VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB
DE RUCNDT #0003 0022032
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 022032Z JAN 08
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 3480
UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000003
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AORC KPKO PREL SU UNGA
SUBJECT: UN - GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTS BUDGET FOR HYBRID
OPERATION IN DARFUR (UNAMID)
REF: USUN 001098
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY
1. (U) After five weeks of often acrimonious, politicized
debate, the Fifth (Administrative and Budgetary) Committee,
on December 21, 2007, adopted the first budget for the
African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur
(UNAMID) for the period July 07/June 08 in the amount of
$1.276 billion - reducing the SYG's proposed budget
(A/62/380) of $1,477 billion by $201 million. The Advisory
Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ)
(A/62/540) had recommended a reduction of $150 million. As
adopted by the GA in plenary session, the resolution will be
issued as A/RES/62/232.
2. (U) In extensive Q and A on the proposed budget - some
300 questions posed by delegations were answered in writing
by the Secretariat - and during negotiations on the initial
95-paragraph draft resolution, Egypt, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan
and others focused on the non-competitive, single-source
contract awarded to the US firm, PAE, a Lockheed Martin
Company, as well as a number of other "extraordinary
measures" taken by the Secretariat to prepare for the
deployment of the Operation within the timeframe established
by the Security Council in resolution 1769 adopted on July
31, 2007. As reported in his letter to the GA President on
October 2, 2007 (A/62/379), the SYG noted that it would be
necessary for the Secretariat to exercise flexibility in the
application of administrative policies and procedures in
order to comply with resolution 1769.
3. (SBU) In the face of often antagonistic questioning by
the Egyptian delegate, UN Controller Sach firmly defended the
SYG's decision to award the contract to PAE as being
authorized by the Financial Regulations and Rules of the
Organization and the only way to prepare for the deployment
of the Operation in accordance with the schedule mandated by
the Security Council. Egypt blatantly politicized the
committee's consideration of the proposed budget by
attempting to somehow leverage its opposition to the contract
awarded to PAE and other "extraordinary measures" taken by
the Secretariat, into acceptance of a second Egyptian
battalion in UNAMID. At the time of this writing, Egypt's
efforts in this regard continued to be unsuccessful.
4. (U) USDel, working closely with Canada, also on behalf
of Australia and New Zealand, and the UK, on behalf of the
EU, succeeded in reaching agreement on a relatively balanced
49-paragraph text.
Wolcott