CP/RES. 903 (1542/06)

ADJUSTMENT TO THE 2006 APPROVED PROGRAM-BUDGET

 (Adopted at its session held on April 5, 2006)

THE PERMANENT COUNCIL OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES,

BEARING IN MIND:

The report of the Secretary General entitled “Meeting the Political Priorities of the Organization of American States (document CP/doc.4071/05), presented on December 15, 2005;

Executive Order No. 05-13, Restructuring of the General Secretariat, dated December 14, 2005, which resulted in the unforeseen creation of new offices as well as in new activities; and

That General Assembly resolution AG/RES. 2157 (XXXV-0/05), the approved Program-Budget of the Organization for 2006, does not provide sufficient resources in 2006 with which to fund the full implementation of all of the structural changes and reorganization of the Departments and Offices of the General Secretariat; and

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT:

The reports of the General Secretariat on the Adjustment to the 2006 Program-Budget, which indicates that the Regular Fund budget needs an additional appropriation of $5.2 million in order to finance the General Secretariat’s activities (CP/CAAP-2812/06 rev. 1; CP/CAAP-2812/05 rev. 1 add. 1; CP/CAAP-2827/06; CP/CAAP-2821/06; CP/CAAP-2821/06 add. 1 y CP/CAAP-2819/06);

That under Article 72(b) of the General Standards, the Reserve Subfund of the Regular Fund contains the year-end excess of income over obligations and expenditures of the Operations Subfund, and typically, the excess is primarily attributable to the payment of member states’ quota arrearages;

That Article 72(b) of the General Standards provides in subparagraph ii that the Reserve Subfund may be used on a temporary basis to cover: “Special expenditures not provided for in the program-budget. Such expenditure must be authorized by the General Assembly or, when it is not in session, by the Permanent Council, which shall first hear a report on the condition of the Reserve Subfund and the reasons for such expenditures from its Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Affairs (CAAP); and

That the Reserve Subfund of the Regular Fund, as of December 31, 2005, had a total of US$8.6 million after restoring US$2.032 million in cash and unspent obligations, to the Capital Scholarship Fund in accordance with CP/RES. 894 (1516/05), “Use and Replenishment of the Capital Fund for the OAS Scholarship and Training Program to Meet Overextended Fellowship Commitments,”

RESOLVES:

1. To approve an appropriation adjustment of US$5.2 million to the approved 2006 Regular Fund program-budget of US$76.2 million, financed through the Reserve Subfund of the Regular Fund, to strengthen the activities of the General Secretariat pursuant to the budgetary regularizations set forth in the report contained in documents mentioned above, with the understanding that this appropriation includes funding for three professional-level positions to strengthen SEDI and $150,000 to strengthen Subprogram 21B - Meetings of the Permanent Council, Subprogram 21C - OAS unprogrammed conferences, and Subprogram 71C - CIDI ministerial meetings and inter-American committees.

2. To waive the requirement of Article 72 of the General Standards to replace in the Reserve Subfund such amounts appropriated by the Permanent Council.

3. To request the General Secretariat to include this appropriation adjustment of US$5.2 million in the quarterly reports on budgetary execution of the approved Regular Fund program-budget for 2006 of US$76.2 million and report on the consolidated execution of both appropriations to the Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Affairs (CAAP).

4. To establish that this appropriation adjustment does not constitute an approval for any given budget ceiling for 2007.