UN management chief says world organization financially sound

The overall financial situation of the United Nations is "good and positive," the world organization's head of management said on Wednesday.

"Basically the financial situation is overall sound, good and positive," said Yukio Takasu, undersecretary-general for management, who briefed reporters here on the organization's financial situation.

Unpaid regular budget assessments were lower at the end of last year than the end of 2014.

However, while payment of assessments by member states is better than last year, he did anticipate a regular tightening in cash flow later in the year.

"The regular budget is always tight in the last quarter of the year," Takasu said. "We have to watch carefully to see if the reserve is good enough."

"At this moment we have 471 million U.S. dollars in cash in the regular budget," he said.

Assessments to the 193 member states are 2.5 billion dollars for the regular budget, 3.8 billion dollars for peacekeeping operations and 66 million dollars for international tribunals. The capital master plan (CMP) assessments have ended but there are still a few states owing on their earlier assessment.

The CMP, which is winding down, is for the recent complete renovation of the UN Headquarters.

For the unpaid assessments, he said the regular budget was lacking 1.4 billion dollars, peacekeeping was down 2.3 billion dollars and the tribunals were off 93 million dollars.

The financial health of the organization depends on the states meeting their financial obligations full and on time, he said.

The management chief said 827 million dollars was owed to member states for participation in peacekeeping operations.

Takasu said 35 member states have paid their current assessments in full, compared with 22 states one year ago.

Countris paid in full are Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cote d'Ivoire, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mali, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Samoa, Senegal, Singapore, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland.