Guterres: UN risks financial collapse

TT

Updated 16.05 | Published 15.53

 

Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General. Archive photo. Photo: Henry Nicholls/AP/TT

The UN is facing financial collapse, Secretary-General António Guterres said in a letter seen by Reuters.

If nothing happens, the money could run out in July.

“The crisis is deepening” and “will get worse in the near future,” he wrote to the ambassadors of member states.

According to Guterres, the financial crisis is based on non-payments and a budget rule that means the UN must repay money that has not been spent.

The UN's largest contributor, the United States, is not mentioned by name. But Washington has broken with several UN bodies and has not paid its mandatory contributions to the UN's regular and peacekeeping operations.

Guterres offers two ways forward. Either everyone pays what they owe or the UN's financial rules must be rewritten.