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Secretary General Insulza Proposes Maintaining OAS Budgetary Levels for 2012

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, today proposed maintaining the Organization’s budget for 2012 at the same levels as 2011, with a sole adjustment of three per cent to cover inflationary increases.

Speaking at a special session of the Permanent Council in Washington, DC, the Secretary General proposed fixing the Regular Fund program-budget level for 2012 at US$87.9 million, US$83.1 million of which will be funded with Member State quotas. US$2.3 million will be financed with resources from the recovery of indirect costs from projects financed with external funds, US$341,000 from FEMCIDI for technical and administrative support and US$2.2 million will be obtained through resources from other income (interest, rentals, and amortization).

The total amount of the budget and Member State quotas must be defined by the Foreign Ministers of the Americas at the upcoming OAS General Assembly, June 5-7, in San Salvador. Subsequently, the OAS Permanent Council and the Preparatory Committee will be called to consider the Secretary General’s proposal and to draft a 2012 budget to be considered by a Special General Assembly in October.

“The time is right to achieve rational resource management so as to ensure that this valuable institution can continue to improve its capacity to maintain peace, promote democracy, safeguard security, protect human rights, and ensure that development reaches all citizens of the Americas,” Secretary General Insulza said.

The head of the Hemispheric Organization added that he submitted a proposal “in accordance with recent expressions of intent by some Member States and the specific recommendations on the matter by the Board of External Auditors.” At the same time, he highlighted that budgetary adjustments were made in recent years “in the least traumatic way possible,” despite the fact that at the end of 2011 the Organization will have 250 less Regular Fund positions than in 1995.

Secretary General Insulza warned however that internal adjustments and the proposals for 2012 fail to address the root of the budgetary issue, namely: first, the imbalance between expenses and income from quotas (the former must be indexed to real inflation, while the latter can only increase three per cent annually); and, second, the proliferation of mandates assigned by the General Assembly to the Organization.

At the Special Session the Permanent Representatives of the following countries also took the floor: Mexico, Dominican Republic, United States, Guatemala and Canada, all of whom formulated proposals such as increasing Member State quotas and raising funds to make necessary improvements in OAS buildings.

A gallery of photos of the event will be available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-665/11