RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/BFA/98 
5 September 2007 
 (07-3740) 
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration  
  
 
REPORT OF THE MEETING HELD ON 29 JUNE 2007 
  
1. The WTO Committee on Budget, Finance and Ad ministration met on 29 June 2007 under the 
chairmanship of Mr. Tony Lynch of New Zealand.  The terms of reference and composition of the 
Committee are set out in document WT/L/44/Rev.1. The agenda contained in document 
WTO/AIR/3037 was adopted.  
I. ADMINISTRATIVE UP-DATES AND PR OGRESS REPORTS AS AT 31 MAY 2007 
A. C
ASH SITUATION AND STATEMENT OF OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTIONS – PROGRESS REPORT  
B. CONTRIBUTIONS OF OBSERVER COUNTRIES TOWARDS THE COST OF SERVICES PROVIDED BY 
THE SECRETARIAT – PROGRESS REPORT  
2. A member of the Secretariat presented the cash  situation, the statement of outstanding 
contributions from Members as at 31 May 2007 and a statement regarding the contributions of 
Observer countries towards the cost of services provide d by the Secretariat.  As at the reporting date, 
the total of funds available stood at CHF 80 milli on.  Contributions received from Members amounted 
to CHF 112.5 million for the current year and CHF 3.6 million for prior years, while those from 
Observers amounted to CHF 414,000 for the curr ent year.  The Working Capital Fund stood at 
CHF 9.4 million as at 31 May 2007.  The Secretariat pointed out that six Members (Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Guin ea, Guinea-Bissau and Niger) still had outstanding 
contributions to the Working Capital Fund amounting to CHF 177,000 as at 31 May 2007.  All these Members belonged to Category IV (Inactive Members). 
C. H
UMAN RESOURCES MATTERS  
3. A member of the Secretariat introduced document CRP(07)09 and explained that the 
performance bonuses for the year 2006 had been paid to staff in May 2007.  In comparison to former 
years, bonuses were for the first time de-linke d from the top rating in the Performance Evaluation 
Report, i.e. staff members with top ratings in th e performance evaluations could be recommended by 
the respective Division Director for a bonus but the top rating would not, as such, lead to a bonus.  
Bonus recommendations had then been approved by the Director-General.  It was added that a total of 
71 staff members had been awarded a bonus, corresponding to 14.5 per cent of the total eligible staff. 
4. With respect to the Learning and Developmen t Programme, Members were informed that 
several courses focusing on technical skills had been or ganized for various divisions as well as the last 
two management training courses specifically desi gned for higher level staff.  Furthermore, the 
online-induction programme with the objective of assi sting newcomers to familiarize themselves with 
the WTO, its history, structure and people, had been launched in early June.  
5. With regard to the ongoing design of the Comp etency Framework, the Secretariat explained 
that the Director-General had decided to include t echnical competencies, in addition to the partially-
formulated core and managerial competencies.  Me mbers were also informed that the E-recruitment 
project was in the last revision and validation ph ase before going live at the end of the year.  WT/BFA/98 
Page 2  
 
