2. The Group of 77 and China wishes to thank Mr. Chandru Ramanathan, Assistant Secretary-General, and Controller, and the Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions for introducing their respective reports.

Mr. Chair,

3. Regarding the United Nations Logistics Base at Brindisi, "UNLB", the Group has examined the budget performance report pertaining to the period 2022/2023, we notice that, while there was some unencumbered balance during this period, there was also a spike of more than 20% in the budget line corresponding to facilities and infrastructure. We acknowledge the importance of providing the necessary maintenance to the duty stations in order to ensure proper working conditions at these premises. However, we would like to better understand why the repairs undertaken last year in UNLB had to be done in an urgent manner after being delayed in previous periods, as it is stated in the Secretary-General's report.

4. The Group has also observed that a large number of General Temporary Assistances (GTAs) of UNLB continues to be funded through resources from cost-recovery activities. Considering this funding stream is not new in the case of UNLB to finance posts, we would like to know more about the projections in terms of stability that cost recovery offers. We will be interested as well in obtaining information about the criteria that is followed at the time of recruiting the posts that are funded through cost-recovery resources, even when the Secretariat classifies this as being of extrabudgetary nature, this is certainly not the traditional extrabudgetary source such as donations.

5. Regarding the staff composition of UNLB, the Group notes the significant imbalance in both gender parity and geographical representation. While the number of female staff members is only 66% that of male staff members (169 female and 255 male), Western European and Other Groups account for 80% of the total staff, including all D1 and higher positions. The Group emphasizes the importance of achieving gender parity and calls for maximize efforts to ensure equitable geographical representation across all levels, particularly in high-level positions.

6. The Group also notes with concern that despite the General Assembly decision during the 75th session to maintain the reporting line of the Regional Aviation Safety Office (RASO) to the Director of UNLB until clear and consistent criteria on tenant units was developed, the functional reporting line of Regional Aviation Safety Office (RASO) has been transferred to the Aviation Safety Section of DOS at the UN Headquarters even without having included this proposal in the budget submitted for consideration during the 76th and 77th session of the General Assembly. The Group looks forward to receiving further clarification on this matter during the informal consultations.

7. The Group will also be interested in having a thorough discussion concerning the scalability efforts undertaken at UNLB. We are intrigued by the findings of the Board of Auditors about the impossibility to audit the end-to-end process of the UNLB scalability model because there was no auditable data matrix nor established methods to collect data through Umoja. This contrasts with the results obtained for example by the Center in Entebbe when it comes to its scalability model, which has considerably matured in the recent years.

Mr. Chair,

8. I would like now to turn my intervention to the budget for the Regional Service Centre in Entebbe.

9. The Group wishes to highlight the steps taken by RSCE to improve client satisfaction. As the Secretary General's report shows, client satisfaction increased from 72 per cent in 2018 to 77.5 per cent in 2023. We encourage the leadership of RSCE to continue its efforts to improve the satisfaction of its client missions.

10. The Group will be interested in discussing the evolving landscape of peacekeeping operations and the role of RSCE in this context as also stated by the Advisory Committee. The closure and downsizing of several Missions in Africa invite us to think on how to leverage the expertise that the Center in Entebbe has acquired throughout its years of functioning. We believe that the provision of additional services and greater cooperation with regional organizations such as the African Union is an important aspect to be developed, especially in the context of Security Council resolution 27/19 on the funding of the AU led PSOs.

11. With respect to the 2024/25 budget, the Group notes that the Centre is proposing to abolish 29 posts on the basis of its scalability model in response to the closure and drawdown of MINUSMA, UNITAMS and MONUSCO. While appreciating the responsiveness of the Centre's scalability model, we also note that the three main priorities of the RSCE in 2024/25 will be performing residual activities from the closures of MINUSMA and UNITAMS and ensuring the smooth transfer of activities from MONUSCO and providing efficient service delivery to its 15 client missions which requires adequate resources both human and financial to address this workload.

