The United Nations owes countries that send troops to serve under its baby-blue banner a huge debt — a literal one.

As of March 31, 2016, the world body owed troop-contributing countries a total of $827 million in back-compensation, Under-Secretary-General for Management Yukio Takasu told Indian reporters on May 4.

The way the U.N. peacekeeping systems works is this — member states donate funds to the United Nations and the world body then passes a portion of that money onward to countries that offer up their troops to peace missions.

The current, nearly billion-dollar debt includes $261 million in troop costs and $480 million in equipment costs for current peacekeeping missions. The United Nations owes India the most — $62 million. Bangladesh is the second biggest creditor at $59 million. Pakistan is due $49 million, and Ethiopia $47 million. …

The United Nations spends around $8 billion a year. The world body has no taxation powers, so member states — there are 192 of them — chip in. The United States alone pays for more than a quarter of the U.N. budget.

But donors are often late in their payments. In 2014, the United Nations complained that member states were tardy on payments totaling $3.5 billion, resulting in a $1.2-billion shortfall in compensation to troop-contributors. As of late 2015, the United States was late on U.N. bills amounting to a whopping $2 billion.

The United Nations Is Totally Stiffing Its Peacekeepers
https://warisboring.com/the-united-nations-is-totally-stiffing-its-peacekeepers-7202f7d64756#.10tnibg7k