administrative and Budgetary) Committee. In her presentation in October 2003, she noted that the cash balance for the UN regular budget was approaching zero and that cross-borrowing from terminated peacekeeping operations would be required before the end of the calendar year to forestall a deficit. Such cross-borrowing had already been initiated in July with respect to the International War Crimes Tribunals in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Both tribunals had exhausted their available cash due to non-payment of member assessments. Japan, the UN's second largest assessed contributor, made no payment toward its 2003 dues of approximately $41 million. The United States completed payment of its 2003 dues to the tribunals in late autumn ($57 million total for the year).

The UN's cash balances for its various peacekeeping operations were
projected to be $1.198 billion by the end of 2003. However, most of the balance would not be available due to other financial needs, such as peacekeeping operating costs in early 2004 and reimbursements to the Peacekeeping Reserve Fund. In addition, the UN's debt obligation to troop contributing countries was estimated to be $565 million by the end of the 2003. This was less than the previous year when the total debt was $703 million. The UN's Under Secretary-General for Management was expected to update the debt figures and other UN financial data at her next briefing to the Fifth Committee in early spring 2004. "

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