- Granting of Immunities to Participants attending FAO meetings
- Octroi aVimmunites aux personnes participant à des reunions de la FAO
- Concesión de inmunidades a los participantes en reuniones convocadas por la FAO
LEGAL COUNSEL: The question concerning the immunities to be granted to participants in meetings convened by FAO was referred to the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Matters (CCLM).The Director-General felt that some amendment to Rule XXXVII, paragraph 4 of the General Rules of the Organization was called for.
While the privileges and immunities of participants in meetings held at the headquarters seat are covered by the Headquarters Agreement concluded between the Italian Government and FAO, the aforementioned Rule is currently cited in the standard letter of agreement between FAO and most governments for all FAO meetings held outside Headquarters.The Rule I have just mentioned refers specifically to sessions of bodies established under Article VI and Article XIV of the Constitution.
However, it does not expressly mention a number of meetings convened under the auspices of FAO, in particular sessions of the Conference or the Council, sessions of the Standing Committees of the Council and Conference, and working parties or consultations convened under Article VI-5 of the Constitution.
This question was considered by the CCLM at its 35th session and by the Council at its 72nd Session. Eoth the CCLM and the Council recognized that the Director-General had consistently followed the practice of satisfying himself that participants would be granted the immunities that are necessary for the independent exercise of their functions whenever FAO meetings were held outside FAO head-quarters .
However, the CCLM reached the conclusion - which was endorsed by the Council - that considering the limited scope which might be attributed to Rule XXXVTI paragraph 4 of the General Rules as at present, the practice followed by FAO did not have as a solid a legal basis as might be desirable. It should be noted in this connexion that the extent of the privileges and immunities covered,this provision now would remain unaltered. The objective of the amendment proposed by the Council is in a effect a codification of an existing practice whereby this provision should apply to all meetings convened by FAO outside the Headquarters seat.
The Commission may therefore whish to suggest that the scope of Rule XXXVI-4 of the General Rules be extended to all meetings convened by FAO, as has been recommended by the CCLM and the Council. A draft resolution on the lines recommended is contained in the third report of the Resolutions Committee, the document you have just mentioned, Mr. Chairman, namely document C 77/LIM/33 on page 8 of the English text.
T. HAYAKAWA (Japan): The delegation of Japan at the 71st Session of the Council reserved its position with regard to this amendment because of juridical problems that might "be involved in the new amendment. However, in view of the fact that there is no country which, is in opposition to this amendment, my delegation would like to support this amendment at this stage. However, I would like to point out - and I hope that this will be kept in the record of this Commission - that as there j.s a discrepancy between the stipulation in the Convention of the privileges and immunities of the specialised agencies of the United Nations, and the stipulation in the General Hules of FAO, it is the understanding of the Japanese Government that contracting parties of the Convention on the privileges and immunities of the specialised agencies of the United Nations would not ask for more immunities and privileges than those prescribed in the Convention on the privileges and immunities of the specialised agencies of the United Nations.
This is because the General Hules of FAO are nothing but the rules which govern the FAO bodies, inside matters of the FAO.
Therefore my delegation would like to ask the Secretariat of FAO to keep this understanding ofthe Government of Japan on record, and we support the amendment proposed by Council.
CHAIRMAN: Do I take it that this draft amendment as proposed is accepted? That is so. we will move on to the next item on the agenda.
- Amendments to the General Rules of the Organization (Personnel Matters)
- Amendements au Règlement général de l'Organisation (questions de personnel)
- Efciendas al Reglamento General de la Organización (Asuntos de personal)
CHAIRMAN: This item is straight-forward and the relevant document is C 77/LIM/16-Äev.1. It is self-explanstory but nevertheless if anyone wishes to intervene, the floor is open.
As there is no oomment, I take it that everybody agrees with this and that the resolution on page 7 of Document C 77/LIM/33 is accepted.
CHAIRMAN: I would ask the Legal Counsel to.introduce the subject.
LEGAL COUNSEL: Pursuant to Rule XXI paragraph 5 of the General Rules of the Organization the Director-General is required to report to the Conference whenever a convention agreement, a supplementary conve-tion or agreement concluded under Article XIV of the Constitution comes into force or ceases to be in force or has been amended and the amendments have come into force.
In addition, under established practice the Director-General also informs the Conference of any develop-ments which may occur in connexion with the following:(1) Agreements concluded between FAO and Member Nations under Article XV of the Constitution;(2) treaties concluded outside the framework of FAO in respect to which, however, the Organization exercises depository functions; and (3) the status of the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies in respect of FAO.
