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/ Council Working Group for the Elaboration of the Draft Strategic Plan and the Draft Financial Plan, 2008-2011 / Document: WG-SP-FP-06/4114 August 2006
English
Geneva, 14 and 15 September 2006
Elaboration of the Draft Financial Plan 2008-2011
Introduction
Section A of this document provides comments and detailed information with regard to the specific options for reducing expenditure contained in Section II of the Annex to document WG-SP-FP/39 on the report of the fifth meeting of the Council Working Group for the elaboration of the draft Financial Plan 2008-2011. Further, Section B provides comments to Section II of the Annex of the same document on additional expenditure to be taken into consideration. An additional item “Reserve for staff installation and repatriation” has been included. Section C addresses the request by the Working Group on the breakdown of the costs of outputs. Tables with appropriate supporting data and figures are inserted where appropriate.
Annex 1 includes a glossary of terms utilized in financial planning and budgeting for ease of clarification and understanding.
ASome options for reducing expenditure (reference document WG-SP-FP/39, annex, part II):
- Identify duplications (functions, activities, workshops, seminars) and centralize finance and administrative tasks.
Reference is made to Annex H in document C06/56 on the report by the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance to the Plenary meeting, and the replies of the Secretary-General to the questions of the Reflection Group and of the United States on the draft Financial Plan 2008-2011.
The comments of the ITU Secretariat to the contribution from Australia (WG-SP-FP-06/32) are given in document WG-SP-FP-06/41, Annex 2.
The issue of the centralization of finance and administrative tasks is being reviewed by the New Efficiency Committee (NEC). However, any potential savings could only be realized in the long term. See the report to the Council 2006 on the activities of the Union, in particular the efficiency measures and the NEC (document C06/35, paragraphs 135 to 140).
Possible savings: Unable to quantify.
- Coordination and harmonization of seminars and workshops in order to avoid duplication of the subjects covered and to optimize the Secretariat attendance.
The coordination and harmonization of seminars and workshops is a necessity. The experience shows that the objectives and scope of work are not duplicating, and therefore it is rather difficult to be able to identify possible areas of cost savings. However, there may be some room for improving the organizational aspects.
See the comments of the ITU Secretariat to the contribution from Australia (WG-SP-FP-06/32) in documentWG-SP-FP-06/41, Annex 2.
Possible savings: None could be identified.
- Coordination with the Regional Organizations in view to share the available resources of the regional organizations and minimizing the costs of participation (workshops, seminars, preparatory meetings for world conferences).
In the past regional organizations have cooperated with ITU in promoting regional presence at world conferences. It is not likely that regional organizations would be expected to share costs of organizing and hosting ITU conferences as they have to fund their own preparatory activities, and therefore cost reductions cannot be foreseen in this area.
The ITU has been coordinating with regional and sub-regional organizations in a number of different areas. Past efforts to have regional and sub-regional organizations share financially in the organization and hosting of ITU events, and vice-versa, have however been met with limited success.
Possible savings: Opportunities for potential savings resulting from sharing resources with regional and sub-regional organizations will be explored as appropriate.
- Possible savings taking into account the natural attrition (opportunity for keeping vacant positions unfilled and for the redeployment of staff).
A lapse factor of nine months in recruitment delays is already applied to all posts due to be vacant following the retirement of their incumbents, except for D positions. A possible extension of these recruitment delays has also been considered, with the result that some of these posts are planned to be kept vacant until the end of the period 2008-2011. These measures are additional to the staff reductions already implemented in the past years. Operational efficiency would suffer by leaving positions vacant for too long, and further reductions in staff resources would lead to certain activities being discontinued. The tables in paragraph 4.3 of document C06/23 illustrate clearly the significant efforts made since the 2002-2003 budget. Table 1 below indicates the number of ITU staff due to retire during the period 2008-2011.
Possible savings: The possibility for reducing costs is not linked to the natural attrition but rather to the programme of activities.
- Reduction in the cost of documentation of conferences and meetings by :
5.1Requesting at the time of registration whether paper copies are required
5.2How many copies are needed within the maximum number decided by the Plenipotentiary Conference or by Council.
5.3Maximum sets to be determined up to 3 per delegation.
5.4Reduce the number of paper copies sent to administrations; currently 5 sets. Could be reduced to 2 or 3 sets maximum.
Major conferences and meetings already apply such efficiency measures. Yet, the amount of savings which could be achieved by limiting the distribution of paper copies is considered low.
Reductions in the cost of documentation are among the measures being considered by the New Efficiency Committee.
Possible savings: Possible savings are considered to be limited, as they apply to the reprography services only. They would be more substantial if the translation and composition activities would be affected. Planned amounts for 2008-2011 can be found in table 11 (see option 8). The documentation volumes since 2000-2003 are given in the following table 2.
6.Consideration of savings in languages (translation, interpretation) for study group meetings and publications.
Documentation is the main activity affected by the issue of languages. In this respect, it should be argued that Resolution 115 on “the use of the six official and working languages of the Union on an equal footing’ should be applied flexibly in that the decision to translate documentation in any language should be determined by the respective governing body of the sector subject to recommendation from the study groups themselves.
