The Secretary-General and the Secretariat prepare the following documents for consideration by the General Assembly and its subsidiaries:
Chapter IV, Article 17 of the Charter of the United Nations gives the General Assembly responsibility for approving the budget.
Substantive deliberations about the budget are generally delegated to the appropriate entities:
Resolutions and decisions about the budget are adopted by the plenary of the General Assembly and may touch on any aspect of the planning, programming, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation cycle.
In general, the General Assembly takes action on the budget on the basis of the recommendation of the Fifth Committee.
Resolutions and decisions offer citation to the documents considered by the General Assembly in its deliberations and reflect the final action of the organization on budgetary matters.
The Fifth Committee, one of the six Main Committees of the General Assembly, is allocated agenda items related to administrative and budgetary matters.
The Fifth Committee meets in 3 sessions throughout the year:
The Fifth Committee submits a separate report to the plenary on every agenda item allocated to it. Each report:
The plenary considers each report and votes on the draft resolutions or decisions it contains.
For example, the General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/72/266 A based on the report of the Fifth Committee (A/72/682).
The Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) is a subsidiary of the General Assembly responsible for "expert examination of the programme budget of the United Nations" and assists the Fifth Committee.
The Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC) is a subsidiary of the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly for planning, programming and coordination.
The UN Board of Auditors audits the accounts of the UN and its funds and programmes.
NOTE: In the past the Report of the Board of Auditors for the United Nations was issued every other year following the completion of the biennium. Beginning with the 70th session, the Financial Statements and Report of the Board of Auditors covers one year.
The Committee on Contributions advises the General Assembly on the apportionment of the expenses of the organization among the Member States according to their capacity to pay.
Please NOTE!
General Assembly resolution 72/266 A, Shifting the management paradigm in the United Nations, approves changes to the budget cycle and to the programme budget documentation, on a trial basis, beginning with the programme budget for 2020.
We have created a new guide with information about the new budget cycle.
This guide will not be updated but will remain online for reference and to assist those looking at the pattern of documentation prior to the 2020 budget cycle.