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INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION
Council Working Group for the Elaboration of the
Draft Strategic Plan and the Draft Financial Plan,
2008-2011
Document: WG-SP-FP-06/33
26 June 2006
English
Comments from ITU Membership
ROMANIA
COMMENTS ON THE ITU DRAFT FINANCIAL PLAN, 2008-2011
Romania provides the following comments as a contribution to the fifth meeting of
the Council Working Group on the elaboration of the draft ITU Financial Plan 20082011:
Section 5 Contributory Unit (draft financial plan)
5.2 Ratio between Member States and Sector Member’s Contributions
The draft financial plan should be prepared using the current ratio (1/5) of the
contributory unit of Member States.
A consultation with Sector Members on this matter should have been taken place.
Because within the coming months there will only be a TSAG meeting taking place
until the PP_06; this alternative solution-that will contribute to the increasing of the
Union’s income- together with its justification memo, should be presented to the
Member States together with the draft financial plan.
The memo should include analyses concerning the impact of increased contribution
upon the trend of Sector Member’s number.
Section 6 Projected Incomes (draft financial plan)
6.5.2 Sales of publications
A realistic evaluation of income decrease occasioned by the free online access to ITUT Recommendations should be considered in the draft financial plan, taking into
account the analyses presented to Council 2006 in document C06/DT/7-E (sales
income of ITU-T and ITU-R Recommendations).
The above-mentioned document shows a descendant trend on ITU-T
Recommendations sales recorded since 1998.
A forecasted figure for the income from sales of publications should take into account
the trend of previous periods, unless there is an ongoing or anticipated programme to
increase the sales volume.
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Annex 1
It is understood from the answers provided by the Secretariat to the questions made by
the Reflection group on the Draft Financial Plan 2008-201, that the new Cost
Accounting Methodology approved by Decision 535 of Council 2005 have been used
in the preparation of the draft Financial Plan in order to identify the costs of outputs as
they appear in Annex 1 of Document C06/23.
Also by using this new methodology, the distinction between direct and indirect costs
is clearly established.
Thus:
Direct costs are the costs that can be directly attributed to a particular activity or
product/service. They include primary costs (charged directly to the cost center
established for the product/service, activity) and secondary costs (invoiced costsservices provided by other cost centers)
Indirect costs are sector reallocated costs (the costs of staff and related expenditure
charged to the budgets of the individual Bureaux including the offices of the Directorwhich are reallocated to activities or products /services based upon work effort
measurement. Costs would include invoiced costs incurred by sector but not directly
allocated to a specific activity (allocated by keys).
Even if the financial planning was established at an aggregated level, a more detailed
matrix to be provided by the Secretariat (as shown in the annex 1 of the above
document), would contribute to a better understanding of the appropriations by output
according to the new Cost Accounting Methodology.
The matrix shows costs allocation by outputs/objectives as well as their distribution
into direct and indirect costs in conformity with the proposed result-based budgeting
concept.
There will be a clear evidence of every category of costs [for example the
documentation cost (translation, typing, reprography) will be shown by outputs as
well as overall figure for the period 2008-2011, it should totalize around 90 million
between SG and Bureaux].
Appropriations for Sections 7,8,9 (SG's Office and & departments, ITU-R Activities
and Programmes and Bureau, ITU-T Activities and Programmes, Seminars and
Bureau, ITU-D Activities and Programmes and Bureau) totalizing 617,6 million are to
be allocated to outputs using the direct allocation or key allocation methodologies,
according to the new Cost Accounting Methodology, already used for the preparation
of the draft Financial Plan.