Agency official says United Nations member states agreed to stop returning uncollected funds

An agency official told delegates that United Nations member states have agreed to change a decades-old budgeting practice so the organization will no longer be required to return funds it never collected from member states.

The official said the change applies across funding sources — the regular budget, peacekeeping and tribunals — and described the prior rule as a "fundamental contradiction" that left the UN "hamstrung" when states failed to pay their assessed contributions. "We were required to return funds that we had not spent because we had not actually received them due to unpaid assessed contributions by member states," the official said.

The move follows warnings from Secretariat officials that cash reserves are dwindling. "In August, all our reserves, everything will be gone, even with the reduced spending," the official said, saying the timing forced difficult choices about how to keep scheduled activities on track. The official said contingency measures could include pausing other payments to "make the high-level week happen," adding that the Fifth Committee had been told bluntly that without funding the high-level week should not proceed.

Explaining the new approach, the official said: "Going forward, you will not have to return money that you haven't collected. If you collect it and did not spend, it should be returned. That's the decision they made yesterday." The official urged member states to deliver outstanding payments, saying, "Please get us the money. I'm pretty confident they will."

The decision was presented as a procedural change rather than a formal binding legal amendment in the text provided; the transcript does not include a vote tally or a formal resolution number. The official addressed the Fifth Committee in describing the change and its operational implications. Next steps or a timetable for implementing the new practice were not specified in the transcript.