COUNCIL ENDORSES $10.5 MILLION BUDGET FOR SEABED AUTHORITY, WITH COMPROMISE ON ASSESSMENTS AND TRAVEL COSTS

COUNCIL ENDORSES $10.5 MILLION BUDGET FOR SEABED AUTHORITY,

WITH COMPROMISE ON ASSESSMENTS AND TRAVEL COSTS

(Reissued as received.)

      KINGSTON, 13 August (International Seabed Authority) -- The Council of the International Seabed Authority, acting without objection in Kingston this afternoon, recommended approval of a $10,509,700 budget covering the activities of the Authority in 2003-04, along with a compromise formula on the scale of assessments and the financing of developing country participation in the Authority’s two subsidiary bodies. 

The compromise, worked out in informal negotiations between morning and afternoon meetings of the Council, addresses the two issues on which opposing views were voiced when the Council first took up these financial questions yesterday afternoon, 12 August.

On assessments, the agreement retains the Finance Committee’s recommendation that the Authority’s scale for assessing its members’ budget contributions be based on the United Nations scale, including the recent lowering of the maximum rate from 25 to 22 per cent.  To the Committee’s recommendation, the Council added a call to review the scale in 2004 when considering the 2005-06 budget “in the light of the contributions required from members of the Authority”.

Today’s formula also calls for, “as an interim measure”, the creation of a voluntary trust fund, with contributions from Authority members and others, to defray the travel and subsistence expenses of members from developing countries attending the annual meetings of the Finance Committee and the Legal and Technical Commission.  At the same time, it calls for a review of ways to finance such participation, including the possibility of a provision in the Authority’s budget.  Members of these two bodies serve as experts rather than government representatives.

In response to a question by Senegal as to the meaning of the word “participation” in this context, Council President Fernando Pardo Huerta (Chile), who announced the compromise text today, confirmed that it covered the costs of travel to and per diem during meetings.

At the suggestion of Japan, the Council agreed that the paragraph of its decision relating to assessments, in addition to mentioning the ceiling rate, should include a reference confirming the floor (minimum) rate of the Authority’s scale at 0.01 per cent.

Today’s budget recommendation now goes to the Assembly of the Authority for action later this week, before the current session closes on Friday, 16 August.

The other elements of today’s recommendation to the Assembly (draft in ISBA/8/C/L.2) had been proposed by the 15-member Finance Committee, whose report (ISBA/8/A/7-ISBA/8/C/3) was presented yesterday by its Chairman, Domenico da Empoli (Italy).  The Committee met last week in closed session from 6 to 8 August.  The budget total endorsed by the Council today was the amount requested by Secretary-General Satya N. Nandan.

      The budget (ISBA/8/A/6-ISBA/8/C/2), providing for expenditures of

$5,221,900 in 2003and $5,287,800 in 2004, would pay for a secretariat at the current level of 37 posts, whose main tasks will continue to be monitoring activities by contractors exploring the deep sea-bed for polymetallic nodules, building a database on seabed minerals and promoting international cooperation in marine scientific research relating to the seabed.  The emphasis on research will be carried forward in annual technical workshops, including one next year on development of a geological and exploration model of the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone in the Central Pacific Ocean, the main nodule region.

In proposing the budget, the Secretary-General noted that it was less than

1 per cent above the approved level of $10,506,400 for 2001-02, adopted by the Assembly two years ago.

(The action to lower the maximum contribution rate from 25 to 22 per cent is in line with a decision taken by the United Nations General Assembly in

2000 regarding that organization’s budget.  In the case of the Authority, the rate applies to Japan as the largest contributor.)

The Council recommended that surpluses of previous years be used to reduce assessments in the next budget period.  These savings amount to

$1,695,000, lowering assessments to $8,814,700, according to the Secretary-General’s budget report.

The Council recommended that the budget be adjusted to take account of any agreement reached between the Authority and the Government of Jamaica regarding expenses for the use of the Authority’s headquarters office space in downtown Kingston.  The two sides have for three years been negotiating the share that the Authority should pay for maintenance costs, and Secretary-General Nandan informed the Assembly on Friday, 9 August, that considerable progress had recently been made in the talks.

In another point of today’s budget decision, the Assembly was asked to appeal to States in arrears to pay their contributions as soon as possible.  The Secretary-General has reported that 65 members and four former provisional members were in arrears for this and/or prior years.  For the two years of the current budget period, arrears amounted to 4 per cent for 2001 and 53 per cent for 2002.

The Council will meet again tomorrow, 14 August, following a morning meeting of the Assembly.

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