Let it be so! UN Secretary General says the UN is running out of money
“Our cash flow has never been this low so early in the calendar year, and the broader trend is also concerning; we are running out of cash sooner and staying in the red longer”
[WAJ NOTE: This is the 29,000th post at Legal Insurrection!]
Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General for the UN is concerned that the international governing body is alarmingly short on cash.
According to Fox News, Guterres sent a letter to UN staff earlier this month saying there was “troubling financial situation facing the United Nations.” He went on, “our cash flow has never been this low so early in the calendar year, and the broader trend is also concerning; we are running out of cash sooner and staying in the red longer.”
Deadbeat member states who pay late or not at all are being blamed for the UN’s cash flow issues.
From Fox News:
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the U.N. is running out of money and is urging members to pay up amid a looming financial crisis for the international body.
In a letter to staff this week, seen by Fox News, Guterres says he has warned member states of a “troubling financial situation facing the United Nations,” which he says is caused by late payments to the U.N. by member states.
“Our cash flow has never been this low so early in the calendar year, and the broader trend is also concerning; we are running out of cash sooner and staying in the red longer,” he says.
Guterres went on to say that the organization will be taking measures to look at reducing costs, in a way that won’t affect their mission. He said he also will be proposing to states various steps to strengthen financial stability at the U.N.
Trump administration threats to cut funding do not appear to be directly linked to the cash crunch.
While the administration has been eyeing carefully its payments to various U.N. funds and agencies, the U.S. has not yet reduced or delayed its payments to the budget, though due to the fall start of the U.S. fiscal year, payments usually come later in the year.
Secretary-General spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Thursday that the issue is “late payments and payments not yet received to the regular budget.”
“Late payment has an impact obviously on our cash flow. It may have an impact on our ability to deliver mandates,” he said.
The US pays more than any other member state, paying upwards of $14 billion in 2016, providing approximately 22% of the UN’s resources. $10 billion of which was voluntary and the other $4 billion was assessed.
The Brookings Institute explains:
In absolute terms, the U.S. is the largest overall funder at $14.1 billion per year, providing 22 percent of the sample’s resources. The U.K. is the second-largest funder at $7.6 billion (12 percent), followed by Japan at $5.4 billion (9 percent) and Germany at $4.4 billion (7 percent). These four countries contribute approximately 50 percent of the total funding, and the top 32 funders account for 95 percent. Notably, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the 17th largest funder and provides more than $880 million per year.
Fox News cited Hugh Dugan, a former US diplomat to the UN who “said that other countries could be mimicking what is perceived as the U.S. backing away from its commitments at the body of diplomacy and international relations.”
The Trump administration has been far more judicious in their scrutiny of how US dollars sent to the UN are spent.
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Comments
Now–isn’t that just TS–maybe now we can fire all of those phony 3rd world delegates and send them all home–but keep and sell their fancy cars to pay for the millions of parking tix they owe !!! ABJ
“$10 billion of which was voluntary and the other $4 billion was assessed.”
How about we lower the voluntary part by 5 billion? I am sure that there is a great deal of waste and graft at the UN.
Wikipedia the UN and see how BEHEMOTHIC it now is with all it’s agencies, impotent peace keeping forces, organizations, commissions and each comes with their own building complexes, vehicles, uniforms, equipment, support complexes, staff, salaries, travel, security, food and energy expenses, conferences AND the now tens of thousands of UN retirees (mostly foreign) and their pensions, perks and benefits.
YOO HOO, who do you think is paying for all of that?
UN parasites in suits needing evermore revenues for their opulent salaries, lifestyles and ever growing pensions (and who are getting more and more authoritarian and predatory toward it’s citizens).
“impotent peace keeping forces” Given all the sex for food scandals, I’m not sure that is true.
The ‘UN’ deemS this or that, and we must all comply regardless of our rights, freedoms and laws of OUR OWN COUNTRY. Any official that our taxes fund needs to be thrown out if they support the UN. Working tax payers need to be mobilized against funding the UN.
WHEN WILL THERE BE AN AUDIT OF THE IMF’S HUGE GOLD HOARD??
The IMF and World Bank are UN agencies of now countless agencies, commissions and organizations, one big Trojan Horse and tool of a few dynastic families, sucking the wealth, sovereignty, freedoms and life out of the world.
10 nations that control the world’s gold – MarketWatch
Oct 20, 2012 … The International Monetary Fund is the third-largest official holder of gold, with more than 2,814 tonnes.
THAT WAS BACK IN 2012!
Where’s all that IMF gold coming from? (Ask NATO< AND since 2012 when that article was written what happened to the gold of Libya? Egypt? Tunisia? Ukraine? soon Syria?) And Germany can't get their's back?
The IMF/UN is actually fantastically rich, while the counties the destroyed are collapsing into poverty.
The IMF is ANOTHER UN agency, it is not a 'nation', it has been deemed 'supranational sovereignty' (deemed by the UN's 'International Court of Justice' -yep, another UN agency). so the UN creates an agency to deem itself and it's other agencies supranational sovereignty over the world and makes it's own laws, decides it needn't pay any tax nor provide any revenues -sweet deal if your a UN employee.
No. Go away.
The UN is a good way to keep track of other nation’s spies.
Move the un to Afghanistan and let the spies earn their keep.
