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Staff reduction and other reforms help bring budget down $ 76m

$2.53b UN budget approved
UNITED NATIONS. Dec 24: Staff reductions and other reforms helped bring the UN budget down about 76 million dollars to 2.532 billion dollars for the next two years, the top UN financial officer said, reports AP.
Some of the savings over the 2.608 billion dollars 1996 and 1997 budget — an estimated 13 million dollars — will be put into a development fund for future projects, said Joseph Connor.
This is the first time we've actually created our own resources by decreasing administration." Connor said Tuesday. "It's a whole new role for the secretariat coming In with how to spend money as opposed to how to raise money."
Connor spoke to reporters after the 185-member General Assembly approved the biennium budget for 1998-99 and a new three-year scale of assessments for member countries late Monday.
The payment scale leaves the United States with the biggest share of the UN annual budget — 25 per cent — and charges the world's poorest countries a new minimum of 0.001 per cent.
The previous low was 0.01 per cent, meaning countries such as Bhutan, Rwanda and
Palau among others will now pay an estimated 13.000 dollars a year rather than the previous low of about 125.000.
Japan got the heftiest increase in its UN bill, going from 17.981 per cent next year to 20.573 per cent in 2000. The Russian Federation, meanwhile, got a sizeable reduction,, owing 2.873 per cent next year and 1.077 per cent In 2000.
The scale, determined by calculating a country’s share of the world economy, its gross domestic product and other factors. is usually reviewed every three years but will be reconsidered next year thanks to a proposal the American got passed in hopes of getting its share decreased.
Assembly members also approved a new way of calculating changes in a country's assessments to better reflect changes in its financial condition.
Reform, fairness in payments and a "zero-growth" budget have been at the heart of calls for a more efficient, streamlined United Nations. The US Congress, for one, has made reform a condition of paying its arrears, estimated by the United Nations to be about 1.5 billion dollars.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan submitted his reform pro-
posals in July, some of which were acted on by the General Assembly in the first months of the session, which began in September.
Among the proposals approved and accounted for in the 1998-99 budget are the establishment of a new No. 2 UN position, the creation of a Department of Disarmament and the consolidation of three social and economic departments into one.
The budget, approved late Monday by the General Assembly. also accounts for the elimination of 954 of the current 10,012 regular positions. Another 317 positions will be reclassified so that they are Jointly financed.
The budget as legislated is down. Staffing levels are down. And all the secretary-general's proposed reform changes with financial implications were approved," Connor said.
Nevertheless, the Untied Nations will probably run out of money toward the end of the summer — as it regularly does — because member countries won't pay their assessments on time.
UN rules preclude borrowing from private lending institu-tions to finance a deficit.