Re: [ga] ICANN reimburse $75,000 to GAC for GAC secretariat

[richard.hill@itu.int]

A number of questions have been asked and comments made regarding the ICANN
Board's recent decision to fund partly, for a limited period of time, the
GAC secretariat and chair functions, see 

http://www.icann.org/minutes/prelim-report-13aug02.htm

The following information, which is based on what I know, may answer some of
the questions that have been raised.

At the Accra meeting 11-12 March 2002, the Chair of GAC, Paul Twoomey,
stated:

"... the Chair advised that he will be resigning effective from the end of
the Shanghai meeting and the Australian Government will cease providing the
Secretariat function at the end of the Bucharest meeting."

The issue of replacing the GAC Secretariat was discussed at the 9-10 April
GAC meeting in Bruxelles and the 3-4 June GAC meeting in Canberra.

At both those meetings, some GAC members, and in particular ITU, offered to
provide some secretariat services as in-kind support for GAC.  Specifically,
ITU offered to provide the basic secretariat support for meetings, at no
cost to ICANN or to GAC (since the costs are already covered by ITU's
participation).

These offers were noted but not discussed.  It was noted that a global
discussion of the nature and role of the GAC secretariat should take place
in the context of ICANN reform.

The GAC meeting in Bucharest was essentially focussed on preparing comments
on the recently-published Blueprint for Reform.  At the very end of the
meeting, at 3am, Paul Twoomey announced that Australia had reversed its
previous decision to stop funding the Chair and the Secretariat and was
willing to fund both the Chair and the Secretariat for an interim period.
As a consequence, the Chair announced that Australia would continue to
provide the Secretariat.

I am informed that subsequently the Australian government informed ICANN
that it would be willing to perform the role of GAC Secretariat, but
indicated that it would no longer fund that role.  I am informed that the
Australian government subsequently raised with ICANN the issue of finding
alternative sources of funding.

As noted in previous E-Mails, the Board made a decision to provide up to
$75'000 dollars to the Australian goverment, to cover actual costs of chair
and secretariat services for a limited period of time.

I am informed that a draft budget for this funding, for the period 1 July to
15 November, is being prepared by the GAC Secretariat and will be circulated
to the GAC membership.

Best,
Richard

-----------------------------------------
Richard Hill
Counsellor, ITU-T SG2
International Telecommunication Union
Place des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
tel: +41 22 730 5887
FAX: +41 22 730 5853
Email: richard.hill@itu.int
Study Group 2 email: tsbsg2@itu.int
 


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