The documents before you, we believe, contain all the information on the status of the above-mentioned treaties which have been updated after the Eighteenth Session of the Conference.
May I add that my attention has been drawn to an error which unfortunately occurred in document C 77/10. I am afraid Cuba has been listed in paragraph 58 among the countries that are party to the Agreement for the Establishment of a permanent basis of a Latin-American Forest Research Institute, although a letter of denunciation was received by the Director-General in 1972 and therefore Cuba should have been listed in paragraph 60 of the document. On behalf of the Secretariat I would like to apologize for this mistake.
The two documents C 77/10 and C 77/10-Sup.1 presented to you are basically for information.
M.A. BENDJENNA (Algerie): Je voudrais remercier le Conseiller juridique de ses explications et lui en demander une à mon tour en ce qui concerne les instruments d'acceptation qui ont été soulignés dans le rapport C 77/10, afin de me permettre de mieux saisir les indications fournies par ce document.
CONSEILLER JURIDIQUE: Comme explication, je voudrais dire simplement que, selon la coutume, la date qui est soulignée se rapporte toujours à l'instrument de ratification, ou d'adhésion, ou d'accession, qui a été nécessaire pour mettre en vigueur l'accord ou la convention en question.
D.J. WALTON (Director, Office for Inter-Agency Affairs): Document C 77/LIM/25 contains in Appendix C the text of a draft Supplementary Arrangement regarding cooperation between the World Food Council and FAO.This Arrangement is to be supplementary to the main Relationship Agreement between the United Nations and FAO, as the World Food Council is a subsidiary organ of the United Nations, and the Rela-tionship Agreement between the United Nations and FAO specifically envisages supplementary arrange-ments of this nature.
The draft Supplementary Arrangement has been negotiated by the Director-General pursuant to the request of the Conference at its last Session that he should, inter alia, prepare and elaborate draft arrange-ments with the World Food Council defining the distribution of responsibilities and methods of coopera-tion between FAO and the World Food Council.
When at the request of the Conference relations between FAO, the World Food Council and other bodies were considered by the FAO Council at its Sixty-Ninth Session, in July of last year, the Council felt that it would not be practical at the present stage to seek a hard and fast demarcation of functions between the World Food Council on the one hand and the FAO Council together with its subsidiary bodies on the other hand. The Council also felt that the complementarity of action between the World Food Council and FAO could for the moment best be prompted by close consultation and cooperation at Secre-tariat level.The Council furthermore decided to maintain the flexible arrangements for the submission of reports of FAO bodies to the World Food Council;these arrangements are reflected in Article VII of the draft Supplementary Agreement.The draft in fact codifies the various decisions relating to arrangements between FAO and the World Food Council.
The negotiated draft was submitted to the recent Session of the Council.It had previously been favourably reviewed by the Programme and Finance Committees and the CCLM. The relevant extract from the report of the CCLM is contained in Appendix A to document C 77/LIM/25.
As you will have seen from Appendix B to that document, the FAO Council agreed with the provisions of the draft Supplementary Arrangements and has now transmitted it to the Conference for its endorsement before signature on behalf of FAO. We understand that the Supplementary Arrangement will, in principle, be considered by the World Food Council at its Fourth Session before signature on behalf of the United Nations.
It may be useful if I point out that substantial developments between FAO and the World Food Council, and in particular on the Third Session of the World Food Council, are covered by another Agenda item, item 15.1, which will be taken up by Commission II on Monday.
It is hoped that the Conference will consider the draft Supplementary Arrangement to be a satisfactory basis for cooperation, and will authorise its signature on behalf of FAO.
CHAIRMAN:This matter is now open to the floor for any comment.I take it that the Commission agrees to the draft Arrangements submitted to you in document C 77/LIM/25.
- Agreement Concerning Relations with the International Fund for Agricultural Development
- Accords concernant les relations avec le Fonds international de développement agricole
- Acuerdo de Relación con el Fondo Internacional de Desarrollo Agrícola
A. ROCHE (FAO staff): The document which is relevant to this item is C 77/LIM/24 which contains the text of a relationship agreement between FAO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. This agreement has been negotiated in response to the wish expressed by the Conference at its last Session and the negotiated draft was submitted to the Fourth Session of the Preparatory Commission of IFAD in July. The Preparatory Commission proposed a number of amendments to the negotiated draft.
