RESTRICTED  
  
WT/BFA/W/351  
 
30 January 2015  
(15-0678)  Page: 1/2  
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration   
 
  ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS TO THE REVISION 
OF THE WTO FINANCIAL REGULATIONS 
1.1.  The Chair of the Working Group on WTO Fi nancial Regulations has received the following 
suggestions from delegations regarding the proposed revision of the WTO Financial Regulations. 
These suggestions enhance the drafting and the cl arity without altering the objectives of the 
proposed revision to the WTO Financial Regulations. 
1.2.  The following suggestions are to be consid ered to supplement the proposal submitted by the 
Working Group on WTO Financial Regulations (WT/BFA/W/344/Rev.1) issued on 11 December 2014:  
 Regulation 7, 4
th paragraph. It is proposed to add a “the” before “functioning” in the first 
sentence.  
 Regulation 7, last paragraph. It is proposed to replace the “and” by an “or” in the last 
sentence. 
 Regulation 9. It is proposed to replace "shall consist of” by "consists of" in the first sentence. 
 Regulation 9. It is proposed to have the wo rd “regulation” starting with an upper case. 
 Regulation 10. It is proposed to am end the first sentence as follows: 
 Current: "The Committee shall examine the proposed budget and seek further 
explanations and amendments to the budget proposal as it deems necessary.  
 Suggestion: "The Committee shall examine the budget proposal and seek further 
explanations and amendments as it deems necessary." 
 Regulation 11. It is proposed to modify the first sentence to have greater clarity on the 
process to follow in case of a revision of th e budget for the second year of the biennium. 
 Current: "The same procedure shall be applied to any revision for the second financial 
period of the biennium" 
 Suggestion: "The same procedures set out in regulations 6, 7, 9 and 10 shall be applied 
to any revision for the second financial period of the biennium". 
 Regulation 15. It is proposed to remove the term “Membership” from the first sentence. 
 Regulation 25. It is proposed to add an "s" to the word "contract". 
 Regulation 26, 1st paragraph. It is proposed to remove the term "budgeted" and make 
reference to the financial statements rather than the budget to define budgetary savings. 
 Current: "The budgetary savings is defined as the difference between approved 
budgeted and the corresponding actual expenditure as presented in the budget.” WT/BFA/W/351 
 
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   Suggestion: "Budgetary savings are defined as the difference between the approved 
expenditure and the corresponding actual expenditure as presented in the WTO financial statements for the period." 
 Regulation 26, 2
nd paragraph. It is similarly proposed to remove the term "budgeted" and 
make reference to the financial statements rather than the budget to define budgetary 
savings. 
 Current: "The difference between the approved budgeted and actual miscellaneous 
income as well as the variation of the provision for contributions in arrears shall also be 
transferred to the Surplus Account.” 
 Suggestion: "The difference between the approved miscellaneous income and the 
corresponding actual miscellaneous income as presented in the WTO financial 
statements for the period as well as the variation of the provision for contributions in 
arrears shall also be transferred to the Surplus Account." 
 Regulation 34, 3rd paragraph. It is proposed to replace “engage on” with “engage in”. 
 Regulation 39. It is proposed to add "in a timely manner" at the end of the first sentence, to 
ensure that the report of the External Auditor and the audited financial statements are circulated without delay to the Committee. 
 Regulation 45, 2
nd paragraph. It is proposed to replace “equipments, supplies and other 
requirements” with “property and services” in order to ensure consistency with the first paragraph of that Regulation. 
 Regulation 49. It is proposed to remove the second paragraph as the process to submit and 
review the report of the External Auditor is already described in regulation 39.    
 Suggestion to remove the following paragraph: "The external auditor's report shall be 
submitted to the General Council, through the Committee, together with the audited 
financial statements.  The Committee shall examine the financial statements and the 
auditor's report and shall forward them to the General Council with such comments as it deems appropriate." 
 The final suggestion is to replace "Swiss francs" by "CHF" in regulations 32, 34 and 37 in 
order to be consistent ensure consistency with Regulation 6 where "CHF" is presented as the short form for "Swiss francs". 
 
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