R E P O R T for biennial period, 2006-07 PART I (2006) - Vol ... - Iccat

FINANCIAL REPORT
2006 FINANCIAL REPORT 1
Introduction
Fiscal year 2006 has been somewhat difficult for the Secretariat mainly because the Commission, at its 19th
Regular Meeting (Seville, 2005), adopted a budget with no increase with respect to 2005. For this reason, the
Secretariat has made an extreme effort to control each and every expense, differentiating between the most
necessary and essential purchases and postponing those expenditures having lesser priority for the functioning of
the Secretariat to future fiscal periods.
It should be also noted that the move to the new Headquarters did not occur in 2006. For that reason, we have
not had to confront expenses such as electricity, water, etc. that will have to be met in the near future and which
are going to represent a substantial increase in expenses charged to Chapter 6 of the budget (Office Expenses).
On the other hand, we should stress that in the last two years the Commission has closed the fiscal year with a
balance in the Working Capital Fund at about 30% of the regular budget. This indicates a trend towards a
regularization of the financial situation of the Commission, which is directly related to the actions carried out so
that the Contracting Parties in arrears pay their pending debt, in addition to the improvement that the entry into
force of the Madrid Protocol will bring about.
1. Auditor’s Report – Fiscal Year 2005
In accordance with the decision adopted by the Commission the auditing firm Deloitte & Touch prepared the
Independent Auditor’s Report corresponding to fiscal year 2005.
The Executive Secretary sent a copy of the Auditor’s Report to the Governments of all the Contracting Parties in
June 2006 (ICCAT Salida #1059/06). The Auditor’s Report includes the Budgetary Statements of ICCAT:
General Balance, Composition and Balance of the Working Capital Fund, Budgetary and Extra-budgetary
expenses, Status of the Contracting Party Contributions, Budgetary and Extra-budgetary Income Received and
the Explanatory Notes of these, corresponding to fiscal year that ended on December 31, 2005. It should be
noted that at the close of fiscal year 2005, the General Balance Sheet showed an effective balance in Cash and
Banks amounting to €1,080,262.91, corresponding to the available in the Working Capital Fund, €851,589.74
(which represents 39.20% of the Budget), to the advances on future contributions accumulated to the close of
fiscal year 2005 amounting to €66,086.33, and to the available in the Commission’s trust funds for other
Programs, €162,586.84.
The balance of accumulated pending contributions at the close of fiscal year 2005 (corresponding to 2005 and
previous years) amounted to a total of €1,717,045.51.
2. Financial status of the first half of the biennial budget – Fiscal year 2006
Following the recommendation made by the new auditing firm, in fiscal year 2006 the bookkeeping entries were
carried out applying the income principle, i.e. apply income and expenditures based on the real movement of
assets and services that these represent, as opposed to the option of noting the operations based on collection or
payment that these generate, as has been done up to now. As a result of this change, there are new items on the
General Balance Sheet.
All the Commission’s financial operations corresponding to fiscal year 2006 have been maintained in Euros. The
accounting entries that originated in United States dollars are also registered in Euros, applying the official
exchange rates facilitated monthly by the United Nations.
The 2006 regular budget, amounting to €2,172,222.94, was approved by the Commission at its 19 th Regular
Meeting (Seville, November 2005). The General Balance Sheet (attached as Statement 1) shows the assets and
liabilities to the close of fiscal year 2006, which are shown in detail in Tables 1 to 6, as well as that
corresponding to 2005.
Table 1 shows the status of the contributions of each Contracting Party.
1 Information as of December 31, 2006.
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