Information Note on Income and Expenditure for the Year 1997

EC/48/SC/CRP.20

INFORMATION NOTE ON INCOME AND EXPENDITURE FOR THE YEAR 1997

1. The annual accounts for Voluntary Funds administered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the year 1997 will be issued formally after the completion of the audit, as part of the documentation for the forty-ninth session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner's Programme.

2. For the purposes of informing members of the Standing Committee in a timely fashion of the final, unaudited results of the 1997 financial exercise, attached is the consolidated Income and Expenditure statement for 1997 for General and Special programmes, covering all sources of funds (see Annex 1, which is Statement 1 of the Annual Accounts).

3. As shown in Annex 1, total income received in 1997 under all sources of funds, was $ 820,105,874. Obligations entered into totalled $ 974,281,884, hence a shortfall of $ 154,176,010. Adjustments of $ 12,304,609 to prior period contributions increased the shortfall to $ 166,480,619. This shortfall was covered by the cancellation of obligations of $ 69,425,249 from prior periods, adjustments to prior period expenditure of $ 18,852,169 and total funds brought forward from 1996 in the amount of $ 268,838,918, leaving a total positive carry over of $ 190,635,717 at year end, as compared to $ 268,838,918 for 1996. The carry over from 1997 to meet programme expenditure in 1998, as shown in Annex 1, is $ 8,000,000 for General Programmes, $ 129,544,538 for Special Programmes and $ 217,600 for the Refugee Education Account. The Working Capital and Guarantee Fund carry over is $ 44,508,269 and Other Accounts is $ 8,365,310. Attached as Annex 2 is an advance copy of Schedule 3 of the Annual Accounts for 1997, which provides details of expenditure under the Emergency Fund. Annex 3 (Schedule 3) shows the appropriations made under the Voluntary Repatriation Fund for the period ending 31 December 1997 and Annex 4 shows allocations made from the 1997 Programme Reserve during the period 1 June 1997 to 31 December 1997.

4. For the first time the Office had to have recourse to a transfer from the Working Capital and Guarantee Fund of $ 5,491,731 to show the required balance of $ 8.0 million for the Emergency Fund in accordance with Financial Rule 6.3 in the General Assembly document A/AC/96/503/Rev.6 dated 1 February 1996. Therefore the net carry over under General Programmes is $ 2.5 million.

(Note: Tabular annexes not included in this online version. See your nearest UN Depository Library.)