Re: Fwd: RE: [wg-d] Let's discuss the funding of ICANN - It'spart of the business plan ...

[Mikki Barry <ooblick@netpolicy.com>]

> >http://www.icann.org/berlin/budget.html
> >
> >This was approved during the Berlin Board meeting.


Looking at the budget, I must conclude that the ICANN Board's spending must be curtailed prior to discussing any procedures that will enable them to continue this irresponsible level of spending.  A non-profit corporation charged with technical administration should not be spending almost 6 million dollars per year, paying any staff members 300,000 dollars per year, employing a CTO but also spending one million dollars per year on "professional and technical services," or spending 1.3 million dollars on board of directors expenses, travel and meetings.  

This unbridled spending must be brought under control rather than the board asking the working groups to establish procedures to feed the bloated hog.  The budget calls for five million dollars per year from registries and registrars (part of the DNSO) that they will obtain from individual and corporate users (individuals not being part of the DNSO).    They expect a further 100,000 from accreditation fees.  This makes the DNSO an integral part of the budgetary process.

As part of the means to curtail this type of problem, let's revisit the ORSC's proposal for the ICANN bylaws.  While I'm not saying that its implementation would have eliminated these problems, these provisions may have made a difference.  It is offered as a starting point only.


Clause 25. ANNUAL BUDGET 
BUSINESS PLAN 
The Board shall prepare an annual budget, which shall be published on the Web Site.
(a) The Chief Financial Officer shall prepare an annual operating budget, on a line-item basis, and submit it to the Supporting Organizations four months prior to the beginning of the Corporation's fiscal year, for their review and action. The Board shall establish, by a vote of not less than 60% of all the members, the appropriate definition of such line items for budgeting and accounting purposes. The Chief Technical Officer shall prepare and submit, at the same time, an annual service plan which shall be reflected in and complimentary to the funding requests in the annual budget. The Corporation shall make its best effort to tie the line items in the budget request to the detailed services to be provided during the upcoming fiscal year. 
(b) No budget shall be deemed to be approved for the purposes of enabling any increase in expenditures or funding any increased appropriation to the Corporation for the following fiscal year, excepting previous year's obligations such as payments on debts already incurred or multi-year contractual obligations or labor agreements, until the Committee of the Whole of the Supporting Organizations has approved an annual budget and service plan for the Corporation for that fiscal year; excepting that, if the Supporting Organizations have taken no action on the annual budget request, and the following fiscal year shall commence, the Corporation shall be required to operate on a 1/12 previous-year's operating expense, maintenance-of-effort basis, until such time as the Supporting Organizations approve an annual budget for the Corporation. 
(c) The sum total of all fees and charges assessed by the Corporation on or to the Supporting Organizations and/or its members during the fiscal year shall not exceed the amount required to support the approved annual budget for that fiscal year, or, if such budget is not approved, shall not exceed the amount assessed during the previous fiscal year, on a 1/12 monthly basis, until such time as the annual budget is approved by the Supporting Organizations. 
(d) Once an annual budget and service plan are approved by the Supporting Organizations' Committee of the Whole, the Corporation shall manage its affairs and operations in such a manner as to keeps its expenditures and obligations within the constraints of the approved budget.