UNITED NATIONS, July 2 — The UN General Assembly’s decision to change a bizarre rule on unspent budget funds is short of a fix, said the UN controller on Wednesday.
“It prevents a (plane) crash or prevents a (boat) sinking. It does not do away with all the problems,” said Chandramouli Ramanathan, the controller.
The General Assembly on Tuesday decided to change, for a four-year trial period, a 75-year-old rule that requires the United Nations to return unspent budget funds as credits, at the end of each budget period, to member states, including those in arrears. In practice, the world body had to return funds that it had not received in the first place.
Ramanathan, who is also UN assistant secretary-general for programme planning, finance and budget, said the General Assembly decision allows the United Nations to return unspent funds to member states only when they are backed by cash.
“If you are returning money to member states, but had nothing to do with shortage of cash, give it back. Whatever money you did not spend, they’re saying, look at it more carefully. What part of it was caused by lack of cash? What part of it is normal? If it is not backed by cash, don’t return it. If it is normal, return it,” he said.
The new methodology takes effect on July 1, 2027, the start of the 2027/2028 peacekeeping budget cycle.
Without the change, Ramanathan said, the United Nations would have to give up about 225 million U.S. dollars of peacekeeping funds on July 1, 2026, and another 900 million dollars in July 2027.
The change of rule applies also to the regular budget, which supports the daily running of the United Nations, and the budget for UN tribunals.
On the regular budget, Ramanathan said the world body would be running out of cash by the end of August unless more money comes in.
“On the regular budget also, we are running with hardly any cash. We don’t have cash beyond August. September, money is gone. We are waiting for collections to survive beyond September,” he said.
Without the change of rule, the United Nations would have returned 420 million dollars in January 2027, or about 13 percent of the regular budget for 2026, he said.
Ramanathan said the change of rule for a four-year period is a big improvement, but not a fix. “We have ensured that the boat can get to the coast (for repair). It doesn’t mean that it’s strong enough to keep sailing.”
The fix, he said, is for all member states to pay their dues in full.
The United States, the biggest contributor to UN budgets, owes the largest amount of money.
Ramanathan said the United States will end this year with about 1.8 billion dollars in arrears if no new payments are to be made.
