The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

26th Meeting of the Ramsar Standing Committee -- Agenda papers

Audited accounts for FY 2000 and status of the Reserve Fund

Audited accounts for FY 2000

1. The attached report of the auditors does not raise any particular issues concerning the accounts for Fiscal Year 2000. The fiscal year was closed with a small surplus, mainly due to the exchange gains, as explained in Note 4 of the auditors report.

The Reserve Fund

2. The Reserve Fund was established by Resolution VI.17 of Ramsar COP6, as follows:

"10. FURTHER DECIDES that:

a) the Ramsar Bureau shall establish a Reserve Fund to meet unforeseen and unavoidable expenditures, which shall not have implications for the core budget;

b) the Fund’s source of income shall be:

i) savings which result from limiting expenditures or efficiencies realized within the budget of the previous fiscal year;

ii) payment of Contracting Party subscriptions that had been written off as bad debts;

iii) interest earned on funds received, with the approval of the donor;

c) the resources kept in the Fund should not be higher at any time than one-twelfth of the core budget of the current fiscal year;

d) the Fund should be administered by the Secretary General under the guidance of the Subgroup on Finance as established by the Standing Committee."

3. As shown in the annex, at the closure of Fiscal Year 2000, the reserve limit established by the COP is SFR 258,833. This amount is now kept in a special sub-account and the reserve funds are placed in a long-term deposit. The rest of the 2000 surplus (SFR 138,347) is being attributed to the 2001 core budget and to various projects, as needs arise.

Excel financial worksheets showing Balance sheet at 31 December 2000, Statement of Income and Expenditure for the year ended 31 December 2000, and project expenditure

Word document showing the auditors' notes to the above

Excel worksheet showing the status of the Reserve Fund as of 31 August 2001

For further information about the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, please contact the Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ramsar@ramsar.org). Posted 16 October 2001, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.