RESTRICTED  
  
WT/BFA/W/369/Rev.1  
 
20 October 2015  
(15-5533)  Page: 1/11  
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration    
 
  BUILDING RENOVATION FUND  
Revision 
 
1  INTRODUCTION 
1.1.  This document provides additional information related to the Secretariat's proposal to 
establish a Building Renovation Fund1 to cover the foreseeable costs of medium and long-term 
building and infrastructure projects. The purpose of the Building Renovation Fund would be to 
finance the costs of extraordinary but necessary building and infrastructure maintenance of the single site, including the costs of future projects, undertaken with a view to introducing improvements or enhancements to the site. 
1.2.  This proposal, to establish a Building Reno vation Fund, is in compliance with the revised 2013 
Infrastructure Contract
2 agreed by the WTO and the Swiss Authorities. The WTO's responsibilities 
and obligations are stipulated in the agreement on  ordinary and extraordinary maintenance, which 
covers structure and fixed installations, as owner of the Centre William Rappard (CWR), the new 
Atrium and the South Courtyard Conference Centre, the new Administrative Building and its 200 vehicle capacity underground parking, and the new Accreditation Building (Welcome Pavilion).  
2  GUIDELINES AND FUNDING CALCULATION  
2.1.  The level of structural maintenance and improvements will be substantial in the medium and 
long-term. These costs will be covered by the creation of a Building Renovation Fund. 
2.2.  The guidelines of the Building Renovation Fund will be equivalent to those used for the 
Members' Transition Operating Fund
3, as follows: 
a. the funds shall only be used to finance extraordinary maintenance, repair, improvement, 
and enhancement building and infrastructure costs, including the upgrading of existing 
facilities;  
b. the Secretariat shall maintain an up-to-date list detailing estimated expenditures that 
may be financed from the Building Renovation Fund. The list shall be presented to the 
Committee regularly; 
c. use of the fund shall be subject to approval of the Committee; 
d. the Secretariat shall report on fund activities as part of the annual financial report; 
e. the Secretariat shall coordinate renovation projects with FIPOI regularly to ensure 
maximum use of the funds made available by  the Swiss Confederation on a priority 
basis; 
f. funds shall be transferred to the Buil ding Renovation Fund as follows:  
i. annual financing from the regular budget;  
ii. any other source in accordance with the Financial Regulations; 
                                               
1 WT/BFA/W/359  Building Renovation Fund. 
2 WT/BFA/W/298  Draft amendments  to the Infrastructure Contract. 
3 WT/BFA/W/178/Rev.1  Utilization of the 2007 Surplus. WT/BFA/W/369/Rev.1 
 
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  g. the closure of the Building Renovation Fund shall be decided by the Committee. Any 
remaining unused funds shall be returned to the Surplus Account upon closure of the fund. 
2.3.  The "Fondation des Immeubles pour les Orga nisations Internationales" (FIPOI) presented to 
the Committee on Budget, Finance and Administrati on on 8 June 2015 their model applied to the 
calculation of necessary funds (see Annex I) for the establishment of a Building Renovation Fund 
for the WTO buildings.  
2.4.  The FIPOI model assesses the full building value, plus on the basis of imputation, an initial 
value of 5% for equipment and 4% for furniture cost. Equipment covers, for example, catering, 
audio-visual, archiving, and security, but not IT equipment.   
2.5.  Attribution of funds to  the dedicated renovation fund  are calculated as follows:  
a. 1% applied to the full value of the build ing, including furniture and equipment:  
i. Centre William Rappard, Extramuros/new Ad ministrative Building, Welcome Pavilion; 
b. 1.2% applied to the full value of the building, including furniture and equipment: 
i. Intramuros Atrium and the South Courtyard Conference Centre; 
c.  0.5% applied to the full value of the un derground parking, including equipment; and 
d. 2% applied to the value of the security perimeter. 
2.6.  On an annual basis, the Swiss Confederation, through FIPOI, finances CHF 1,000,000 for 
extraordinary maintenance costs of the CWR building
4. Any unused funds cannot be carried 
forward for use in future years. In addition, the Swiss Confederation allocates an annual amount of CHF 260,000 for the security perimeter. 
2.7.  An annual provision of CHF 1,300,000 is esti mated as necessary to build up the WTO Building 
Renovation Fund based on the FIPOI model. The FIPOI model assumes that, extraordinary maintenance and substantial repair and renovation work occurs in 10, 15, 25, and 50 year 
intervals, which translates into CHF 13 million ov er 10 years and to CHF 65 million over 50 years. 
3  ORDINARY MAINTENANCE 3.1.  In addition to the extra-ordinary main tenance, the regular annual maintenance for the 
WTO premises amounts to some CHF 1.4 million per year. The expenditure for the regular 
maintenance for the WTO premises and their installations and equipment has increased gradually over the last three years with the end of the maintenance services provided by the FIPOI until 
2012. Since 2013, the WTO has gradually negotiated contracts with outside companies for HCV 
(heating, cooling, ventilation), electrical instal lations and for the maintenance of the green areas 
and surface coatings. The original budget allocated to the building maintenance amounted to some CHF 500,000. Within a zero-nominal growth budge t, CHF 900,000 need to be generated in other 
areas in order to finance the additional annual cost. 
                                               