Sounds like a “you” problem, not a “me” problem.
Gates Foundation spends more than Russia! ha ha
The Trump administration has been far more judicious in their scrutiny of how US dollars sent to the UN are spent.
It would be even better if we didn’t send them any US dollars, to begin with.
The comments above are pretty much incoherent…We should somehow establish quid pro quo for contributions,
Incoherent. I do not think that word means what you think it means.
“we are running out of cash sooner and staying in the red longer, he says”
YES – YES – YES
Put the land up for a fire sale, then GET OUT
I recall from classroom discussions when the UN was new, that the land was made available by the Rockefeller family who actually owned it. The land was donated and supposedly the agreement was that should the thing fail (in those days the League of Nations was on many minds) the Rockefellers retained the property.
Disclosure: that is recollection from approximately 60 years ago, in a time when current events and world affairs were part of the classroom work in 4th and 5th grade. They also taught spelling and penmanship in those days…. in public school.
Heard a show on a Christian radio program today that mentioned Soviet spy Alger Hiss was involved in founding the U.N. on socialist/communist foundations–here’s some Wiki stuff:
Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official who was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950. Before he was tried and convicted, he was involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department official and as a U.N. official. The origin of the Hiss case dates to February 1925, when Whittaker Chambers joined the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA).
re: “Put the land up for a fire sale, then GET OUT”
Before selling the land, demolish that big ugly building and scrape the land clean…and also repossess every UN property in America that the different nations own/run.
Invite their national representatives and workers to become persona non grata. Basically just confiscate everything the UN has in America, then shove a big boot up their butt!
The United Nations is nothing more than a debate club while being an enemy of humanity.
It is a “you” problem. Don’t expect Uncle Sammy to bail you kids out when you’ve blown your wad. No hay dinero as they say south of the border. At least no more dinero for the UN.
according to Wiki, there are currently 193 members.
therefore, the US dues to the General Fund should be 1/193rd of the budget, no matter what we are assessed by those scum bags.
our voluntary contributions should be $0/year.
F the UN.
Using the logic of the General Assembly. We get the same number of votes as Cameroon.
But we do have one good thing, a Security Council veto. We won that by winning WW2. We do pay to maintain it, but since we won it on the field of battle, shouldn’t it be ours without so much payment?
Value = Benefit / Cost
If I am not anti-USA or not anti-Israel, what is the benefit?
BTW, that $14B/year is my grandchildren’s money.
‘Cash flow’ and ‘revenues’ my ass. Every cent they spend is confiscated. Cut their budget by 90%.
The U.N. has outlived its usefulness. Get the U.S. out of the U.N. and the U.N. out of the U.S. Otherwise, the U.N. will keep looking at the U.S. as a sugar daddy. They are badly in need of a lesson in respect. Let them spend forty years in a wilderness.
Israel needs to get the UN out of Jerusalem and Hebron along with the EU. That will save a lot of money. UNRWA is in Gaza and in PA Area A.
The UN isn’t an international governing body. Maybe its self-perception as one is part of the problem.
Agree. The UN is nothing more than an overblown NGO.
“Guterres went on to say that the organization will be taking measures to look at reducing costs, in a way that won’t affect their mission.”
Why wait until you have a financial crisis to reduce costs if it’s possible to accomplish your mission with fewer resources? Typical bureaucracy.
Guterres’ statement means that he recognizes that there is enormous waste and corruption in the U.N. since he believes it is possible to reduce expenditures without compromising outcomes.
this will be important ONLY IF
– the UN drops the political worthless contents
– instead of worthwhile items
US out of the UN and the UN out of the US !
shucks. cry me a friggin river. no way to let un forces rape people w/o money
The UN has been propped up for a long time, and probably outlived it’s usefulness. They certainly act strange, and like all things, the US is paying far too much for what we are getting out of it.
I think if the UN is in dire straights with it’s money, then we have a right to see their full budget and find out where all the money goes. Just like the funding of NATO, the US is being hosed in an unfair way, and we – the taxpayers – are not getting any bang for our bucks. I am with Trump in his assessment that other countries (which includes the UN pay scale) are taking advantage of us, are getting wealthy off the backs of the US taxpayers, while we go further in debt. It makes zero sense for us to be borrow money like crazy and still making higher payments than everyone else.
If the US pulled out, which I don’t think is such a bad idea, they would be hitting the same road that the League of Nations. I am at a loss to see what true benefits either brought to the world, especially the US. Sure they have had a presence, but were they needed and necessary, and were they the only source that could have been used? I doubt it. We supply a large amount of personnel as well as all the money we pay to them.
So the socialists are discovering economic reality. HA HA HA HA HA
Like President Woodrow Wilson’s idea for “The League of Nations”, it was a good idea until it was put to the test of its charter. The United Nations has become an expensive “Soap Opera” and is rife with extravagant expeditures to serve no good purpose.
It’s long past time for the United States to save its taxpayer’s money it has to borrow to pay for the price of admission; use the building and property for more meaningful/ profitable ventures; and invite the gaggle of politicians of other countries to find another place to gather for their “Fun & Games.” It’s time to let the United Nations go the way of The League of Nations.
By all means, let them run completely out of money.
CORRECTION:
“UN Secretary General says they are running out of U.S. Taxpayers’ money………
Yes, that is PRECISELY what he is saying.