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Now a word or two about the documents before us today.
It is regrettable that once again many of them have been circulated so late. I am sure that everyone realises that the later we receive documentation for meetings such as this, the more difficult it is for us, to prepare ourselves properly.
However, I am personally pleased to see that the suggestion that I made last year about summarising decisions to be taken on the assistance document has been taken up in Schedule B of Document A/AC.96/526. But I note, ruefully, that the ACABQ alone have been given credit for this innovation!
More seriously, the ACABQ have again made a number of suggestions for further changes in presentation which the Secretariat and this Committee would do well to take into account.
But there is one aspect of the Advisory Committee Review of Document 526 which, I think, calls for some further examination. The document has merged information on the regular programme with that on special operations. It discusses the 1975/76 regular programme and the proposed regular programme for 1977. At the same time, it examines special operations that have taken place in 1976.
My understanding of the ACABQ's observations is that they have looked at the regular programme aspect of the document only and have not commented on special operations. This is curious when the 1976 regular programme amounted to less than $15 million as against the $70 million which special operations cost in the same year.
If my understanding is correct I would ask why the Advisory Committee does not also examine special operations? Perhaps the Executive Committee might wish to recommend that they do so in the future? If they do, the Advisory Committee might also look into the feasibility of our being asked to look at some projections of future spending on special operations.
Of course,
as the High Commissioner mentioned in his statement, projecting costs in the area of refugee relief is a difficult business. No one can predict new refugee situations and how quickly existing refugee problems can be solved. Targets for special operations are mentioned in the introduction to document 526, but I think it would be useful to see these targets translated into the projections for future spending on the individual country charts. This could be done without losing sight of the strict time limitations set on special operations. As for regular programme targets, my delegation would like to echo the sentiments of the Norwegian
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/delegation.
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