8. The Joint Inspection Unit has a small secretariat, consisting of an Executive Secretary, 7 research officers, 2 research assistants at the principal General Service level and 8 other General Service staff. Despite the increase in workload over the years, the JIU secretariat manning table has decreased from 21 at its inception to 18 at present. Moreover, turnover in research officer posts has further constrained the output of the Unit. In November 1994, a new Executive Secretary was appointed upon the retirement of the former Executive Secretary.
9. The JIU has stressed the need for additional research staff. In its resolution 43/221 of 21 December 1988 the General Assembly invited the Secretary-General, in his capacity as Chairman of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) and in consultation with the Joint Inspection Unit, to ensure the maintenance of an efficient and effective research capability within the secretariat of the Unit. In paragraph 3 of its resolution 45/237 of 21 December 1990, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to review, in the context of the proposed programme budget for the biennium 1992-1993, the research and analytical capacity of the secretariat of the Joint Inspection Unit in order to enhance its performance, with due respect for the statute of the Unit.
10. In its report to the forty-sixth session of the General Assembly 1/ the Unit requested two additional Professional posts. In its decision 46/446 of 20 December 1991, the General Assembly decided that those proposals had to be examined by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ). In responding to that decision, the ACABQ, in its report on the functioning of JIU, expressed the following opinion: "The Advisory Committee is of the view that an increase in resources should not be entertained at the present time; it would consider an increase in computer resources in the context of the proposed programme budget, taking account of the contribution computers may make as a way of improving productivity" (see A/47/755, pare. 42).
11. In their report to the General Assembly's forty-eighth session, 2/ the Inspectors stated that they would refrain from reiterating the requests to strengthen the staffing capacities made in previous reports in consideration of the existing financial constraints. They observed, however, that the proposals remained valid and hoped that they could be met at a more favourable juncture. Thus, in its resolution 48/221 of 23 December 1993, the General Assembly, inter alia, recognized the need to give adequate means to the JIU in order to enable it to carry out its functions and requested the Secretary-General and the executive heads of the participating organizations, without prejudice to article 20 of the statute of the Joint Inspection Unit, to consider providing the Unit with extrabudgetary resources and programme support funds for specific activities of inspection, evaluation and investigation in those areas which were linked to those resources.
12. With regard to the Secretary-General's proposed programme budget for the biennium 1996-1997, the Unit opted for a more modest request than for the previous biennium by proposing to upgrade one P-5 post to D-1 and to obtain one additional P-4 post to be financed, if feasible, through the support account of peace-keeping operations, taking into account, inter alia, that in resolution 48/221, the General Assembly requested the Unit to study and to report to it on means by which the Unit could enhance its inspection and evaluation of specific activities such as peace-keeping operations and humanitarian assistance.
13. Since out of the 12 reports the Unit is currently carrying out, 4 (one third) deal with peace-keeping operations and humanitarian assistance, the Unit has only two options open to it to meet the General Assembly requirements, namely, either to request additional staff resources or to redeploy resources from other areas of interest, such as administration and management and development and technical cooperation. In this respect, the Joint Inspection Unit wishes to emphasize that in its report of the eighty-second session held in London in February 1995, the Consultative Committee on Administrative Questions (CCAQ) stated that organizations which were not involved in peace-keeping activities questioned the extent of the use of the Unit's resources, which were jointly financed, for those types of studies, in particular given the fact that the cost-sharing formula excluded expenditure on peace-keeping.
14. Although articles 17 and 20 of the statute of the Joint Inspection Unit are clear in defining the procedure for the consideration of the budget of the Unit and although the Unit was willing to provide any clarification, those proposals were not included in the Secretary-General's proposed programme budget for the 1996-1997 biennium, and no reason was given to the Unit for the omission. The United Nations Secretariat proposals for the JIU budget show a real negative growth of 0.27 per cent.
15. In complying with article 20, paragraph 1, of its statute, the Unit was invited to present its budget estimates to the ACABQ. All the facts included in the present report were explained in detail to the ACABQ, which, in turn, expressed its position in its report to the General Assembly on the proposed programme budget for the biennium 1996-1997. 3/
16. In that report, the ACABQ, inter alia, expressed its belief that the Secretary-General's budget proposal for JIU for 1996-1997 should be considered in the light of the requirements of General Assembly resolution 48/221, with regard to the Unit's programme of work, as well as the need to strengthen the external oversight control mechanisms, as emphasized by the Assembly in its resolution 48/218 B of 29 July 1994. The ACABQ further recalled, in particular, paragraph 12 of resolution 48/221 and recommended that the Secretary General report on the steps taken and arrangements made for providing the Unit with extrabudgetary resources and programme support for specific activities of inspection, evaluation and investigation in those areas linked to those resources. The action and guidance of the General Assembly in this regard would be extremely useful to the JIU.