Reports to Council from the Secretary General and from the Sector Advisory Groups in documents C05/14 and C05/15 provide information on the use of languages.
ITU-T registration forms stipulate that interpretation will be provided only upon request. For ITU-T Study Group meetings, interpretation is only provided for the last Plenary meeting (one day), with the exception of Study Groups 2 and 3 which deal largely with regulatory and policy issues. Therefore, only 20 days are foreseen with interpretation against about 145 Study Group working days by year.
Table 3 above indicates the estimated costs of the activities related to the production of documents and of the interpretation services as provisionally planned for the period 2008-2011. The cost of document production is planned based on foreseen outputs. If these are modified, planned documentation volumes may have to be adjusted and the resulting costs are affected.
Table 4 above shows some examples of publication stock movements in 2004-2005 where there is overstocking or under-selling related to different languages.
Table 5 above shows the Radio Regulations as one example of publication stock movements in the 2004-2005 period. Please note that in the period concerned there were no ACR editions of the Radio Regulations.
Table 6 above shows ITU-T Recommendations stock movements in the 2004-2005 period. This table gives details for each language edition of both copies entered into stock and of copies sold.
Possible savings: Subject to strategic considerations and decisions.
7.Implementation of activities of WSIS through staff redeployment within the existing resources.
See document WG-SP-FP-06/40 on the WSIS implementation plan within ITU.
Possible savings: According to the discussion in the Working Group, the possibility to absorb the WSIS activities within the existing resources was suggested. Such a prioritization would be detrimental to other activities. Possible savings would amount to CHF 3.8 million as indicated in document WG-SP-FP-06/27 (item 10).
8.Full breakdown of the costs of Study Groups, Working Parties,
Task Groups and providing statistics on participation (Member States, Sector Members).
Breakdown of the costs of the ITU-T, ITU-R and ITU-D Study Groups by Study group is provided in the following table 7 below, based upon previous experience and current trends. The split between direct and indirect costs can be found under section C of this document.
Statistics on participation to ITU-T Study groups and working party for the study period from end 2004 up to end of June 2006 are specified in table 8 below.
Statistics on participation to ITU-R meetings in 2004 and 2005 are specified in the following table 9.
Information on participation to the ITU-D Study groups in 2004-2005 is given in the following table 10.
The basis upon which the draft financial plan has been prepared with respect to conferences and meetings is provided in the following table 11.
Possible savings: Subject to strategic considerations and decisions.
9.Limit the number of study groups meetings and their duration.
- Concerning ITU-R only 15 days of interpretation per year are planned for all the study groups. Moreover more than 300 days for the WPs and TGs are foreseen each year, without interpretation and with the documentation in only one language.
- Limiting the duration of ITU-T Study group meetings would lead to basically no saving since the major part of the costs of Study Group is linked to interpretation, which is provided only one day per meeting, and the translation of approved texts. Reducing the number of meetings in ITU-T would severely undermine ITU-T's role as the pre-eminent standards organization. The ITU-T's NGN Focus Group met every two to three months, and ITU-T's NGN Global Standards Initiative continues to meet every three months; the IPTV Focus Group is meeting every three months. This is what theever faster moving market of technological change demands.
- BDT has only two Study Groups. Following Decision 6 of Marrakesh, which aimed to take measures that would see savings in language-related expenditures, the length of BDT SG meetings was subsequently reduced in two stages over the past two biennia:
- from 5 to 4 days in accordance with TDAG recommendation of March2003
- from 4 to 3 days for 2006 in accordance with TDAG recommendation of December 2005
Possible savings: Subject to strategic considerations and decisions.
10.Limit the number of days of Advisory groups to 3 days per year maximum. Additional meetings may be held on cost recovery basis, i.e. costs are financed by the requesting Sectors.
The scope for possible savings covers mainly the interpretation services and the fellowships (where applicable).
Possible savings: An estimated CHF 0.5 million in savings could be achieved over the 2008-2011 plan period by limiting the duration of meetings to three days per year.
11.Elimination as much as possible of physical meetings of the working groups of the Council.
The major part of the costs of holding Council working group meetings is in respect of interpretation services.
Possible savings: In case of no interpretation, an estimated CHF 0.5 million in savings could be achieved over the 2008-2011 period.
12.Reduction of WRC to 18 days maximum taking into account the scope and complexity of the agenda.
Any tentative reduction which would depend on the agenda of the conference should be carefully considered, as a limited duration of the conference would result in a more intensive programme schedule and in an increase of overtime work and night sessions. The financial impact would therefore not be as anticipated.
Possible savings: A reduction of 8 days, from 26 to 18 days, would generate some savings estimated at CHF 0.5 million (about 20%).
13.Cancellation of regional preparatory meetings for the WTDC (CHF 1,106,000), for the WTSA (CHF 353,000), except for Africa region.
- There is no regional preparatory meeting for the WRC.
