Recommendations of the 36th South Pacific Conference

The 36th conference of the South Pacific Commission has approved recommendations to downsize the organisation. Delegates endorsed most of the recommendations from a review of the commission conducted by a three member team led by Savenaca Siwatibau of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

The downsizing will begin at the top with a reduction in the number of mange ment posts from three to two and the number of deputies from two to one. The secretary-general and his deputies have had their titles changed to director-gener al and deputy director-generals respec tively. The director-general will assume full responsibility and authority over the organisation within the guidelines of established policy. The conference will now appoint the director-general based on strict criteria. The director-general and deputy will serve two-year terms.

The established management commit tee will be abolished since it is no longer seen as necessary. The committee had a supervisory role over all commission matters.lt was agreed that the annual SPC conference be held every two years, and the Committee of Representatives of Governments and Administrations (CRGA) meet once instead of twice a year.

The CRGA will at its annual meetings approve administration and work pro gramme budgets, approve amendments for financial and staff regulations, con duct annual performance evaluations of the director-general and consider appli cants for the post of director-general.

The Agriculture, Community

Education Training Centre and Regional Media Centre programmes and the administration in Suva, Fiji, will be brought under one division and become a sub-regional office of the SPC operating under the provisional title of Suva

Operations.

Other resolutions included that: • The laws governing SPC operations be contained in existing staff and finan cial Regulations. If the conference wishes to change its laws, the appropriate process is to change the regulations to reflect its decision. • The secretariat shall update and

revise the commission’s current staff rules and administrative directives shall become more transparent in management responsibility and more consistent with

the proposed restructured relationship

between the conference/CRGA and the

director-general.

• The organisational structure shall have a senior management of the director general, one deputy director-general and three directors for Marine Resource

Development, Suva based-operations and

Socio-Economic Development and Health. • In its widening focus, the SPC shall be guided by general criteria to ensure that the new programmes will be in the best interest of the region, be sufficiently funded and fall within its mandate. • The SPC’s technical meetings/work shops are excellent fora for expert advice to the commission in the preparation of its programme, but they should remain advi sory units and should not be treated as standing committees. The director-gener al may convene them as and when the need arises and when financial resources allow. • The SPC should establish a specific Small Island States fund which will pro vide technical assistance, training and other services as required by SPC’s small Island members. Island member coun tries, traditional and non-traditional donors are to be invited to contribute to the corpus of the fund on a continuing basis. • Programme heads shall be given greater delegation of authority to approve expenditures based on budgetary alloca tions. This will also mean making deci sion related to travel and programme

developments and personnel matters.

• The commission shall establish clear guidelines on what contributes core fund ing. These guidelines should make the

core budget inflation-proof.

• The current formula for core contri butions should be re-examined to reflect the principle of burden sharing. In proposing alternative formulas, the con ference and management should consider special grants by SPC host governments.

Pacific Island countries’ and territories’ share based on capacity to pay, more equi table distribution among donor members

with a review of this every three years. • The current practice of ‘user-pays’ by some programmes (such as Regional Media Centre) and the sharing of some programme costs for services provided to member governments should continue. • All Island member countries and ter ritories shall be eligible for funding for participation in SPC meets, but may pay their own way if they so wish. • SPC’s approach to the preparation of its work programme should feature a con tinuous pipeline of integrated projects over a three-year period. To assure fund ing, these should reflect prioritised needs of member governments, be well integrat ed, be full costed, well packaged and meet the prescribed format requirement of donors. • For new projects which come with funds but which are not already included in the total approved work programme budget, the director-general shall have the authority to vary the programme budget within a limit of 20 per cent of the approved budget. • The secretariat shall transfer the cur rent handling of individual staff accounts from the Finance Office back to individu als. For the SPC Provident Fund, SPC staff and management shall jointly exam ine, with great caution, staff’s request for independent management and extension of long-term loans from the Provident Fund. • The SPC procurement process shall be strengthened by updating policies and administrative directives. • The mandate of the Publications Committee shall be enhanced to include monitoring the quality of the content of and decisions on publications. • The revenue-generating practice of the Interpretation and Translation Unit should be encouraged, as long as it does not adversely affect the organisation’s required needs for its services. • The SPC central library facility should be adequately resourced to proper ly serve SPC technical programme divi sions. • To better reflect its purpose and geo graphic representation, the name “South Pacific Commission” should be changed, to take effect in 1988 when the organisa tion enters its 51 st year of existence. ■