United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned today that the United Nations is facing "imminent financial collapse" due to debts and a budget rule that requires the UN to return unspent funds, Reuters reported.
"The crisis is deepening, program implementation is at risk and there is a risk of financial collapse. And the situation will further deteriorate in the near future," UN Secretary-General Guterres wrote in a letter to ambassadors dated January 28, which was seen by Reuters.
A financial crisis threatens the international organization, which consists of 193 member states from around the world, as the United States (US), the largest single contributor, has reduced voluntary funding to UN agencies.
The US has refused to make mandatory payments to the UN's regular budget, as well as to the organization's peacekeeping budget.
Guterres said in the letter that "the decisions not to honor assessed contributions that fund a significant portion of the approved regular budget have now been officially announced," without specifying which UN member state he was referring to.
"Either all Member States respect their obligations to pay in full and on time, or Member States must fundamentally revise our financial rules to prevent imminent financial collapse," Guterres wrote.
He stated that the UN could run out of funds by July.
The United States completed the process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO), a specialized UN agency, on January 23, a year after US President Donald Trump announced that he was terminating its 78-year membership, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The AP states that at the time of the withdrawal, the US owed the WHO more than $130 million (about 110 million euros), according to the organization's own estimate.
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