RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/BFA/79 
14 September 2005 
 (05-3997)  
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration  
  
REPORT OF THE MEETING HELD ON 29 JUNE AND 11 JULY 2005 
  
1. The WTO Committee on Budget, Finance and Admi nistration met formally and informally on 
29 June 2005 and on 11 July 2005 under the chairmanship of Mr Jan-Meinte Postma from the Netherlands.  The terms of reference and com position of the Committee are set out in document 
WT/L/44/Rev.1.  The agenda contained in document WTO/AIR/2606 was adopted
1. 
I. ITC – PRELIMINARY BUDGET ESTIMA TES FOR BIENNIUM 2006 - 2007 
2. The Director of the Division of Programme Support  (ITC) presented the preliminary budget 
estimates  for the biennium 2006-2007 (documents ITC/BUD/50 and A/60/06).  The Committee was 
informed that, according to the new administrativ e arrangements agreed upon in October 2004 with 
the UN, a simplified fascicle would be submitted fo r information with a planned figure for the WTO 
and the UN to take note of, whereas a more detail ed budget proposal for review and final decision 
would be presented in the fall as part of the WT O overall budget submission.  The Director drew the 
attention of the Committee to the fact that th e planned figure in the document did not correspond 
exactly with what ITC originally planned to re quest, but that it had been reduced by the United 
Nation's administration during their budget review.  Further on, it was explained that the 2006-2007 
planned figure included two additional posts in order to enable the IT C to reinforce its core activities 
in areas where demand was increasing. 
3. The Committee took note of the ITC documents in  their first examination of the ITC budget 
proposal. 
II. ADMINISTRATIVE UP-DATES AND PR OGRESS REPORTS AS AT 31 MAY 2005 
A. CASH SITUATION AND STATEMENT OF OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTIONS  
B. CONTRIBUTIONS OF OBSERVER COUNTRIES TOWA RDS THE COST OF SERVICES PROVIDED BY 
THE SECRETARIAT  
4. A member of the Secretariat presented the cash  situation, the statement of outstanding 
contributions from Members as at 31 May 2005, 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 at CHF 61 million was slight ly lower by 1 per cent than at the same date in 
2004.  Contributions received from Members amount ed to CHF 109 million, while those from the 
Observers amounted to CHF 415,000.  The Capital Working Fund stood at CHF 9.1 million at 31 May 2005.  Since the date of the report, the fo llowing Members had made payments:  (i) Armenia, 
(ii) Bahrain, (iii) Brazil, (iv) Dominican Republic, (v) Ecuador, (vi) Guyana, (vii) Haiti, 
(viii) Jamaica, (ix) Kenya, (x) Morocco, (xi) Nepal, (xii) Papua New Guinea, (xiii) the People's 
Republic of China, (xiv) Rwanda, ( xv) Senegal, (xvi) Sierra Leone, ( xvii) Spain and (xviii) Sweden.  
In addition, the following Observers had also made payments:  (i) Iran and (ii)Tajikistan. 
                                                     
