60. The Commission examined the provisional accounts for the biennium 1966/67. Expenditure for the biennium had totalled US $ 235,000. This expenditure had been met by US $ 181,000 from the Regular Budget of FAO and US $ 54,000 from the Regular Budget of WHO. The distribution of expenditure had been as follows: salaries $ 101,100, common service costs $ 29,000, duty travel $ 11,700, meetings $ 40,800, and documents $ 52,400. The Commission noted that the expenditure had exceeded the original budget of $ 204,000 proposed by the Commission due to a pay award to United Nations staff, which had amounted to $ 11,000 for the staff of the Food Standards Program, and an increase in budget of $ 20,000 recommended by the Thirteenth Session of the FAO Conference.
61. The Commission noted that it had not been possible to proceed with the original proposals of the Commission for the budgetary contributions of FAO and WHO for the biennium 1968/69. It had been originally intended that FAO would contribute $ 416,000 and WHO would contribute $ 175,000. The Director-General of WHO informed the Director-General of FAO that it would not be possible for WHO to contribute more than $ 42,000 in 1968 towards the joint costs of the Program. This sum was subsequently approved by the governing body of WHO and similar provision has been made for 1969. In the light of these developments the Director-General of FAO was obliged to reconsider the level of contribution of FAO in order to maintain a relationship with the contribution of WHO.
62. The governing bodies of FAO and WHO had approved a total budgetary provision for 1968/69 of $ 402,000, $ 318,000 coming from the Regular Budget of FAO and $ 84,000 coming from the Regular Budget of WHO. The Commission noted and concurred with the view of the Fourteenth Session of the FAO Conference which had drawn attention to the importance of the public health aspects of the Program and had expressed the hope that WHO could participate more fully in it. The FAO Conference had also noted that, while the total financial resources available to the Program had increased, there had been a decline in the percentage contribution from WHO. The FAO Conference had expressed the hope that Member Nations of FAO and WHO would show the same interest and support of the Program in the governing bodies of both Organizations.
63. The Commission was informed that a large part of the difficulties which were likely to have arisen concerning documentation had been accommodated by a greatly increased allocation of the internal printing and translation services of FAO being made available to the Program. This assistance was not reflected in the budget of the Program which only contained the provision for external services required for documentation. The Commission noted that the main problem stemming from the reduction of the overall budgetary provision would be the increasing difficulty which the Commission's Secretariat would have in keeping pace with the progress of the work arising from the Commission's subsidiary bodies and government comments on a rapidly increasing number of draft standards. The Secretariat was requested to prepare, for consideration by the Executive Committee at its next session, estimates of the total additional cost and extra staffing which would be necessary if it were requested to assume responsibility for (1) translation, printing and distribution of all working documents for Codex Committees, and (2) translation, printing and distribution of reports of Codex Committees.
64. The Commission was informed that the Directors-General of FAO and WHO would be jointly examining the apportionment of costs of the Joint Program between the two Organizations as requested by the FAO Conference. The Executive Committee and the Commission would be kept informed of the budgetary proposals of the Directors-General.