Then the amended draft was subject to further discussions between the Director-General of FAO and the Chairman of the IFAD Preparatory Commission.This took place in September and as a result a draft agreement was submitted to the Programme and Finance Committees and also to the CCLM and it was then subsequently considered by the Council at its pre-Conference Session. At that Session the Council approved the text which was before it, subject to confirmation by the Conference.
The discussion of the Council at its last Session is summarised in paragraph 121 - 129 of its Report and its report is reproduced in Appendix B to document C 77/LIM/£4 and you will also see in that Appen-dix B the resolution which was adopted by the Council.
Now I should also mention that under Rule XXIV.4(c) of the General Rules of the Organization the Council may, subject to confirmation by the Conference, enter into agreements with other international organiza-tions.Of course the agreement between FAO and IFAD has not yet been what one might call "entered into" in the sense that it should not be considerd as finally concluded until IFAD has actually come into existence and its executive board has made and approved an identical text to that which was -approved by the FAO Council and it is only then that the agreement will be signed on behalf of the two organizations and will enter into force.
It is anticipated that the IFAD executive board will approve the agreement shortly but only after the conclusion of the current Session of the Conference. This is relevant from the point of view that the confirmation by the Conference will in all probability only be able to take place at its next Session, i.e. at its Twentieth Session. At this stage therefore the Conference is not called upon to take any specific action. However, as already mentioned the Conference at its last Session requested the Coun-cil to present draft agreements, including the present one to its Nineteenth Session and in conclusion may I merely mention that it is quite clear that cooperation between FAO and IFAD is in no way condi-tional upon the entrance into force and subsequent confirmation of a formal relationship agreement.
In fact cooperation with the IFAD Preparatory Commission has already been a reality for some time now and it will continue with IFAD itself as soon as that organization becomes operational.
LI YUNG-KAI (China) (interpretation from Chinese): Mr. Chairman, we have noticed that certain non-governmental organizations associated with FAO still retain the membership of some groups (or personnel) controlled by the Chiang Kai-Shek clique entrenched in Taiwan. This is regrettable.
It is common knowledge that there is only one China in the world, that is, the People's Republic of China, while Taiwan is a province of China.The Chiang Kai-Shek clique has long since been spurned by the Chinese people and has no right whatsoever to join any international organization, be it governmental or non-governmental under any pretence. At present more and more countries and people want to increase their friendly contacts with the Chinese people, and United Nations and its specialized agencies have one after another expelled the so-called "representative" of the Chiang Kai-Shek clique.To make a death-bed struggle, the Chiang Kai-Shek clique resorts to a variety of tricks to hang on to some non-governmental organizations under the name of "civil organizations", "academic institutions", or "scientists", trying in this way to confuse public opinion. The Chinese delegation hereby declares that the retention by any organization of the membership of any group or personnel of the Chiang Kai-Shek clique under anypretextand in any form runs counter to the trend of history and is totally unacceptable to the Chinese people.
The Chinese delegation requests this Organization as some other United Nations Specialized Agencies have done to urge international organizations that have consultative, special consultative and liaison status with this Organization, but still retain the membership of any group or personnel controlled by the Chiang Kai-Shek clique, to immediately adopt measure to cancel the membership of such groups or personnel.This Organization is kindly requested to take notice of this problem.Thank you Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN: I will ask Mr. Walton, Director, Office for Inter-Agency Affairs, to answer the point raised by the Distinguished Delegate of the People's Republic of China.
D.J. WALTON (Director, Office for Inter-Agency Affairs): Mr. Chairman this is not a question which has formally arisen in FAO before.I would point out that the non-governmental organizations which are enjoying a special status with FAO have a membership which is by definition non-governmental, and we in the Secretariat are not completely up-to-date on the changes in the membership of the non-governmental organizations, since this membership consists in some cases of individuals, in other cases, of associations, technical or scientific groupings. I believe, however, that it would be very appropriate that the statement just made by the representative of the People's Republic of China were duly recorded by the Conference, and the statement as recorded by the Conference be brought by the Director-General to the attention of all non-governmental organizations which enjoy official status with FAO.
CHAIRMAN: I hope that will satisfy the Distinguished Delegate of the People's Republic of China. If that is so then we take it that this item is adopted by the Commission.
P. SKOUFIS (Assistant Director General, Administration and Finance Department): The proposed amendment to the Financial Regulations deals with two subject matters. The first, the need to establish appropriate financial arrangements for operations of technical cooperations programmes. Secondly,the need to provide for the delegation of disbursement authority, if required, to persons who are not FAO staff members. With reference to the first point the Council considered the matter at its 69th Session and generally endorsed the proposal that the TCP fund which remains undelegated at the end of the biennium should be carried over to the next biennium. The majority agreed that the Financial Regulations should be changed accordingly and that this should be proposed to the Conference following review by the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Matters. The CCLM reviewed the Finance Regulation IV at its 33rd Session and the Council at its 70th Session approved modification to the text proposed by the CCLM.
With reference to the second point, the need to provide for delegation of disbursement authority, if required, to persons who are not FAO staff members arises as a result of the evolution which has taken place in the development assistance which is caused by a gradual shift in responsibility from internationally preferred experts to national personnel. This required a change in Financial Regulations. Both proposed amendments and changes appear on page 3 of document C 77/LIM/34 and were endorsed by the Council after review by CCLM at its 33rd Session.
CHAIRMAN: I take it that the Commission agrees to the proposed amendments.
The meeting was suspended from 16.00 hours to 16.25 hours
La séance est suspendue de 16 heures à 16 h 25
Se suspende la sesión de las 16.00 a las 16.25 horas
P. SKOUFIS (Assistant Director-General, Administration and Finance Department): With reference to the Regular Programme accounts for 1974 and 1975 - and I refer to document C 77/5 - the Council noted that there was a need for improvement of internal control in some areas and agreed with the request of the Finance Department for a report on progress covering various problems referred in the Auditor's report. Such a progress report was made to the Council by the Finance Committee at the Council's Seventy-First Session in June 1977.
With reference to the UNDP accounts for 1975 - these are covered in document C 77/6 - the Council endorsed the need for improvement in the present project management system. This subject is under study by the Organization, and the Finance Committee will be following closely the development of this system.
As regards the World Food Programme accounts for 1975 - these are covered in document C 77/7 - I should underline that the Auditor's certificate was qualified. This qualification ensued from an excess of expenditure incurred for technical, administrative and servicing costs over the amounts budgeted. The excess was due to increase in staff costs and to a higher level of programme activity than provided for in the budget. In this connexion I should inform the Conference and this Commission that the Committee on Food Aid Policies and Programmes of the UN/FAO World Food Programme at its Second Session in November 1976 approved that the excess be covered from overhead cost earnings under the Food Aid Convention.
The UNDP accounts for 1976, which are covered in document C 77/9, were reviewed by the Council at its session earlier this month. The Council noted certain budgetary and accounting problems which had been pointed out in the External Auditor's report and was informed that these actions had arisen as a result of the UNDP financial crisis which entailed the introduction at short notice of many special measures aimed at reduction of cash outflow.
The problems encountered their reflection in the qualified audit certificate. The Council was informed •that these problems were temporary in nature and have now been largely overcome.
The Council also noted the external auditor's recommendations related to field project appraisal and agreed that all steps possible should be taken to ensure that field projects are based on realistic assessments of what is possible.
The auditor's report of the WFP accounts for 1976 which are covered in document C 77/8 were also reviewed by the Council at its session earlier this month. It deals largely with certain operational matters on which the Finance Committee has reported separately to the CFA.
Conference document C 77/LIM/34 on page 4 contains a draft resolution submitted by the Council to the Conference for adoption.
P.J. BYRNES (United States of America):The audit reports as now spoken of here were reviewed by the Council which met just two weeks ago, but in a rather hurried way because it had only a brief period to conduct its work.I should like to make a few comments.
We very much appreciate the diligence with which the external auditor has pursued his work. With particular regard to the Regular Programme Accounts, we have had some concern with what appear to have been inadequate financial procedure for control and allocation of resources;the Assistant Director-General referred to these a moment ago\ We do note, however, that in the Report of the Finance Committee a number of corrective measures have been taken and we would like to encourage continuous and closer monitoring of performance in these areas.
We are also concerned thst, as noted by the External Auditor, some rather expensive management advice provided to different areas has not been accepted or followed up, and I think this requires quite a bit of attention.
We noted with concern the laxity which seemingly was involved in the International Fertilizer Supply Scheme operations and also the handling of the FAO Money and Medals Programme accounts.
With regard to the UNDP accounts, for 1976, we think it is serious that the External Auditor had to qualify his certificate. That particular period was somewhat unusual, largely because of the UNDP shortfalls, but finaneLai controls are vital to the effectiveness and continuation of international programmes and to the support we all want to maintain for them.
We noted that the External Auditor gave specific attention to the fact that field projects should not be planned on an overly ambitious premise,that better coordination between headquarters of UNDP and the agencies, and between headquarters of FAO and the field, is required.
