联合国文件/第552部分 (共1000部分)

To that end, the four duty stations must work together to harmonize their policies, practices and procedures in order to streamline their operations and avoid duplication of work.

In closing, he said that the Department was determined to continue to strive for excellence and to implement the reform measures set out in relevant General Assembly resolutions.

However, external factors beyond its control frequently had a considerable impact on the efficient utilization of its resources.

The explicit endorsement by Member States of the Department's approach to conference management and their acknowledgement of some of the dilemmas it faced were therefore of the essence.

Mr. Saha (Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions), introducing the related report of the Advisory Committee (A/62/473), said that, since many of the issues highlighted in the Secretary-General's report had also been the subject of discussion during the Advisory Committee's deliberations on the estimates under section 2 of the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2008-2009, its report on the pattern of conferences should be read in conjunction with its first report on the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2008-2009 (A/62/7).

The Advisory Committee welcomed the recent initiatives to promote integrated global management, including the adoption of a compendium of administrative policies, practices and procedures and plans for the implementation of a common roster of outside contractors.

As far as documentation was concerned, it was recommending approval of the measures set out in paragraph 77 of the Secretary-General's report, which were intended to address a number of problems in that area.

With more than 20 per cent of all staff on established language posts due to retire between 2007 and 2011, the need for adequate succession planning within the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management was acute.

The ability of the Department, in cooperation with the Office of Human Resources Management, to hold a sufficient number of competitive examinations for language posts would be essential in that regard.

The Advisory Committee therefore urged both those entities to agree on measures aimed at ensuring the prompt organization and scheduling of the necessary examinations in the coming biennium and recommended that the General Assembly should request the Secretary-General to submit proposals for handling succession planning in the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, and assigning responsibility in that regard, in the context of his next reports on the pattern of conferences and human resources management.

Ms. Mesquita (Portugal), speaking on behalf of the European Union; the candidate countries Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey; the stabilization and association process countries Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia; and, in addition, Armenia, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, said that the provision of effective conference services through the timely issuance of documentation, high standards in language services and adequate meeting facilities was essential to the success of the work of intergovernmental and expert bodies of the United Nations.

At the same time, since conference management consumed a large share of regular budget resources, effectiveness, efficiency, accuracy, quality and consistency in all official languages were a concern.

The European Union welcomed the progress achieved across all duty stations in many of the reform areas of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management.

In particular, it welcomed the initiatives undertaken in the context of integrated global management aimed at streamlining procedures, achieving economies of scale and improving the quality of conference services.

The European Union encouraged the Department to actively take forward all reform initiatives.

It welcomed the draft resolution proposed by the Committee on Conferences and was willing to endorse it as a package.

Mr. Farooq (Pakistan), speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, said that the recommendations contained in the report of the Committee on Conferences for 2007 (A/62/32) would greatly facilitate the Fifth Committee's consideration of the item and that the draft resolution on the pattern of conferences submitted by the Committee on Conferences would provide a sound basis for the Fifth Committee's work.

The Group noted with concern that, although the overall utilization of conference services had remained above the established benchmark of 80 per cent, it had decreased from 85 per cent in 2005 to 83 per cent in 2006 in all but one duty station.

It hoped that improved coordination between planning officers and technical secretariats would lead to a further rise in the overall utilization factor in 2008.

It noted with satisfaction the utilization rate of 100 per cent recorded in Nairobi and the marked increase from 42.23 per cent in 2005 to the current rate of 60.13 per cent recorded by the United Nations Conference Centre at the Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa.

The Conference Centre needed to continue to explore means of further enhancing its conference utilization, bearing in mind the minimum operating security standards.

It should be remembered that each hour of fully serviced conference time cost the Organization thousands of dollars; meetings should therefore be conducted punctually.

Adequate budgetary resources were needed to facilitate the consideration of important issues by the Fifth Committee, meetings of which often lasted many hours.

With respect to the reports and summary records of the meetings of intergovernmental bodies, the primary aim was to communicate and preserve information efficiently, not to cut costs.