UN Cash Crisis: Guterres Orders Cuts in Travel, Meetings & Heating

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has ordered emergency measures to combat the cash crisis.

Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations delivers a speech at the C40 World Mayors Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark

(Photo: AP)

Meetings canceled. Escalators stopped. Official travel limited. UN documents delayed. Air conditioning and heating reduced. Limits on interpretation to the UN's six official languages. And the fountain outside UN headquarters paid for by US school children and opened in 1952 shut down.

These are some of the measures UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has ordered effective 14 October at all UN facilities and operations around the world to deal with the United Nations' worst cash crisis in nearly a decade.

The UN chief said in a letter to the heads of all UN entities circulated on 11 October that the emergency measures “will affect working conditions and operations until further notice.”

UN management chief Catherine Pollard told the General Assembly's budget committee on 11 October that 128 countries had paid $1.99 billion in dues for the UN's 2019 operating budget by 4 October.

But she said $1.386 billion is owed for this year by 65 countries — including more than $1 billion by the United States.

“The regular budget has been facing severe liquidity issues in recent years, with a growing downward trend whereby, each year, the situation becomes more dire than the year before.”

Catherine Pollard, UN Management Chief

For the second successive year, she said, the UN has exhausted "all regular budget liquidity reserves," despite several measures it has taken to reduce expenditures.

Pollard said the payments received so far this year represent only 70 percent of the total amount assessed, compared to 78 percent at the same time last year, "resulting in a gap of $230 million."

To fully implement the UN budget, she said, the UN would need to collect at least $808 million between October and December.

Pollard told a news conference that countries "have their own internal reasons" for delaying paying their dues, "and for many of them it's their own political internal situations."

The scale of assessments was revised at the end of 2018, making China the UN's second-largest contributor behind the US Some countries may not have made budgetary provisions for their increased dues and some, like the US, have different calendar years for their budgets, she said.

According to figures Pollard presented on 11 October, the United States owes $1.055 billion to the UN’s regular budget compared with $842 million at the same time last year. The US also owes $3.7 billion to the separate budget for the U.N.’s 14 far-flung peacekeeping operations.

There was no immediate response to a request to the US State Department for comment on when the Trump administration plans to pay its arrears.

Brazil is second in line in unpaid dues for the regular budget, owing $ 143 million, followed by Argentina which owes $51.57 million, Mexico $36 million, Iran $26.96 million, Venezuela $17.29 million and South Korea $9.8 million.

According to Guterres’ letter and Pollard, interpretation and UN services will be limited to official UN meetings on the calendar, which means the UN will no longer be able to serve meetings of regional and other groups. And the UN will not support meetings outside regular hours of 10 AM -1 PM and 3-6 PM.

The UN is also delaying publication of UN documents, putting on hold the translating of treaties and publications and canceling all but essential travel.

It will not host receptions before 8 PM and after 6 PM, and Guterres also said, escalators that are lightly used will be closed where there are elevators. And the popular Delegates Lounge at UN headquarters, which usually stays open until around 10 PM, will close at 5 PM, he said.

"Everywhere we're looking to see how we can reduce non-salary-related costs," Pollard said.