UN chief proposes creating common administrative platform to improve efficiency, reduce costs

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday proposed the creation of a common administrative platform to provide administrative services to UN Secretariat entities located in each duty station as an effort to improve efficiency and reduce costs across the UN system.

Its creation would begin with the New York and Bangkok stations, Guterres told the Fifth Committee of the UN General Assembly while formally introducing a revised estimates report relating to the proposed program budget for 2026 and the support account for peacekeeping operations for the 2025/26 period.

"This represents a considerable improvement of our efficiency, putting together what is done separately by different entities with naturally much more costs," the UN chief said.

He also proposed the consolidation of payroll processing into a single global team operating across three centers -- UN Headquarters, the Regional Service Centre in Entebbe, and the United Nations Office at Nairobi.

In addition, Guterres proposed a systematic review by entities in New York and Geneva of functions that could be performed effectively in lower cost duty stations.

"This is part of a broader strategy to reduce our commercial footprint and achieve a long-term cost reduction," he said.

According to Guterres, since 2017, the UN Secretariat has saved 126 million U.S. dollars from terminating commercial leases in New York, and further consolidation in existing premises, including terminating leases in two buildings by late 2027, is projected to save an additional 24.5 million dollars annually from 2028.

In the report, the UN chief also proposed to bring the United Nations' 2026 regular budget down to 3.238 billion dollars, a 15.1-percent reduction compared with the 2025 appropriation, and its proposed staffing table to 11,594 posts, a reduction of 18.8 percent compared with the 2025 appropriation. ■