|
|
|
Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
The
Member States of the Organization of American States (OAS), gathered
today at the 48th Special General Assembly unanimously approved the
the Program Budget of the regular fund of the Hemispheric
Organization for the 2015-2016 biennium, which assigns a total of 84.324
million dollars annually for the operation and implementation of the
institution’s activities.
The General Assembly, which took place today in the OAS headquarters in
Washington, DC, was led by the Permanent Representative of Chile to the
OAS, Ambassador Juan Pablo Lira, who chairs the Committee on
Administrative and Budgetary Affairs (CAAP) of the Permanent
Council. Ambassador Lira welcomed the adoption of the resolution
stating that "after intense and fruitful discussions, we have achieved a
consensus document," he welcomed the agreement, and thanked the member
countries and the OAS General Secretariat "for
all the efforts and dedication demonstrated."
The Permanent Representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and
Chair of the Permanent Council, La Celia Prince, introduced the document
and stated that the draft presented by the Council "includes measures
related to budgetary appropriation, accountability
to member states and provisions of administrative and budgetary
nature." "As is customary, measures instruct the General Secretariat to
provide the CAAP with a timetable for presenting reports, strategies and
plans in order to ensure fulfillment of mandates
and the proper execution of the program-budget" she explained.
The
Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, for his part,
highlighted in his address the "collective effort" that member states
and the Secretariat carried out to approve "a numerical expression of
the priority programs that will guide the work of
the OAS next year." In that context, he said, the budget now adopted is
marked by the approval at the Special General Assembly last September
of the
Strategic Vision of the Organization, and the submission of the Secretary General to the Permanent Council of the Plan for the
Management Modernization of the OAS.
In his analysis of the projection of the new 2015-2016 budget, the OAS
leader mentioned the importance of the Strategic Vision and expressed
his "personal satisfaction" that the plan has been adapted to "the
conceptual ordering of the objectives" of the Organization,
the product of a process that he initiated. In that regard, he
reiterated that this helps to empower the "clear comparative advantage"
the hemispheric institution has with respect to other multilateral
institutions of the Hemisphere in the areas of democracy,
human rights, multidimensional security, and even including its
contributions in legal matters. However, Secretary General Insulza noted
the need to review the role of the OAS in the area of integral
development, including programs and projects that "require
capacities, particularly financial, which are not the fundamental
characteristic of our Organization, whose advantage lies on the
political level.”
The Secretary General stated that the OAS should "cede the
implementation of projects of an economic nature to institutions
dedicated to such projects, perhaps reserving a space for areas such as
education, in which we retain comparative advantage." He recalled
that the essence of the OAS is its stature as the political forum of
the region, and cited that even countries that criticize "very strongly
the OAS, when they have a serious problem, they bring it to the OAS."
In relation to the Strategic Plan for Management Modernization, he
recalled that the document culminates a process begun since he took
office in 2005, when he initiated a series of reforms designed to
improve the administrative, budgetary and financial management
of the Organization taking as its bases "efficiency, transparency and
accountability." More importantly, -continued the leader of the
institution- is that the Strategic Plan contains three requirements
that, in his opinion, the member states must face: to
adjust the quotas paid by countries to inflation rates; secure funding
for the maintenance of buildings and update systems information
technology; and design an human resources strategy that adjusts to the
attributes of each sector of the Organization and
to the different forms of financing of the institution.
At
the end of his speech, Secretary General Insulza recalled that his term
will end in May, so that today will be his last budget leading the OAS,
and suggested that in future budget assemblies be made in conjunction
with General Assemblies, because "the best
way to combine the political priorities with budget issues is to do
both at the same time."
The budget approved today includes a framework for management and
performance reports, instructs the Secretary General to intensify
efforts to mobilize external resources to implement the mandates of the
General Assembly, details the specific levels of appropriations
for the Regular Fund by chapter and program with their recommendations,
instructions or mandates, and provides implementation of the Strategic
Plan for Management Modernization, and a review of the general rules of
the Organization. The resolution includes
footnotes submitted by the delegations of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador
and Bolivia on the financing of the Inter-American Defense Board
(IADB).
During the Special General Assembly the representatives of Trinidad and
Tobago, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Mexico, Bolivia, Antigua and
Barbuda, The Bahamas, Nicaragua, Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala, El
Salvador, Canada, Venezuela, Saint Lucia, Peru, the
United States, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Costa Rica,
Argentina and Belize took the floor to highlight the value of the tools
contained in the approved Program Budget to enhance accountability,
improve efficiency of operations and ensure consistent
planning. They also reiterated the commitment of member states to
continue working on the Strategic Vision for the OAS, and encouraged
moving forward on the discussion over its structure and modernization
applying austerity and efficiency of resources for
the Organization’s operations.
For more information, please visit the OAS Website at
www.oas.org.
© Copyright 2014 by thebahamasweekly.com
Top of Page
|
|
|
|