Seabed Council Adopts Draft Decision on Financial and Budgetary Matters

The Council of the International Seabed Authority meeting in Kingston on Thursday (17 July 2014) afternoon decided, on the recommendations of the Finance Committee, that the Assembly approve a budget for the Authority in the amount of US$ 15,743,143 for the biennium 2015-2016.

 The Council by its decision (ISBA/20/C/L.2) also recommended that the Assembly authorize the Secretary-General to establish the scale of assessments for 2015 and 2016 on the basis of that used for the regular budget of the expenses of the United Nations for 2013-2014 respectively. It would take into account that the ceiling assessment rate would be 22 per cent and the floor rate 0.01 per cent.

The draft decision was amended to include two additional paragraphs, one urging members of the Finance Committee to fulfil their obligations to attend its meetings, and the other requesting the Secretary-General, for future budget proposals, to provide a complete narrative in support of the proposed budget request, a breakdown of projected costs for large items of expenditure, and to ensure that the budget is in line with the priorities set by both the Council and the Assembly. An existing paragraph was also amended to express appreciation to those members of the Authority who have made voluntary contributions to the Voluntary Trust Fund and the International Seabed Authority Endowment Fund.

The budget was originally proposed by the Secretary-General (ISBA/20/A/3-ISBA/20/C/10).