CP/RES. 911 (1573/06)

ADJUSTMENT TO THE 2007 PROGRAM-BUDGET

(Approved at the meeting of December 13, 2006)
 

THE PERMANENT COUNCIL OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES,

HAVING SEEN the report of the General Secretariat titled “Projected Statutory and Inflationary Adjustments to the 2007 Program-Budget” (CP/CAAP-2860/06 add.1);

BEARING IN MIND:

That Article 40 of the General Standards that Govern the Operations of the General Secretariat provides, in pertinent part:

(a) The salaries in force for the staff of the General Secretariat shall be the salaries in force at the United Nations Secretariat, to the extent stated below as permitted within the framework of resolution AG/RES. 1319 (XXV-O/95), entitled Modification and Clarification of Resolutions AG/RES. 1275 (XXIV-O/94) and CP/RES. 631 (989/94) for the Modification of the General Secretariat's Staff Compensation System;

(b) The salary scales in force for net basic salaries shall be those applied by the United Nations Secretariat for the corresponding duty station, based on salary schedules recommended by the International Civil Service Commission; [and]

(c) The post adjustment schedules adopted for the United Nations Secretariat shall apply to the staff of the OAS General Secretariat;

That the United Nations periodically modifies the post adjustments of its professional category staff members in each duty station in accordance with corresponding changes in the cost of living, and the United Nations also regularly increases the basic salaries of its general services category staff members to reflect increases in the cost of living and changes in market conditions in the corresponding duty stations.

That resolution AG/RES. 1319 (XXV-O/95), which approved the current compensation system for the staff of the General Secretariat, provides, in pertinent part:

“Changes in net salary scales, post adjustments, and dependency allowance adopted by the UN General Assembly and implemented by the United Nations Secretariat shall apply automatically to the General Secretariat staff, within the framework of this resolution and shall go into effect for OAS General Secretariat staff on the same date they are effective for UN Secretariat staff . . . .”

That neither funding for the cost of living increases in staff compensation mandated under Article 40 and resolution AG/RES. 1319(XXV-O/95), nor the funding necessary to cover the inflationary increases in the costs of other operational expenses, was included to the extent required in the 2007 Program Budget for the Regular Fund, approved under resolution AG/RES. 2257 (XXXVI-O/06), and the additional amount needed to fund those costs is up to US$2,9 million; and


TAKING INTO ACCOUNT:

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 of the Regular Fund;

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 expenditures 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)”;

That Article 72(b) of the General Standards also requires the restoration of funds withdrawn from the Reserve Subfund for special expenditures by way of an equivalent appropriation in the following year’s program-budget or in such other manner as the General Assembly may require, but that in recent years, the General Assembly has waived that requirement upon the request of the Permanent Council;

That this resolution does not require an increase in the 2007 quota of any member state;

That the projected Reserve Subfund balance of the Regular Fund as of December 31, 2006, will be sufficient to cover the amount under consideration,

RESOLVES

1. To approve a special appropriation from the Reserve Subfund in the amount of up to US$2.9 million:

(i) To cover the cost of adjustments mandated under Article 40 of the General Standards and resolution AG/RES. 1319 (XXV-O/95) to the salaries, post adjustments, and dependency allowances of the staff of the General Secretariat whose posts are funded by the Regular Fund, and

(ii) To offset the inflationary losses in the purchasing power of the budgetary resources allocated to non-personnel expenditures

2. To request the General Assembly at its next regular session to waive the requirement under Article 72(b) of the General Standards which would otherwise require restoration of up to $2,9 million herein appropriated to the Reserve Subfund.

3. To request the General Secretariat to include this special appropriation of up to US$2,9 million in the quarterly reports on budgetary execution of the approved Regular Fund program-budget for 2007 of US$81,5 million and to report on the consolidated execution of both the program-budget and this special appropriation to the Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Affairs (CAAP).

4. That this resolution does not constitute an increase in the program-budget ceiling for 2008.