. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/BFA/W/131/Rev.2 
12 July 2005 
 (05-3082) 
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration  
  
 
 
REVISION OF THE ESTIMATED COST FOR THE CONSTRUCTION  
OF THE WTO ANNEX IN AVENUE DE FRANCE 
 
Revision
 
 
 In December 2001 the General Council accep ted the recommendation of the Committee on 
Budget, Finance and Administration to launch, in  cooperation with the Swiss authorities, a draft 
project study aimed at producing a building plan for a new annexe building for the WTO.  Further to 
the competition the General Council accepte d in December 2003 the recommendation of the 
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration that the "Golden Eye" project for the construction 
of a WTO Annex in the Avenue de France be launc hed in liaison with the Swiss authorities, on the 
basis of an overall cost envelope of CHF 50 million.  That cost would be financed by an interest-free loan made available by the "Fondation des immeub les pour les Organisations internationales" and 
reimbursable over a period of 50 years.  Since that date, in-depth technical studies have been carried 
out which have shown that the estimated envelope of CHF 50 million is not sufficient.  The reasons 
are essentially twofold:  the inclusion of new requi rements relating to security and archives that were 
not foreseen in the initial design and the additional imp act of inflation due to the delay in the start of 
construction.  A. A
DDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS  
 Security  
  Since 2001 security issues have taken on considerably greater importance.  A complementary study, taking into account in particular the UN- HQ MOSS and other stricter security criteria, was 
carried out by the WTO Administration.  The Swiss federal authorities have confirmed that the additional installations identified as a result of this  study should be considered as mandatory to meet 
current security standards applicable to such buildings .  It should be noted that the cost of undertaking 
these additional security installations separately from the overall construction project would be at least 
10 per cent higher than if they were included in the project as a whole.  It is, therefore, recommended that this cost be included in the loan facility rather than charged separately to the WTO regular 
budget. 
 
 Archives
 
  At the beginning of 2005, an expert archivist conducted a survey of the existing archives in 
the CWR building and recommended that a series of urgent measures should be taken to protect the 
existing archives.  At the same time, the expert  indicated that, even with those measures, only 
temporary archives should remain in the CWR sinc e the environmental conditions prevailing in the 
CWR were not compatible with current standards for the long-term conservation of archives.  The 
preservation of the permanent archives of the Organi zation could be guaranteed only by relocating the 
archives outside the CWR.  A complementary stud y was, therefore, undertaken of a purpose-built 
archive area in the basement of the Annex building. 
 WT/BFA/W/131/Rev.2 
Page 2  
 
B. D
ELAYS  
 The launch of the project was delayed by six months due to the change in the choice of  
architect.  Although the first prize in the arch itecture competition had been awarded to "Body 
Double", the final choice went to the second-placed candidate, "Golden Eye".  Furthermore, the work 
on the additional security measures resulted in an additional delay of six months. 
 
C. REVISED COST ESTIMATE  
 The revised cost estimate stands at CHF 60 million.  The additional cost of CHF 10 million 
includes the following:  
 - CHF 6.5 million for new requirements not included in the 2001 competition 
specifications (CHF 5.1 million for security and CHF 1.4 million for archives); 
  - CHF 950'000 of additional fees for speciali zed technicians (architects and engineers) 
required to conduct the additional studies;  and 
 
 - CHF 2.55 million relating to price inflation.  
 The Committee recalled that the funding arrangements for the new WTO annexe, 
subject to the approval of the Swiss Federal Pa rliament and the competent Geneva authorities, 
initially called for "an interest-free loan re-payab le over 50 years to finance the studies and the 
construction of the building for a total of about Sw F 50 million" (WT/BFA/SPEC/67).   
Having (i) considered that the original assumptions leading to the initiation of the project for 
the new WTO annexe (WT/BFA/W/134, paragraph 7) remained valid, and (ii) examined the 
reasons outlined in document WT/BFA/W /131/Rev.2, the Committee recommends to the 
General Council that the Director-General be author ized (i) to notify to the Swiss authorities 
the agreement of WTO Members with regard to the total revised estimated cost of CHF 60 
million and (ii) to complete the tendering process for the construction of the new WTO annexe.   
The Committee further recommends to the General Council that these authorizations be given  
on the understanding that (i) the WTO shall sign a fixed-price contract with a general 
contractor for the construction of the new WTO annexe;  (ii) this contract shall be for an  
amount which would bring the total project cost  to no more than CHF 60 million, (iii) any 
proposed change in the building plans and specif ications which would entail an increase in the 
estimated costs should be proposed only due  to unforeseeable reasons and would require the 
approval of the General Council on the basis of  a recommendation of the Committee on Budget, 
Finance and Administration; and (iv) the building contract should include a time schedule for 
the completion of the project which should be  binding for the contractor and subject to a 
penalty if not observed.  The Committee requested  the Secretariat to keep it informed on a 
regular basis with regard to the tendering process as well as the Swiss parliamentary process 
leading to the loan approval.  
 
D. OTHER ELEMENTS  
The Committee requests the Secretariat to c onsult the Committee regularly on issues of 
concern relating to the constraints of the site, pa rticularly with respect to accessibility and parking 
and possible solutions thereto. 
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