 
1 This report should be read in conjunction with document WT/BFA/78, which contained the 
recommendations to this report,  and was approved by the General Council on 27 July 2005. WT/BFA/79 
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 C. 
HUMAN RESOURCES PROGRESS REPORT  
5. A member of the Secretariat introduced (document CRP(05)10) and informed the Committee 
that the report of the external consultant on tem porary assistance was still under consideration and that 
in the meantime contracts were extended to 31 October 2005.  The curriculum vitae of the 
17 temporary guards had been submitted to the co mpany that had been aw arded the WTO Security 
Outsourcing Contract as well as 40 potential employers  in the Geneva area.  The Human Resources 
Division was exploring the creation of a training site on the intranet that would provide learning modules to staff members,  including managerial training.  With respect to the annual bonus scheme, 
he indicated that 28 per cent of the eligible st aff were awarded a bonus and that the WTO was the 
only international organization whic h had implemented a bonus system. 
6. With respect to the Junior Professional Officers (JPO) Programme, in which some members 
had expressed an active interest, the Committee w as informed that this programme would be 
implemented by the first quarter of 2006 initially with approximately three JPOs. 
7. Responding to several questions from Members,  the Secretariat undertook to provide:  
(i) additional information on the JPO Programme to Members who had expressed an interest in this 
programme, (ii) a breakdown of the results of the application of the bonus scheme for the 2004 
performance year, and (iii) additional information on  the executive summary of the consultant's report 
on long-term temporary assistance. 
D. 
WTO PENSION PLAN  
8. A progress report (document CRP(05)11.Rev.1) was presented by a member of the Secretariat 
who indicated that the Management Board had appr oved a new investment strategy and that it had 
concluded contracts with managers for four out of the five new mandates.  Considering a request for 
the recognition of entitlements for sa me-sex marriages, the Board concl uded that the time was not ripe 
to take a final decision considering the variety of  practices that existed in other international 
organizations.  Finally, the Comm ittee was informed that a new Bo ard had been constituted with a 
three-year term commencing on 26 May 2005.  
9. The Committee took note of the various reports. 
E. STATUS OF EXTRA -BUDGETARY ACTIVITIES : 
1. Technical Assistance Activity in 2005 
2. Doha Development Age nda Global Trust Fund 
10. Another member of the Secretariat presented documents WT/BFA/SPEC/130 and CRP(05)09.  
The attention of the Members was drawn to the fact  that this was the first time that the pledges 
registered as of 15 June did not meet the target am ount of CHF 24 million in relation to the approved 
technical assistance and training plan for 2005.  Pl edged contributions toge ther with the balance 
carried forward from 2004 amounted to CHF 19.9 milli on.  Taking into account the earmarked funds 
for the technical assistance activities included in the 2005 TA Plan (CHF 2.6 million), this figure 
could be near to CHF 22.5 million.   
11. Considering the need to build up a reserve of  25 per cent required to meet the commitments 
for the 2006 Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund, further contributions would be needed 
before the end of 2005 as the impact of the pl edging conference in 2002, had now faded out.    WT/BFA/79 
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 12. The Committee was informed that DDAGTF expe nditure had reached CHF 12.8 million in 
2005. 
13. Finally, despite the urging of the General Council that Members not earmark funds, Members 
continued with this practice, jeopardising the globa l nature of the program, its management, reporting 
and transparency.  Problems in reporting were encountered, as there were no means to identify 
expenditure directly related to such speci fic activities within the Global Trust Fund. 
14. The Committee took note of the report. 
III. NEW WTO ANNEXE 
A. ORAL PROGRESS REPORT  
15. With regard to the new annexe building for th e WTO, a member of the Secretariat provided 
an oral progress report of the project.  It was e xplained that the decision-making structure had three 
levels: (i) the planning group to ensure that the different studies were mutually compatible, (ii) the 
operational group which was a liaison between the local authorities, the neighbourhood 
representatives and the federal departments and ( iii) the Construction Committee which validated 
each phase of the project.  The Committee was inform ed that the WTO legal services were currently 
reviewing the requirements of the contract that wo uld be entrusted to a General Contractor.  The 
Committee was informed that a call for tenders w ould be submitted in mid-September, the bids 
received by mid-December and a recommendation made during the first quarter of 2006.  Finally, the 
parking issue was under active consideration, and it was hoped that an acceptable solution might be 
found.  
B. ESTIMATED COST REVISION  
16. The Secretariat explained that, due to unforeseen requirements relating to security and 
archives and the additional impact of inflation pert aining to the delay in construction, the original 
envelope of CHF 50 Million would no longer be sufficient.  With  regard to security, additional 
installations considered as necessary by the Swiss federal authorities needed to be included in the 
project.  A further complementary study on archives revealed that the preservation of the permanent 
archives of the WTO could only be guaranteed by re locating the archives outside the CWR.  Finally, 
due to the choice of the second-placed candidate "G olden Eye", the launch of the project had been 
delayed by six months, whereas the inclusion of th e additional security measures had resulted in an 
additional delay of another six months. 
17. The additional costs were detailed as follows:  (i) CHF 6.5 million for new requirements 
(CHF 5.1 million for security and 1.4 million for ar chives), (ii) CHF 950,000 for additional fees to 
specialized technicians and CHF 2.55 milli on relating to price inflation (document 
WT/BFA/W/131/Rev.2). 
18. See Recommendation I in document WT/BFA/78. WT/BFA/79 
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 C. ORAL
 REPORT  ON THE  SECURITY  ENHANCEMENT  PROGRAMME 
19. The Committee was informed that the service provi der in charge of security had been selected 
and that the staff would be operational as of 1 August 2005.  In this case the service provider was 
under a contractual obligation to consider appli cations from temporary ex-guards and to provide 
reasons, should any not be selected. According to  the service provider, five guards had met their 
requirements and had been sent for training, six – eight guards had been selected for other sites as 
vacancies arose, and five had either not a pplied or been considered unsuitable.  
20. With regard to the establishment of a Manage ment Group, the Committee was informed that 
two meetings had taken place to discuss the crea tion of a second access for vehicles and the traffic 
flows at the main entry/exit point.  A study on th e traffic issue would also be submitted by external 
experts, so that the Management Group could be expected to reach a conclusion by September. 
21. Finally, the Committee was informed that the wo rks for the Central Security Post would be 
finished at the end of July and that the works for the area reserved for the Director-General were 
expected to be finished in August. 
22. The Committee took note of the progress report. 
D. EXTERNAL  AUDITOR:  DURATION  OF MANDATE 
23. A member of the Secretariat presented document WT/BFA/W/130 and recalled that the five-
year term of the Austrian Court of Audit would finish with the accounts of 2006, which would only 
cover the first year of the biennium 2006 – 2007.  In vi ew of the fact that the formal audit report must 
cover the two annual financial periods of the bi ennium, the Committee recommended to the General 
Council  that the mandate of the Austrian Court of Audit as External Auditor of the WTO accounts 
and the WTO Pension Plan accounts be extended by  one year to include the accounts of the 2006-
2007 biennium.  (See Recommenda tion II in document WT/BFA/78) 
E. ORAL  REPORT  ON LONG  TERM  TEMPORARY  ASSISTANCE 
24. Another member of the Secretariat informed the Committee that the Secretariat was 
considering the report and findings of the inde pendent consultant commissioned to examine 
temporary assistance.  In essence, the report conclude d that, the tasks performed by 33 of the staff 
considered were deemed to be of an ongoing permanent nature a nd the Secretariat was considering 
ways within current means to address this issue.  The Secretariat indicated its  intention to re-deploy 
the financial resources made available with the de parture and non-replacement of three Directors to 
cover six of the posts examined by the consulta nt, and deemed as being of an ongoing nature. 
25. The Committee took note of this approach.  Th e Chairman indicated that implementation 
would be held in abeyance for two weeks to a llow Members to consult with their capitals.  If no 
objections were raised within this period , the Secretariat would proceed as planned. 
 
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