Authorization of Programs the Policy Organs

Abstract

The first step in any budget process is that of formulating the goals of the institutions and the activities which shall be undertaken in pursuit of those goals. The broad and basic policy outlines may be determined by the psychological, social, economic, political, and institutional environment within which the organization functions, but there must be some procedures and arrangements whereby the amorphous and general objectives are converted into specific and concrete programs. In most modern governments, that budgetary conversion is the result of some combination of executive and legislative initiative and approval. But in the United Nations this conversion rarely approximates that executive-legislative combination; programs and activities of the Organization are almost totally initiated and adopted by the member governments as represented in the Assembly, the Councils, and their sub-units. The Secretary-General and his Secretariat merely implement the policy decisions of the governments, and might therefore be called the “administration,” but never the “executive branch.” This is not to say, however, that the Secretary-General is so powerless that, to paraphrase his frequent complaint, he can do nothing but convert the policy decisions of the organs into salaries, rent, and documentation. As will be noted throughout this study, the administration has discovered and perfected techniques of policy as well as budgetary influence, often with the encouragement of the national delegations and almost always with the support of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions.