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The 11th Session of the Standing Committee on Administration and Finance (SCAF11) of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka 29 and 31 May, 2014. The meeting was opened by the Vice-Chair, Mr. Benjamin Tabios (Philippines) in the absence of the Chair, Mr. Godfrey Monor (Kenya).
The following are a subset of the complete recommendations from the SCAF11 to the Commission, which are provided within Appendix VII.
Programme of Work and Budget Estimates for 2014, 2015 and 2016
(para. 34) The SCAF RECOMMENDED that the ICRU related charges, applied by the FAO, be eliminated from the IOTC current and future expenditure accounts, and that the Chair of the Commission communicate this decision to FAO.
(para. 46) The SCAF RECOMMENDED that the Commission endorse the IOTC Secretariat’s programme of work for the financial period 01 January, 2014 to 31 December 2015, as outlined in paper IOTC–2014–SCAF11– 05.
(para. 47) The SCAF RECOMMENDED that the Commission adopt the budget for, and the scheme of contributions for 2014 and 2015 as outlined in Appendix IV and Appendix V respectively, with the understanding that areas of potential savings continue to be explored.
(para. 49) The SCAF RECOMMENDED that an analysis of the cost and the benefits of IOTC’s existence within and outside of FAO’s structure be undertaken to ascertain the viability of IOTC breaking from the UN administrative structure and mandate.
Options for replenishing the IOTC Meeting participation fund Recommendation/s
(para. 57) The SCAF RECOMMENDED that the rules of procedure for the administration of the IOTC MPF be modified to exclude funding for Cooperating Non-Contracting Parties, as they currently do not contribute to the IOTC budget.
(para. 58) The SCAF RECOMMENDED that the MPF is budgeted every year and priorities could be set on the use of available funds.
Membership of Sierra Leone and Guinea in the IOTC
(para. 62) The SCAF RECOMMENDED that the Commission consider paper IOTC–2014–SCAF11–10
(Membership of Sierra Leone and Guinea in the IOTC) as the SCAF was unable to agree on a course of action.
Contributions outstanding
(para. 72) The SCAF RECOMMENDED that CPCs that did not reply to the communications sent by the Chair of the Commission, regarding the payment of outstanding contributions shall not benefit from any IOTC related activities in regard to MPF, workshops, training and related support. CPCs in arrears for more than five years and have no interim payment should not benefit from any IOTC related activities, with the exception of I.R. Iran on the basis of the difficulties highlighted in para 69.
(para. 73) The SCAF RECOMMENDED that all Members with overdue IOTC contributions finalise payment of those contributions as soon as possible so as not to hinder the operation of the IOTC. To facilitate this process, the Chair of the Commission, with the assistance of the Secretariat and the FAO Legal Department, shall conduct bilateral discussion with each of the CPCs with contributions in arrears totaling more than the previous two years, with a view to recover the outstanding contributions and further assess their interest of continued involvement in the IOTC. Responses from those CPCs should be circulated by the Secretariat to all CPCs for consideration at the 12th Session of the SCAF.
Review of the Draft and Adoption of the Report of the 11th Session of the Standing Committee on Administration and Finance
(para.78) The SCAF RECOMMENDED that the Commission consider the consolidated set of recommendations arising from SCAF11, provided at Appendix VII.