4 Annex 14 – WT/GC/2  Infrastructure Contract.  WT/BFA/W/369/Rev.1 
 
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  3.2.  The table below presents the types of yearly regular maintenance expenditure.  
Table 1 Regular maintenanc e expenditure per year 
Item Amount in CHF 
Contracts for the maintenance and servicing of installations (maintenance of 
lifts, cooling units, and fire detection and traditional heating systems in the 
CWR) 450,000.00  
Skilled trades (painting, joinery, flooring, plumbing, locksmithing and 
ironwork) 300,000.00  
Maintenance and servicing of HCV systems  280,000.00  
Maintenance and servicing of electrical installations and electrical installation 
work (framework contract to be renewed) 250,000.00  
Maintenance of green spaces 90,000.00  
Maintenance of measurement, control and regulation (MCR) installations 30,000.00  
Total 1,400,000.00  
 
4  MEDIUM AND LONG-TERM PROJECTS 
4.1.  Medium and long-term building and infrastr ucture projects are anticipated every 10, 15, 25, 
and 50 years on the basis of the depreciation or expected duration of a building component, as 
follows: 
a. 10 years: technical installations, interior carpentry works and furnishings, operating 
equipment and furniture; 
b. 15 years: sanitary and plumbing, heating, cooling and ventilation systems, elevators; 
c. 25 years: façade, roof, windows, electricity, exterior woodworks; and 
d. 50 years: building structure.  
4.2.  The establishment of a Building Renovation Fund is considered good practice in the facilities 
management domain and is critical to providing timely financial reserves for the medium and long-term extraordinary maintenance and renovation needs of the WTO buildings. 
5  UTILIZATION OF THE SURPLUS ACCOUNT CREDIT BALANCE 
5.1.  The Secretariat proposes an initial cash injection of the closing balance of the Members' 
Transition Operating Fund, amounting to CHF 1,700,680
5, to establish the Building Renovation 
Fund. 
5.2.  In addition, the Director-General proposes to the Committee to strengthen the financing of 
the proposed Building Renovation Fund by transf erring to the fund the balance of the Surplus 
account available at the end of 2011.  It is recalled that the 2011 Financial Performance Reports 
disclosed a credit balance in the Surplus Account of CHF 739,756 (WT/BFA/W/280).   In 
accordance with Financial Regulation 23 (WT/L/156/Rev.3), the Committee may therefore wish to consider earmarking for the fund the total Surplus amount of CHF 739,756 from the financial year 
ending 2011. 
                                               
5 WT/BFA/W/341  Members' Transition Operating Fund.   WT/BFA/W/369/Rev.1 
 
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  6   RECOMMENDATION     
6.1.  The Secretariat therefore proposes that th e Committee adopt the following decisions in order 
to facilitate the future structural maintenance of the single site:  
a. The Committee agrees that a Building Renovation Fund be established in 2015 
and that it be sufficiently endowed to co ver future building renovation costs in 
cooperation with the "Fondation de s Immeubles pour les Organisations 
Internationales (FIPOI)".  
b. The Committee agrees that the Building Re novation Fund be initially funded 
from the Members' Transition Operat ing Fund's closing balance of CHF 
1,700,680. 
c. The Committee agrees that the Building Renovation Fund be governed by the 
proposed guidelines. 
In addition, the CBFA would make a recommendation to the General Council concerning the use of 
the Surplus account at the end of 2011.  This would read as follows. 
 
d. The Committee recommends to the General Council that the credit balance of 
the Surplus Account as at 31 December 2011, in the amount of CHF 739,756, be 
transferred to the Building Renovation Fund.    
 
 
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 WT/BFA/W/369/Rev.1 
 
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  ANNEX I 
 
 
WT/BFA/W/369/Rev.1 
 
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WT/BFA/W/369/Rev.1 
 
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WT/BFA/W/369/Rev.1 
 
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WT/BFA/W/369/Rev.1 
 
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WT/BFA/W/369/Rev.1 
 
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CHARTS SHOWING REHABILITATION COSTS AS % OF THE COST 
OF THE BUILDING OVER 100 YEARS
020406080100120140160
0102030405060
5 1 01 52 02 53 03 54 04 55 05 56 06 57 07 58 08 59 09 5 1 0 0
CUMULATIVE [%]COSTS [%]
YEARS
REHABILITATION COSTS AS % OF BUILDING'S VALUE
CUMULATIVE REHABILITATION COSTS
 
 WT/BFA/W/369/Rev.1 
 
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Renovation fund for the WTO site
Amounts proposed for consideration
BuildingsValues of 
buildings 
consideredFurnitureOperating 
equipmentTotal value
4% 5% Rate Amount Confederation WTO
CWR 140,000,000 5,600,000 7,000,000 152,600,000 1.0% 1,526,000 1,000,000 526,000
Intra-muros 20,000,000 800,000 1,000,000 21,800,000 1.2% 261,600 261,600
Extra-muros 40,000,000 1,600,000 2,000,000 43,600,000 1.0% 436,000 436,000
Car park (200 spaces) 10,000,000 500,000 10,500,000 0.5% 52,500 52,500
BCI 2,231,700 89,268 111,585 2,432,553 1.0% 24,326 24,326
Exterior layouts 1,130,000 56,500 1,186,500 1.0% 11,865 11,865
Security perimeter 13,000,000 13,000,000 2.0% 260,000 260,000 0
Totals 226,361,700 8,089,268 10,668,085 245,119,053 2,572,291 1,260,000 1,312,291Allocation of 
Renovation FundFinancing
 
 
 
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