Furthermore, the reductions under common staff costs reflect both the realized vacancy rates described above and the lower than budgeted actual rate of common staff costs ( 5,526,400).

The remaining portion represents support costs and items budgeted centrally, including working capital and area staff salary increase requirements.

The total budgeted expenditure (at 2004 2005 costs) under contributions to the cost shared services has increased by 1,208,600 (7 per cent).

These costs are more than offset by interest income earned on cash balances, which are budgeted under income section 2, General income.

Details of budgeted and non budgeted contributions

The Board notes that a 49 per cent ( 4 million) decrease in change management costs is primarily a response to meet the fixed portion of Atlas costs as well as the reimbursement costs of United Nations agencies, which were not budgeted for.

The unspent balance of 71,600 is the result of lower than budgeted costs allocated by the Information Technology Services Division for the rental of photocopy machines.

The higher requirement under common staff costs is attributable to service and family allowances being charged to common staff costs but budgeted under international staff salaries, combined with a higher percentage of international staff holding 100 series appointments.

The additional requirements were attributable mainly to higher than budgeted actual average payments for salaries and common staff costs to local staff during the 12 month period.

The working group noted that maintenance costs were budgeted for the projects under study, such as the enterprise resource planning project, that maintenance costs were included for redevelopments (such as the upgrade of the Lawson accounting system) and that maintenance costs consumed a considerable portion of the budget.

D. Non budgeted contributions

The decrease under this heading is attributable to reduced requirements under common staff costs arising from lower actual common staff costs than projected ( 2,795,700) offset by increased requirements under salaries ( 2,605,200) owing to the lower than budgeted vacancy rate realized for the Professional category.

Value of non budgeted contributions

Value of non budgeted contributions

The savings were offset in part by higher than budgeted fixed wing aircraft guaranteed costs and by the acquisition of additional air operation manuals, accident investigation kits, including digital cameras, and other supplies.

Table 4.1 Contributions toward 2003 budgeted activities

Table 4.2 Contributions toward 2004 budgeted activities

The unutilized balance under this heading is attributable to the lower actual costs of the emplacement and rotation of military observers ( 2,317 per one way airfare and 4,671 per round trip airfare compared to the budgeted rates of 3,750 and 6,000, respectively), combined with fewer emplacement and rotation trips (135 and 24, respectively, compared to the budgeted 141 and 59).

Contributions and pledges toward 2003 2005 budgeted activities

d Temporary posts budgeted under general temporary assistance.

b Temporary posts budgeted under general temporary assistance.

Therefore, costs in relation to the deployment travel and pre deployment deployment allowances increased the average monthly cost from the budgeted average of 4,000 per month to an actual average of 7,840 per month, resulting in additional requirements.

The Advisory Committee notes that the savings realized under posts, which include requirements for salaries and common staff costs, are due to effective average vacancy rates that were higher than the budgetary assumptions (15.1 per cent for Professional and 8.9 per cent for General Service staff), as well as lower than budgeted requirements for common staff costs.

579,800 under ground transportation for the increases in rental costs of utility vehicles based on a new contract in effect from 1 July 2004 and the increased cost of diesel fuel from the budgeted 0.28 per litre to 0.47 per litre.

Value of non budgeted contributions (Thousands of United States dollars)

(a) Lower than budgeted expenditure for official travel and training

Upon request, the Advisory Committee was provided with details on budgeted and non budgeted voluntary contributions for the period from 1 July 2004 to 30 June 2005 (see annex V).

The unutilized balance resulted mainly from lower actual costs than budgeted for medical services attributable to fewer referrals of staff members to private hospitals and increased use of the Mission's air assets for medical evacuations instead of relying wholly on commercial arrangements.

However, it wished to know why the average grade level of Congolese staff had been budgeted at G 2, step 1, and what the budgeted level was in other peacekeeping missions.

The actual delivery of UNOPS for 2004, based on unaudited preliminary results, exceeded the budgeted delivery by 1 per cent ( 4 million). Actual expenditure exceeded budgeted expenditure by 0.5 per cent.

The budget amounted to 1,147,530,000, excluding budgeted voluntary contributions of 3.2 million.

Coherent programme descriptions and justification for all budgeted activities have been provided.

Therefore, while the 2004 experience was below budgeted rates, the 2005 experience to date has exceeded budgeted rates, resulting in a second year experience trending towards an offset of the first year shortfall.

The additional requirements in respect of international staff costs are attributable mainly to lower than budgeted vacancy rates in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and to an increase in the post adjustment multiplier for staff in New York from 46.3 to 53.9 effective September 2003.

Taking into account rates budgeted for new and continuing posts, composite rates of 3.9 per cent and 5.8 per cent were budgeted for the General Service and related categories for 2004 and 2005, respectively.

The unspent balance of 30,000 relates to a higher than budgeted vacancy rate.

The variance under this heading is attributable to the delayed recruitment of national staff (while the budgeted provisions reflected a 15 per cent delayed recruitment factor, the actual average vacancy rate for the period was 25.5 per cent), combined with lower actual expenditures under common staff costs.

The additional requirement of 98,700 results mainly from higher than budgeted staff costs owing to the unforeseen general temporary assistance requirements related to the implementation of the enhancements for the Galaxy e Staffing module in the Operational Services Division of the Office of Human Resources Management.

Table 4.3 Contributions and pledges toward 2005 budgeted activities (as at 31 January 2005)

Accordingly, the Administration had budgeted for the continuation of MINUSTAH until 30 June 2006.

Key variances included a 5 per cent increase in resource requirements under military and police personnel, attributable to accelerated deployment of military contingents and civilian police a 4.4 per cent increase under civilian personnel, reflecting a lower than budgeted vacancy rate and increased requirements for common staff costs and a 7.7 per cent decrease under operational costs, owing to the deferral to 2004 05 of several airfield renovation projects.

The net saving of 317,900 was attributable primarily to higher than budgeted vacancy rates and the incumbency of posts at lower than budgeted levels in the Office of Human Resources Management and the Office of Programme Planning, Budget and Accounts.

The depreciation expenses have gone up to 2.02 million against the budgeted amount of 0.9 million.

Other Gulf Cooperation Council countries are on a more moderate expansionary path in their budgeted expenditure projections.

The Committee notes that the requirements for the maintenance of ProFi are now fully budgeted under infrastructure.