RESTRICTED
- 5 -
Documentation
15. Conference documentation was again circulated late. Only the UK complained about this publicly, though the Chairman himself lent his support to our complaint in his final address when he expressed the hope that documentation for next year's session would be circulated well before the meeting.
- 16.
During the course of this session, the Secretariat once again tried to introduce important new proposals concerning the financing of the regular programme. At the 26th Session this was done at short notice but with a document explaining the proposed change. At this session, a complicated new proposal was put to the Committee orally, without documentation, and the Committee was asked to decide upon it almost immediately. Only the UK resisted, and the proposal (see paragraph 21) was put off until the 28th Session. Delegations will need to be on their guard against future repetitions of this sort of procedure. EN
17. The new structure of the assistance document, merging the reports on the regular programme with those on special operations, had a mixed reception. Some delegations liked the overall picture it provided, while others felt that it blurred the distinctions between the regular programme and special operations.
ACABQ and Special Operations......
18. The UK was prompted by the new format of the assistance document to observe that while it covered the 1976 and projected 1977 regular · programmes as well as the 1976 special operations, the ACABQ had commented only on the part of the document dealing with the regular programme. This was curious since the regular programme expenditure for 1976 came to some $15 million, whereas special operations for the same period amounted to more than $70 million. The UK asked by the Advisory Committee had confined its comments to the smaller portion of the UNHCR's expenditure. In his rather evasive reply, the High Commissioner said that the whole document had been placed before the ACABQ. This seemed to be an inadequate answer and the delegation returned to the charge during the discussion of a later item. reply given on that occasion (from Mr Moussali, Director of Admini- stration), suggested that the Advisory Committee did not consider it appropriate to comment on special operations because these activities fell outside their terms of reference. Since the ACABQ'a report on the assistance document was circulated only a few days before the beginning of the session, the delegation had no specific briefing on this matter. In view of this handicap it did not pursue the question further. However, it remains to be asked whether the ACABQ should not in future comment on special operations in the same way as they do on the regular programme.
The
RESTRICTED
/19.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.