DOHA: Qatar has opposed the UN’s proposals meant to change the elements of the current methodology to determine the member-countries’ financial contributions for the Organisation during 2013-2015.
Speaking at the 67th General assembly (Administrative and Budgetary), Ali Mohammed Ali Mutawa, first secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Administration and Financial Affairs, Qatar, offered differing views on whether the proposed methodology should be maintained.
“My country delegation emphasises that we refuse to make any change in the current scale for assessing member state’s financial contributions to the UN. The proposed new methodology that demands more funds from the developing countries is unacceptable …”, Arabic dailies quoted Ali Mutawa as saying.
Al Mutawa wanted the UN agency to maintain the current methodology in determining the contributions of the member countries. Current system fixes the contributions of each member countries based on the total membership period, GDP, currency exchange rate, per capita income and the debt levels. The GDP and per capita levels should not be taken as the only standard of fixing contributions, he said.
A communiqué issued by the UN on Friday noted the delegates in the Fifth Committee for Administrative and Budgetary differed over whether the scale was suitable to achieve their common goal of keeping the United Nations financially sound in an era of economic belt-tightening around the globe.
The European Union delegate said the current methodology did not sufficiently accounts for today’s economic realities. There was room for adjustments to turn out a more equitable distribution of Member states’ financial responsibilities, according to their capacity to pay.
As the Organization’s second-largest financial contributor, Japan said it was important to find a methodology to better reflect each Member State’s real and current capacity to pay in a more equitable way, based on the most current data available.
The Peninsula