6. Finally, the member of the Secretariat provided an up-date of temporary assistance positions 
and was pleased to announce that, for the firs t time since the monitoring process of temporary 
assistance started at the end of 2004, there were no temporary assistance contracts beyond 11 months charged to temporary assistance funds.  
D. 
 PENSION MATTERS  
7. A progress report (document CRP(07)10) was presented by a member of the Secretariat who 
informed the Members that the performance of the tw o global equity mandates had been the subject of 
a review by the Management Board and that, in view  of recent results achieved by the active manager 
of these mandates, it had been agreed that the Ma nagement Board should consider the possibility of 
switching to a passive management approach.  Candi date managers would be invited to present their 
offers at the next meeting scheduled for the beginning of July. 
8. Members were further informed that the Mana gement Board had had a first reading of the 
report by a working group established to review the funding position of the Plan and which had 
focussed particularly on the actuarial valuation assumptions regarding salary movements, life expectancy and Plan administration costs. 
9. Finally, Members were provided with statisti cs concerning the development and performance 
of the Pension Plan since its inception in 1999. 
E. S
TATUS OF EXTRA -BUDGETARY ACTIVITIES : 
i) Technical Assistance Activity as at 15 June 2007; 
ii) Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund. 
10. Another member of the Secretariat presen ted documents WT/BFA /SPEC/166 and CRP(07)11 
and informed the Committee that as at 15 June 2007, funds available in the DDAGTF amounted to 
CHF 18.7 million, outstanding pledges stood at CHF 2.5 million and that additional contributions of 
CHF 2.8 million were still needed to reach the 2007 target amount of CHF 24 million.  It was further 
added, that since 15 June, pledged contributions of Japan and the United States had been paid.  The 
member of the Secretariat expressed  confidence that total funds would reach the target amount of 
CHF 24 million, but that the timely receipt of c ontributions in accordance with the set deadlines 
remained a recurring concern.  Therefore, it was s uggested that consideration might be given to multi-
year pledges, which would improve the Secretaria t's ability to implement the programme adopted by 
Members without any delay. 
11. The Secretariat also presented two new trust funds, which had been established recently.  It 
was explained that the first trust fund entitle d "Preservation and Enhanced Dissemination of 
GATT/WTO Documents" had been established to finan ce the remaining work in this area and was of 
special relevance to the reference centers in deve loping and least-developed countries.  The total cost 
of this project was estimated at CHF 1.3 million.  The second trust fund had been established to finance an extensive programme to provide techni cal assistance to Members and Observers to conduct 
a self assessment of their trade f acilitation needs and priorities, with  the objective of enabling more 
effective participation of Members and Obser vers in the trade facilitation negotiations. 
F. O
RAL REPORT ON SECURITY IN THE WTO 
12. A member of the Secretariat presented a progress report on several ongoing projects and 
informed Members that a security consultant group would be hired to work on the video surveillance 
project, which should be started with the installa tion of the new technology in winter 2007/2008 with 
a project completion date in 2009.  Furthermore, a blast expert had conduc ted a blast vulnerability  WT/BFA/98 
 Page 3 
 
 
  study with respect to the installation of a shatter re sistant window film.  The installation of the shatter 
resistant window film should be completed for CWR in winter 2007.  With regard to the Accreditation and Registration project, the visitors and downstr eam process would be finished in summer 2007, 
whereas the upstream process definition and software  design would be completed in winter 2007. 
13. One Member inquired whether all of the pr ojects presented in the progress report were 
conducted within the financial envelope agreed  by the Committee in Spring 2005, which was 
confirmed by the Secretariat. 
14. The Committee took note of the various reports. 
G. R
EPORT ON FUTURE BUILDING NEEDS OF THE WTO 
15. Members were informed that further discussions had taken place between the Swiss 
authorities and the Secretariat with the primary fo cus on proposals to densify, renovate and improve 
the existing site. From the Director-General's poi nt of view, this would be considered as very 
workable, if the appropriate projects could be approved as part of the proposals coming from the 
Swiss authorities, and if this could be done within th e binding constraints that Members had in mind.   
16. The Swiss Ambassador recalled that the parliamentary procedure concerning the 
appropriations made for the Avenue-de-France projec t had been suspended and that the question of 
the space problems of the WTO was on the agenda  for the Federal Council (Conseil Fédéral) on 
4 July.  He added that he hoped that a decision w ould be taken during this session and that he would 
be able to come back to Members regarding this decision at the next meeting. 
17. Several Members expressed their concern and disco mfort with respect to the expiry of the 
deadline for the bids for the Avenue-de-France pr oject without substantive discussion in the Budget 
Committee.  They indicated that, if the project were  to go forward, they trusted that Members would 
not have to bear any financial implications from th e delay.  Another Member said that his authorities 
considered the amount of CHF 60 million foreseen for the Avenue-de-France project to be a benchmark with regard to the building needs of th e WTO.  Some other Members were worried about 
the general lack of information and about the time-fra me which they feared could lead to pressure for 
a quick decision. Furthermore, one Member poi nted out that the continued co-operation of 
Switzerland as a host country was essential to both long-term and short- and medium-term solutions. 
II. PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE STAFF RULE ON EDUCATION GRANT 
18. A member of the Secretariat presented document WT/BFA/W/159 proposing an amendment 
of Staff Rule 106.15 regarding the education gran t in line with an approved recommendation by the 
United Nations General Assembly with  effect from 1 January 2007.   
19. Several Members expressed the need for more time to take a decision on this issue and also 
asked for more detailed information from the Secretaria t.  Therefore, it was decided to consider this 
issue at a future meeting. 
III. SECRETARIAT VERSION.3 
20. A Member of the Secretariat explained that the Secretariat was still in the process of finalizing 
the Director-General's proposals on the Secretariat Version.3 project and that Members would be 
provided with more detailed informati on at the next meeting of the CBFA. 
 
__________