12. In conclusion, Mr. Chair, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China and my delegation, I assure you of our commitment to engage constructively on these important matters during the course of our discussions this session.

I thank you.

2. At the outset, the Group of 77 and China would like to thank Mr. Hu Xuewen, Director of External Audit (China) and Chair of the Audit Operations Committee, Board of Auditor for introducing the report of the Board of Auditors on United Nations peacekeeping operations for the 12-month period from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023. The Group also wishes to thank Mr. Chandru Ramanathan, Assistant Secretary-General, and Conroller, and Mr. Abdallah Bachar Bong, Chair of the Administrative and Budgetary Questions for introducing the respective related reports.

Mr. Chair,

3. The Group of 77 and China recognizes the important role the Board of Auditors plays in discharging external oversight of the Organization and express its appreciation of the Board's comprehensive reports. This role is crucial for the member states to oversee the Organization's financial matters in Peacekeeping Operations and to ensure efficient fulfillment of its mandates.

4. The Group commends the Board of Auditor's for focusing its effort on ensuring transparency and accountability of administrative and financial matters in peacekeeping operations and attaches great importance to findings in the current report.

5. The Group notes that all recommendations issued by the Board in the current report remained under implementation with 12 of them targeted for implementation before the end of 2024 and 14 before the end of 2025, and notes with serious concern that the implementation rate of the BoA's recommendations during past 3 years has decreased from 60% to 46%, and further dropped to 31%.

6. In this regard, the Group reiterates its request to the secretariat to enhance its efforts to implement all the endorsed recommendations of the Board in a timely manner, take effective measures and put in place robust accountability mechanisms for unjustified delays in the implementation of the outstanding recommendations.

Mr. Chair,

7. The safety and security of United Nations peacekeepers is of a serious concern to the Group. As highlighted in the report of the BOA, three peacekeepers died and one peacekeeper was injured in Bouar, Central African Republic, as a result of mine explosions. The delayed treatment leads to tragic loss of life of peacekeepers and such incident is not in line with the priority of "accountability to peacekeepers" of the Action for Peacekeeping Plus initiative. The group, as the major contributor to TCC/PCCs, urges the Secretary-General to take vigorous action to improve the effectiveness of the casualty evacuation mechanism.

8. The Group also notes with concern that the overall cash ration which measures the ability of an entity to cover its current liabilities with cash deteriorated from 0.48 to 0.3, and that the cash ratio of four missions was close to zero as of 30 June 2023. These missions have experienced cash difficulties due to a lack of payment of assessed contributions. In this regard, the Group reiterates its call to all Member States to pay their assessed contributions in full, on time and without conditions.

9. The Group will carefully review the reports and financial statements, to identify specific concerns and potential systemic issues raised by the Board in its report that need more attention and clarification from the Secretariat during the informal discussions, including but not limited to: management of the civilian components, cost recovery, scalability models, procurement of fuel, especially the huge losses over $20,000,000 due to fuel delivery problems in two large peacekeeping missions.

10. To conclude, Mr., Chair, I would like to assure you of the Group's readiness to engage constructively with all relevant stakeholders during the informal consultations to conclude this agenda item in a timely and constructive manner.

I thank you.

2. The Group notes that the overall resource requirements for UN peacekeeping operations for 2024/2025 is USD 5.69 billion, which represents a decrease of USD 639.6 million or 10.1 percent compared with the approved resources for the 2023/2024 budget period with the largest decrease mainly from the closure of MINUSMA, downsizing of MONUSCO and the scheduled drawdown of ATMIS.

3. The Group will carefully consider the resource requirements of the missions in order to ensure that resources are commensurate with the mandated tasks and operational environment on the ground and the Group will also be actively engaged in the discussion on the policies of administration and management of peacekeeping operations.

4. The Group reiterates that the Secretariat must implement relevant resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly through financial discipline and adherence to the delivery of mandates laid down in relevant resolutions without the Secretariat unilaterally deciding which mandates carry a high priority or not.

