Assembly acts on procurement reform, peacekeeping financing, budget allocations.

The General Assembly on 31 March adopted 25 drafts, including 7 resolutions and 16 decisions, recommended by its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary). Acting on procurement reform, it asked the Secretary-General to examine the possibility of awarding contracts to equally qualified vendors from countries that were current in the payment of their assessed contributions. The Assembly also asked him to examine ways to increase contract opportunities for developing countries.

By another text, the Secretary-General was requested to entrust the Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) to conduct a comprehensive analysis of reasons for the increase in contract costs for the Integrated Management Information System (IMIS), and to have a study of the System conducted by independent experts and submitted to the Assembly no later than the end of the main part of its fifty-third regular session.

Noting an unspent balance of $9.3 million from the regular budget for the biennium 1996-1997, the Assembly allocated $2.5 million for IMIS for 1998 and $1.3 million for improving conference facilities. The balance was retained, with a view to financing the activities of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

In action related to the programme budget for the biennium 1998-1999, the Assembly accepted the offer of the Swiss authorities for office accommodation at the Palais Wilson in Geneva. It took note of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) on the United Nations International Partnership Trust Fund - established to manage the $1 billion donation from Ted Turner. The Secretary-General was asked to report regularly to the Assembly on the subject. The Assembly also decided to consider the question of honoraria payable to members of organs and subsidiary organs of the United Nations at its fifty-third session. It further deferred consideration of the Secretary-General's report on redirecting non-programme costs to a development account to the second part of its resumed fifty-second session.

In other action, the Assembly decided that documents issued by the Secretariat related to the Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names should be translated into the six official languages of the United Nations.

Regarding the code of conduct proposed for United Nations staff, the Assembly invited the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) to examine the draft code at its forthcoming session. It asked the Fifth Committee to revert to the matter during its resumed fifty-second session.

Acting on peacekeeping financing the Assembly decided to appropriate, for the period from 1 July 1997 to 30 June 1998:

* a total of $17.2 million gross (just under $16 million net) to the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO);

* a total of $175 million gross ($170.7 million net) to the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA); and

* a total of $15 million gross ($14.3 million net) for the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT).

Moreover, the Assembly decided that, when apportioning peacekeeping expenses, Slovakia would be included in Group C of Member States - those assessed 20 per cent of their regular budget assessment rates for peacekeeping. (Group B States - economically developed countries which are not permanent members of the Security Council - are assessed at 100 per cent.) It also took note of the Secretary-General's report on the implementation of Assembly resolutions 49/249 and 50/224, by which it had changed the group assignments for peacekeeping assessments for Portugal (from Group C to B), Belarus (from Group B to C), Greece (from Group C to B) and Ukraine (from Group B to C).

In other action, the Assembly decided to consider in 1998 the OIOS report on consultants and the Secretary-General's report on respect for privileges and immunities of officials of the United Nations and related organizations.

UN to Commemorate Eid

On the recommendation of its Fifth Committee, the General Assembly, acting without a vote, on 31 March decided to increase by one day the number of official United Nations holidays bringing the total to 10, including the two holidays of Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha. That recommendation had been approved in the Committee on 26 March by 54 votes to 25, with 2 abstentions.

Nicholas Thorne of the United Kingdom - speaking after the Assembly vote on behalf of the European Union and 11 other states - believed that the Assembly had "never in the past instructed the Secretary-General to allocate holidays in any particular fashion", and it was "wrong to do so now".

Nasser Hamad Al-Khalifa of Qatar, speaking for Member States of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said the decision on Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha represented a "new era of equality in the United Nations". In his view, financial implications and secularism had "nothing to do with any action taken by any country on the text" in the Fifth Committee.