With regard to the World Food Programme accounts for 1976, we are aware that the Committee on Food Aid Policies and Programmes looked rather extensively into this. We would like to support the comments made at that time but particularly the External Auditor's concern over the continued failure of WFP to establish an adequate recording system for monitoring the progress of projects and stock availabilities within the recipient countries. We hope the World Food Programme Executive Director will follow up the suggestions of the External Auditor and take special steps to monitor the progress of projects so as to make sure aid is received by people for whom it is intended, that shipments are not in excess of agreed needs and that losses and deterioration are avoided wherever possible.
A. BEN KHAYAL (Libya)(interpretation from Arabic): In document C 77/LIM/34 we have a surplus in respect of the Libyan part of 0.14 to 0.21,and if any amendments have been adopted, then I should like to say that at the United Nations we pay 0.17 and not 0.21 as stated in the document before us.
P. SKOUFIS (Assistant Director-General, Administration and Finance Department):I think the intervention by the delegate of Libya refers to a document that will be under discussion tomorrow when we shall be discussing the scale of contributions.
A.A.W. LANDYMORE (United Kingdom): The delegate of the United States has said everything that I had intended to say and so I shall simply associate my delegation with what was said by the. delegate of the United States.
M.A. BENDJENNA (Algérie): A la page 18 du document C 77/8, dans les indications sur l'état des contributions au 31 décembre 1976 au Programme alimentaire mondial, je constate que mon pays ne figure pas parmi ceux qui sont enumeres. Or, mon gouvernement a promis une contribution de 50 000 dollars, laquelle a été effectivement versée au Programme alimentaire mondial. Nous avons déjà reçu un accusé de réception du Directeur exécutif du PAM,
P. SKOUFIS (Assistant Director-General, Administration and Finance Department):I wish to call the attention of the delegate of Algeria to the date of the reports. You will note these reports were prepared in August of 1976 and many of the contributions perhaps were not listed at the time.These are audited reports.Many of the contributions were received subsequent to the preparation of the audited accounts; they have been acknowledged and are now a matter of record in the accounts of the Organization.
P. SKOUFIS (Assistant Director-General, Administration and Finance Department): At its 70th Session the Council considered how the Working Capital Fund should be reimbursed in respect of an amount of $112 854 withdrawn from the Fund in 1974.That amount had been withdrawn from the Fund in 1974,That amount had been withdrawn to purchase equipment urgently needed for the purpose of meeting an emergency foot-and,mouth disease situation in South-East Europe.The Council recalled that the Conference at its 18th Session had stressed that any withdrawals from the Working Capital Fund for such emergency should be on a reimbursable basis but it noted that the terms of the Conference Resolution on this subject did not make this entirely clear.
In the circumstances, and stressing that the action should not be considered as precedent-setting, the Council endorsed a recommendation made by the Finance Committee that the withdrawal should be reimbursed from the Organization's 19 74-75 cash surplus rather than by the government which had requested the assistance.It adopted a resolution to withhold $112 854 from the cash surplus and submitted to the Conference a draft resolution which now appears on page 10 of C 77/LIM/34, to the effect that the amount so withheld be applied to the Working Capital Fund in reimbursement of the withdrawal made in 1974.
CHAIRMAN: I now invite the floor to make any comments.If there are no comments we take it that this sub-item is adopted by the Commission.
P. SKOUFIS (Assistant Director-General, Administration and Finance Department): The documents relating to this item CL 72/:REP pages 18 and 19, paragraphs 93 to 96 and Conference document C 77/LIM/34 which contains a draft resolution for adoption by the Conference on page 11. Through the report of the Seventieth Session of the Council you have been informed that the International Civil Service Commission had made a number of recommendations to the United Nations General Assembly concerning changes to the system of salaries and conditions of service of the staff in the Professional and higher categories. Upon approval by the United Nations General Assembly these recommendations had also been implemented by the Organization starting 1 January 1977. These changes have consequences on the emoluments of the Director-General and his conditions of service. The Finance Committee and the Council have thus considered that the emoluments of the Director-General and the representative allowance should be brought in line with those of executive heads of other Agencies,
In accordance with General Rule XXXVI 1 (c) the terms and conditions of appointment of the Director-General including the salary and other emoluments attached to the office are determined by the Conference. Hence the resolution that is now before you.
CHAIRMAN: Any comments from the floor?I take it that this is adopted by the Commission.
The meeting rose at 16.50 hours
La seance est levee à 16 h 50
Se levanta la sesión a las 16.50 horas