Mr. Chair,

5. The Group notes that there are 905 vacant posts, with 21 posts having been vacant for more than 24 months while there are still requirements on the establishment of new posts. The Group expresses its concern about this high number of vacant posts in civilian staffing and requests the Secretary-General to ensure that vacant posts are filled as expeditiously as possible as this high level of vacancies stand to impede mandate implementation.

6. On the issue of representation, the Group recalls that the Secretary-General has been requested to intensify his efforts to ensure proper representation of troop and police-contributing countries, particularly at the senior and policymaking levels, in the field missions and the relevant departments, and will be interested in understanding targeted programmes, initiatives and relevant aspects of senior managers' compacts geared towards addressing the issue of representation for TCCs/PCCs, especially from the developing countries that continue to make huge contributions to UN peacekeeping efforts.

7. The Group is of the view that the selection of candidates from un and underrepresented Member States should be encouraged in peacekeeping operations based on equitable geographical representation while providing an equal opportunity for all member states to contribute and participate in the UN operations and upholding international peace and security in a proportionate manner.

8. Regarding nationalization, the Group notes with concern that only one international volunteer position is proposed for nationalization even after numerous requests to consider and propose options for greater nationalization of functions when formulating budget submissions. We encourage the Secretary-General to propose to nationalize more posts and enhance national capacity-building efforts in his next reports.

9. On the quick impact projects and programmatic activities, the Group continues to believe that they play a key role in establishing and building confidence in the missions and implementation of their mandates, and they should be enhanced while relying on previous experiences and lessons learned, in order to help build confidence in missions, their mandates and political and peace processes within their areas of operation.

Mr. Chair,

10. The Group also notes the initiatives that are aimed at improving the safety and security of peacekeepers as a critical aspect of peacekeeping operations. We continue to emphasize that the relevant resolutions and decisions of the Security Council and the General Assembly, particularly resolution 2518 (2020), should be fully implemented to avoid casualties and we encourage the Secretary-General to intensify his efforts to mitigate the risks to the safety and security of all personnel in peacekeeping operations including improving the casualty evacuation performance. The Group stands ready to support initiatives for the safety and security of peacekeepers.

11. On the use of information and communication technology, the Group will be interested in understanding how the different software and systems and other ICT capabilities, including Unite Aware, Situational Awareness Geospatial Enterprise (SAGE), Integrated Planning, Management and Reporting (IPMR), Comprehensive Planning and Performance Assessment System (CPAS) complement each other and the efforts to avoid duplication in function of these systems, especially in terms of resource requirements.

Mr. Chair,

12. Regarding the support account, the Group is of the view that the level of support functions should be scalable to the number, size and scope of peacekeeping operations and that the support account should broadly correspond to the evolving mandate, number, size, and complexity of peacekeeping operations in the field in order to achieve greater cost effectiveness while providing backstopping support. We look forward to the report of the Secretary-General on the review of the support account. The Group will, however, be interested in understanding why this report is scheduled to be introduced in the main session, which is not a traditional peacekeeping session.

13. On the report of the Office of the Internal Oversight Services, the Group notes that the Office issued 65 internal audit and evaluation reports containing 358 recommendations relating to peace operations, we also note that six recommendations had not been accepted by management, and a total of 338 recommendations were closed during 2023, an increase compared with 2022 period.

14. The Group further notes that of the 531 audit and evaluation recommendations issued to peace operations (including in prior years) that were open at the end of 2023, 128 (24 percent) had been open for between 12 and 24 months, while 126 (24 percent) had been open for more than 24 months compared with 29 percent and 16 percent respectively during the previous year. The Group trusts that OIOS will continue to work closely with the entities to address the slow and selective implementation of its recommendations.

15. In conclusion, Mr. Chair, the Group will engage constructively with a view to concluding this agenda item successfully in a timely manner.

I thank you.