Identification of activities that have been completed or are obsolete, of marginal usefulness or ineffective.

34. RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED ON THE REPORTS OF THE FIFTH COMMITTEE
225. Identification of activities that have been completed or are obsolete, of marginal usefulness or ineffective

The General Assembly, Recalling its resolution 3534 (XXX) of 17 December 1975, in which it requested the Secretary-General, inter alia, to include in the performance reports on the United Nations programme budget relevant information on the staff and resources released as a result of the completion, reduction, reorganization, merging, elimination or otherwise of United Nations programmes, projects or activities, Recalling also its resolution 31/93 of 14 December 1976, in which it stressed the responsibility of the Secretary-General to draw to the attention of the competent intergovernmental bodies activities that are obsolete, of marginal usefulness or ineffective, indicating the resources which may be released so that the bodies concerned may take the necessary action, Recalling further its resolution 32/201 of 21 December 1977, in which it urged the Secretary-General to ensure the implementation of the provisions of General Assembly resolutions 3534 (XXX) and 31/93 in the preparation of the proposed programme budget for the biennium 1980-1981 and the performance report on the programme budget for the biennium 1978-1979, Recalling also its resolution 33/204 of 29 January 1979, in which it requested the Secretary-General to implement fully the above-mentioned resolutions and to report to the General Assembly at its thirty-fourth session on the measures taken, Reaffirming the importance of identifying activities that have been completed or are obsolete, of marginal usefulness or ineffective in order to redeploy resources to finance new United Nations activities,

1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General[1] submitted in pursuance of General Assembly resolution 33/204 and the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions;[2]

2. Notes with concern the finding of the Committee for Programme and Co-ordination[3] that the information contained in the report of the Secretary-General is insufficient;

3. Calls upon the Secretary-General to exercise his judgement to identify without further delay marginally useful and ineffective activities and to report thereon to the Committee for Programme and Co-ordination at its twentieth session, including the criteria which have been used in the identification;

4. Requests the Secretary-General to report also to the Committee for Programme and Co-ordination at its twentieth session on activities that have been completed, on the resources that have thereby been released and on the consequent effect on the programme budget;

5. Requests the Secretary-General to propose to the General Assembly at its thirty-fifth session criteria and arrangements to promote the development of an efficient procedure for the identification of activities that have been completed or are obsolete, of marginal usefulness or ineffective;

6. Further requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its thirty-sixth session, through the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, a full and comprehensive report on the implementation of Assembly resolution 3534 (XXX) and subsequent resolutions reaffirming it.

111th plenary meeting
20 December 1979

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[1] A/C.5/34/4 and Corr. l. [2] Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-fourth Session, Supplement No. 7A (A/34/Add.1-28), document A/34/Add. l. [3] Ibid., Supplement No. 38 (A/34/38), para. 203.