The inflation rate used for 2016 and 2017 is 3 per cent, to take into account annual salary step increments as well as increments decided by the International Civil Service Commission

The post of the Deputy Executive Secretary was filled internally effective February 2015. The proposed budgets for 2016 and 2017 represent full years’ salary and emoluments at the D-1 level.

The post of the Senior Scientific Affairs Officer became vacant as of February 2015. The post was reclassified at the P-5 level to update the duties in line with the current needs of the Montreal Protocol and has been renamed Senior Environmental Affairs Officer. The post is expected to be filled by the end of 2015.

The post of Senior Administrative Officer at the P-5 level is funded through the programme support cost budget.

The post of Communications and Information Officer at the P-3 level is funded from the Trust fund for the Vienna Convention.

The approved 2015 budget increased by 5 per cent compared with the 2014 budget to cater for normal step increments and inflation. In December 2014, however, the Secretariat of the United Nations announced an additional salary increase for all General Service staff effective November 2014. The 2015 budget therefore increased by $20,000; this was implemented after the budget was approved.

The 2016–2017 budget proposals reflect trends in actual costs and a 5 per cent inflation rate taking into account annual salary step increments as well as revisions.

The post of Senior Administrative Assistant (G-7), for which an upgrade to P-2 was approved by the parties in 2012, is funded through the programme support cost budget. The upgrade of the post has not yet been implemented.

Two posts at the G-6 level, Programme Assistant and Meeting Services Assistant, are funded through the Trust fund for the Vienna Convention.

The post of Research Assistant was vacated in June 2015 and is frozen with a view to any future restructuring of the Ozone Secretariat.

The post of Team Assistant, which is funded from the programme support cost budget, was vacated in May 2015 and is frozen with a view to any future restructuring of the Ozone Secretariat.

4101, 4201–4205, 4301, 5101,
5201–5203,
5301-5304

Reporting
5201

The 2015 budget was originally $20,000, which covered the cost of editing and translating correspondence and other official documents throughout the year. The cost of coverage of meetings by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), however, has been moved from the meeting cost budget line and correctly reflected in this budget line. The cost per meeting of IISD coverage is assumed to be $15,000. In 2015, the cost of IISD covering three meetings, including the workshop and the thirty-fifth meeting of the Open-ended Working Group in April, the thirty-sixth meeting of the Open-ended Working Group in July and the twenty-seventh Meeting of the Parties in November, is $45,000. In 2016 the cost of IISD covering four meetings, including the thirty-seveth meeting of the Open-ended Working Group in July, the Twenty-Eight Meeting of the Parties and an additional five-day meeting of the
Open-ended Working Group to be held back-to-back with an extraordinary Meeting of the Parties, will be $45,000. In 2017, the cost if IISD covering the Open-ended Working Group meeting and the Meeting of the Parties will be is $30,000.

All other costs remain unchanged.

1601–1602

1321-1331, 3301 to 3311 and 5401

1321

1322

1330

1331

1332

1321

1322

1333

1321

1322

1324

1325

5401

3301-3311

3302-3303

3310

3311

3312

Meeting costs (not including travel of Article 5 parties)

The 2015 meeting costs have been increased as follows:

$53,607 to cover the difference in cost associated with convening the thirty-sixth meeting of the Open-ended Working Group in Paris in July. The original budget was based on the costs of convening the meeting in Nairobi or Geneva;

$48,334 to cover costs associated with conference services and staff travel to Dubai for the twenty-seventh Meeting of the Parties;

$51,369 to cover the difference in cost associated with convening the workshop on HFC management and the thirty-fifth meeting of the Open-ended Working Group in Bangkok in April. The original budget was based on the cost of convening the meeting in Nairobi or Geneva;

The increased costs in lines 1321, 1322 and 1330 are absorbed by the savings on post costs;

$20,000 to cover the cost of the two-day intersessional informal meeting held in June in Vienna. The Open-ended Working Group, at its thirty-fifth meeting, held in Bangkok in April 2015, decided to convene the intersessional informal meeting;

$200,000 to cover the cost of the resumed thirty-sixth meeting of the Open-ended Working Group held on 29 and 30 October 2015, back to back with the
Twenty-Seventh Meeting of the Parties to be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 1 to 5 November 2015.

For the proposed 2016 budgets:

The budget for the Open-ended Working Group meeting is based on a comparison of estimates of five venues (Nairobi, Bangkok, Montreal, Paris and Vienna) and a reasonable average has been used;

The proposed budget for the meetings of the parties is based on a comparison of estimates of six venues (Nairobi, Bangkok, Montreal, Paris, Kigali and Vienna) and a reasonable average has been used. Any additional costs arising from holding the meetings in other locations will be borne by the Governments hosting the meetings. In the event that the meetings are not hosted by Governments, the additional costs will be reflected in revised budgets that will be presented to the parties for approval;

The budget for the additional five-day meeting of the Open-ended Working Group held back-to-back with a two-day extraordinary Meeting of the Parties is based on the 2016 budgeted cost of $600,000 for one OEWG meeting and the 2015 cost of a two-day back to back meeting in 2015 in Dubai of $200,000.

For the 2017 proposed budgets:

The 2017 budget is increased by 4 per cent compared with 2016 to cover inflationary costs;

In 2017, the cost of the meeting is shared with the Vienna Convention Trust Fund, which is currently budgeted at $252,000; hence the decrease in meeting costs to $489,250;

One Bureau meeting is scheduled for each of the years 2016 and 2017, with provision for interpretation and document translation into the appropriate languages depending on the membership of the Bureau. The costs are increased by $5,000 to accommodate generally increased meeting costs

The proposed budgets for Implementation Committee meetings in 2016 and 2017 have been increased by $9,400 over the 2015 figure to accommodate generally increased meeting costs;

The hospitality cost covers receptions at the meetings of the Open-ended Working Group and the Meeting of the Parties;

Necessary funds may be transferred from the conference servicing budget lines
(1321–1326) should such services be required, either through individual consultancies or corporate contracts.

Travel of Article 5 participants

The participation of representatives of parties operating under paragraph 1 of Article 5 in the various Montreal Protocol meetings is budgeted at $5,000 per representative per meeting using the most appropriate and advantageous economy-class fare and United Nations daily subsistence allowances.

The 2016 and 2017 amounts were increased to $375,000 and $325,000, respectively, as decided by the Twenty-Seventh Meeting of the Parties.

The 2015 cost for travel of Article 5 party representatives is increased by $40,000 to cover costs associated with the intersessional informal meeting held in Vienna in June. The meeting was requested by the parties at the thirty-fifth meeting of the Open-ended Working Group; hence the cost was not included in the approved budget.

The 2015 cost for travel of Article 5 party representatives increased by $110,000 to cover costs associated with the resumed thirty-sixth meeting of the Open-ended Working Group, held on 29 and 30 October 2015, back to back with the
Twenty-Seventh Meeting of the Parties, held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 1 to 5 November 2015.

The 2016 cost of travel of Article 5 participants to the additional five-day meeting of the Open-ended Working Group held back-to-back with a two-day extraordinary Meeting of the Parties is based on the 2016 budgeted cost of $375,000 for one OEWG meeting plus an additional $60,000. The Secretariat confirms that no funds from the budget lines in this section have been used to cover travel of non-Article 5 parties.