(Millions of United States dollars)

Measures to encourage the payment of arrears

A distinction should be made between arrears resulting from a liquidity crisis and those caused by a solvency crisis.

Civil servants held further protests over the non payment of several years of salary arrears during the administration of former President Charles Taylor.

Privileges will be restored once the arrears have been paid in full.

The facts have proved that arrears are the crux of the financial crunch.

In order to deal with arrears when they emerge, a distinction should be made between arrears resulting from a liquidity crisis and those caused by a solvency crisis.

(a) Substantial payment of arrears are made by Member States

All arrears of assessed contributions should be paid by Member States.

Arrears are, however, not the most comprehensive indicator of debt servicing difficulty a country can anticipate potential problems, refinance its debt and avoid being forced into arrears.

This must include discussions on incentives for timely payment as well as sanctions on arrears, inter alia the possibility of charging interest on arrears.

The Protection Information Section had a significant backlog.

The burden of servicing debt and the payment of arrears have a suffocating effect on the economies of developing countries.

Overtime is constantly being required to deal with a backlog of cases.

It is high time to measure the generosity of words against the yardstick of arrears due our Organization.

But during the same period, four new countries began accumulating arrears.

Payment of interest on arrears should become standard practice and should be enforced.

After earlier reductions, all remaining arrears to the Inter American Development Bank were cleared in 1992, but the amount of arrears to the African Development Bank almost doubled in 1992 to 119 million.

With regard to the payment of arrears, he drew attention to the technical suggestions contained in paragraphs 68 and 69, which would facilitate both the payment of arrears and the work of the Secretariat and the Committee on Contributions.

Total amount of arrears at time of signing the plan, in addition to current year's assessments.

They also hoped that the question of arrears would be considered in a favourable manner, keeping in mind related circumstances.

Reducing arrears is a shared priority, and it must be accomplished without further delay.

A dramatic change in the formula of contributions could, I submit, complicate further the problem of arrears.

If the arrears criterion was used, that was the definition that should apply.

I appeal to all Member States to pay their assessments promptly and in full and to clear their remaining arrears.

The Board recommends that serious efforts should be made to clear the arrears and to ensure the preparation of bank reconciliations regularly every month.

In addition, a number of payments were received and credits applied.

The discussion concerning measures to encourage the payment of arrears also gave rise to grave concern.

which recommended that payments be made by Member States through their IPFs, but that these should be used for current arrears and not for payment of future contributions.

A number of speakers urged that the possibility of improving the terms and conditions of current mechanisms for handling arrears should be examined.

The main financial problem remains the question of arrears, which has detrimental consequences for the reserves of the Organization.

Acknowledging the importance of facilitating the timely publication of the Yearbook of the International Law Commission and eliminating the backlog,

Local governments have also accumulated massive amounts of non explicit debt through arrears, credits, and guarantees.

(d) Requested the Director General to pursue his efforts and contacts with Member States to effect the collection of arrears.

In the meantime, the Secretariat was requested to meet with representatives of the five successor States to determine the exact amount of the arrears.

Bilateral creditors may also extend a short term credit at the end of the programme to repay the outstanding arrears.

Similarly, bilateral short term credit arrangements are used to clear arrears with other multilateral lenders.

The donors might pay part of the interest cost or principal on loans and provide the funds to repay the arrears.

This firm stance seems particularly necessary because the payment of accumulated arrears alone would suffice to resolve the financial crisis.

Although the latter are prohibited from extended new loans while arrears remain, a group of bilateral supporters can extend financial assistance and help repay the arrears.

After I return, 13 million will be freed up as the government apos s contribution to the reduction of these arrears.

I should like to turn to the method of assessment. This is closely linked to the issues of arrears and the improvement of the budgetary process.

These solutions must begin with a demand for payment of arrears by certain States Members of the Organization.

Regarding interest on or indexation of arrears, should the General Assembly decide to introduce interest charges on arrears, the rate should be fixed at a low level and should not have retroactive effect, and the annual rate should not exceed 1 per cent.

13. Endorses the efforts of the Secretary General to eliminate the backlog in the publication of the Repertoire of the Practice of the Security Council