Mr. Chair,

1. I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China on agenda item 154: Budget of the Regional Service Centre in Entebbe (RSCE), Uganda, for the period 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022.

2. The Group would like to thank Mr. Chandru Ramanathan, the Assistant Secretary-General and Controller, and Mr. Abdallah Bachar Bong, the Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, for introducing their respective reports.

Mr. Chair,

3. The General Assembly, in its resolution 64/269, established the Regional Service Center in Entebbe, Uganda, as the first Shared Service Center for Missions in the region under the Global Field Support Strategy and further in its resolution 69/307 gave the Center operational and managerial independence and requested the Secretary-General to submit a budget proposal to be charged against the Missions the Center supports.

4. In the budget period of 2021/22, the Centre will continue to provide human resources, finance, communications, and information technology, transportation, and movement control services, personnel and cargo transport, and procurement support services to its client missions as well as support liquidated and closed client missions.

5. As of today, the Centre provides services to 19 client entities including (eight) 8 Peacekeeping Missions and (ten)10 Special Political Missions, as well as other Missions in the region including closing missions. Since its establishment, the workload and volume of transactions carried out by the Centre have increased exponentially. It is therefore imperative that adequate resources commensurate with this increasing workload and responsibility are provided to the Centre for effective execution of its mandate.

Mr. Chair,

6. The Group notes with appreciation the conclusion of the study requested by the General Assembly on the Strategic Air Operations Centre, the Transportation and Movements Integrated Control Centre as well the Global Procurement Support Section in the context of an integrated supply chain management approach. The Group will study the recommendations of the outcome of the study, the integration of the Global procurement Section within RSCE as a tenant unit and the establishment of the Forward Support and Deployment Hub (FSDH) as a tenant unit reporting to the Office of Supply Chain Management to replace the TMICC that will allow the Secretariat to fully leverage the complementarity of the supply chain management within offices which have a technical reporting line to the Office of Supply Chain Management.

7. The Group of 77 and China also notes with appreciation the strengthening of the Global procurement Support Section (GPSS) and looks forward to understanding how it is being utilized in the system’s contracts and by the peacekeeping missions and offices in the region, and requests that the Secretary-General continues to make full use of the Global Procurement Support Section in Entebbe for procurement in the field to achieve economies of scale.

Mr. Chair,

8. The Group notes with concern that a total of sixty-one (61) posts were vacant as of 30 March 2021. This situation continues to hamper the effective implementation of the Centre’s mandate. The Group reiterates that the Centre should be adequately staffed and vacant posts should be filled expeditiously.

9. Finally, the Group looks forward to understanding the Secretary-General’s vision for the management of the Entebbe Base now that MONUSCO has reduced its reliance on the base and the need to revise and or have an independent host Government Agreement for the management of the facilities at the Regional Service Centre.

10. In conclusion, Mr. Chair, the Group, assures you of our commitment to engage constructively on this important agenda item.

I thank you, Mr. Chair.