The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday warned the UN may not have enough money to pay for staff salaries next month if member states don’t pay what they owe, reported Reuters.
In a letter addressed to the 37,000 employees, Guterres said the UN will have to take additional stop-gap measures to ensure the staff salaries and entitlements are paid.
“Member States have paid only 70 percent of the total amount needed for our regular budget operations in 2019,” he wrote. “This translates into a cash shortage of $230 million at the end of September. We run the risk of depleting our backup liquidity reserves by the end of the month.”
He told the 193-member U.N. General Assembly’s budget committee that he had worked since January to cut spending so that the UN had enough liquidity to support the annual gathering of world leaders held last month.
“This month, we will reach the deepest deficit of the decade. We risk … entering November without enough cash to cover payrolls,” said Guterres. “Our work and our reforms are at risk.”
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said although 129 States out of 193 have now paid their regular annual dues, the most recent being war-sacked Syria, others needed to pay urgently and in full. While the UN won’t publicly reveal the name of those countries, sources suggest the US, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Iran are among the countries that owe money to the UN.
Mr. Dujarric said only 70 per cent of the total assessment for the year had been paid as of September end, versus 78 per cent this time last year. Until October 8, the UN member states have paid $1.99 billion towards the regular budget assessement for 2019, which means there is an outstanding amount of around $1.3 billion for the year.