- Concerning the WTDC, this proposal is in contradiction with Resolution 31 of WTDC-06, which specifically instructs the Director of the BDT “to organize, within the financial limitations established by the Plenipotentiary Conference, one regional development conference or preparatory meeting per region…”. The ITU membership clearly expressed its views on this matter during the WTDC-06 in Doha, and only the ITU membership can decide to reverse its previous decision in this matter.
- Concerning WTSA, this proposal is in contradiction with Resolution 43 of WTSA-04 which specifically instructs the Director of TSB “to organize, within the financial limitations established by the Plenipotentiary Conference, one regional preparatory meeting per region. WTSA preparatory meetings reduced to the Africa region and to the attendance to Regional organization sessions for other regions would cost CHF 120,000 instead of the CHF 353,000 forecasted for the full organization of one regional preparatory meeting per region as requested by WTSA Resolution 43 (Florianópolis, 2004).
Possible savings: CHF 806.000 in respect of the regional preparatory meetings for the WTDC and CHF 233.000 in respect of the regional preparatory meetings for the WTSA.
14.Identification of the level of achievement of the different programmes in view to utilize these resources for other new activities.
The identification of the level of achievement of the BDT programs and activities was, to a large extent, carried out by the recently concluded WTDC-06. Indeed, the WTDC-06 carried out an extensive assessment of the six major BDT Programs, as well as of the various special initiatives, and decided to include these in the Doha Action Plan for the next 4-year period. The WTDC-06 also proposed, for each program and special initiative, an initial estimate of the funding which would be required over the next 4-year period, and proposed additional funding for new activities.
Possible savings: n/a.
15.For new programmes or those having additional financial resources implications, a “value-added impact statement” should justify how the proposed programs differ from current and/or similar programs to avoid overlap and duplication.
It should be stated from the outset that there are very few new programs or existing programs having additional financial resource implications in the draft Financial Plan 2008-2011.
WTDC-06 adopted, through Resolution 17, one major new Programme, which is entitled Regional Initiatives, which did not exist before, and for which the proposed expenditure, over the next four years, is CHF 4.5 million, or CHF 1.125 million per year, which corresponds roughly to CHF 45,000 per regional initiative per year.
WTDC-06 also expanded the former Special Program for LDCs, which will now also cover SmallIslandDevelopingStates, and Emergency Telecommunications. WTDC-06 proposed, in its Estimation of Costs for the Doha Action Plan, roughly CHF 1 million, over the 4-year period, or CHF 250,000 per year, to cover activities targeted towards SmallIslandDevelopingStates and Emergency Telecommunications.
Finally, WTDC-06 proposed one additional special initiative (for People with disabilities), the proposed expenditures of which will be absorbed within the existing BDT budget.
Possible savings: n/a.
16.New Programme for Regional initiatives in the Doha Action Plan: CHF 1 million instead of CHF 4.5 millions (for one pilot project for all regions).
This proposal is in contradiction with WTDC-06 Resolution 17, which agreed to a list of 25 priority initiatives, 5 per region, to be carried out by the BDT. These 25 regional initiatives are listed and briefly described in the annex to Resolution 17. Furthermore, in the Report of the Budget Control Committee of the WTDC-06, which was approved by the WTDC-06 Plenary, an estimation of Costs for the Doha Action Plan was submitted to and approved by the WTDC-06 Plenary. This estimation provides for expenses totaling CHF 4.5 million for Regional Initiatives, covering the period 2007- 2010. As mentioned in option 13 above, the ITU membership clearly expressed its views on this matter during WTDC-06, and only the ITU membership can decide to reverse its previous decision in this matter.
Possible savings: CHF 3.5 million in cost reduction.
17.Information requested on the allocation of resources for regional initiatives, programmes and assistance to members as well as results of the WTDC and Doha Action Plan.
The requested information on the allocation of resources for the Doha Action Plan was raised, during the June meeting of the Council Working Group, when consideration was being given to Table 4 of document WG-SP-FP-06/29, entitled “Assessment Matrix between Objectives and Outputs”.
Two issues were raised at that time:
- The amounts listed, under Sector Objectives, for each of the ITU-D outputs, needed to be explained. A new and revised table has been prepared (See table 15 under section C). This new table provides, for each ITU output, the requested breakdown between direct costs, indirect costs and full costs of outputs.
- The 13th ITU-D output, entitled “Assistance to Members”, was not well understood, as it appeared to be duplicative of some of the other twelve outputs. The BDT Secretariat was requested to provide clarifications on this particular point in a contribution to the next CWG meeting.
In the original submission of ITU-D outputs to the Council Working Group on the Strategic Plan and the Financial Plan, as well as to the 2006 session of the Council, the ITU-D had proposed a list of 21 outputs. The CWG and the Council were of the view that the list of outputs was too long, and decided to reduce the total number of outputs from 21 to 13. In order to capture the outputs which were being left off the ITU-D list of outputs, the following originally proposed outputs were merged into Output #13, entitled Assistance to Members: Gender Issues, Youth initiatives, Assistance to Indigenous Peoples, Assistance to People with disabilities, direct Ad-hoc Assistance for the Regions, funds-in-Trust/UNDP Projects, TELECOM Surplus Projects, and ITU-D Publications.
Possible savings: n/a.