The United Nations is in desperate need of cash and is begging member states to pay up. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent a letter to staff warning of the impending budget crisis. He blamed the cash shortfall on countries that have failed to make their required payments to the international body. The General Assembly approved a budget of $5.4 billion for 2018-2019.
“Our cash flow has never been this low so early in the calendar year, and the broader trend is also concerning; we are running out of cash sooner and staying in the red longer,” Guterres wrote.
He explained that the UN is facing a budget shortfall $139 million and said that "an organization such as ours should not have to suffer repeated brushes with bankruptcy."
Guterres said that he is looking at ways to cut costs without impacting the core mission of the UN. He said that is working on proposals to help shore up the finances and expects to present them to member states in the near future.
Hugh Dugan, a former US diplomat at the UN, told Fox News that the budget shortfall is not due to missed payments by the United States.
“A look at the record shows that Trump has continued to fund it at historic levels, chose it to sanction North Korea, and uses it as a platform to defend Israel. However, there is a wide misperception fed by Trump detractors and a combative media that his Administration has walked away from the U.N.”
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