May 22nd, 2014 -- The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) today received the annual report of the Board of External Auditors for 2013, which determines that “the budgetary structural imbalance of the OAS continues resulting in cash flow shortages and a programmatic agenda that is not financially supportable.”
The Report, presented by the Chair of the Board of Auditors, Carlos R. Polit, notes that “While the OAS supports and delivers an important and impressive range of programs and activities, the Board is concerned that persistent failure to address the gap between revenues and spending will impair the Organization’s ability to sustain and deliver future programs and activities.”
“The Board notes that in 2013,” adds the Report, “the Secretary General presented a strategic vision for the OAS. The Board believes this document encapsulates the main concerns expressed by the Board in recent years. The strategy lays out how historically the transformations needed by the OAS to sustain its future have been achieved, and is optimistic that with concerted efforts once again change can be achieved.”
For his part the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, said “this discussion is fundamentally about the issue pending for the upcoming General Assembly, which is the issue of the mandates and the clear definition of which programs and projects that the Organization wants to carry out and which it does not. And time is growing short.”
He recalled that “according to the agreement reached by the Assembly, starting next year, all budgets will be biennial,” and warned that “therefore, to begin to work on it we must know by August at the least which of the mandates the Organization wants to carry out in the next years.”
“The best part of this Report in my judgment is that it sets forth the issue in a very clear manner,” said Insulza in reference to the financial situation of the Organization. “I don’t think the Report is lacking anything,” he added, and asked: “Why can’t we make these decisions? Why can’t we debate these things in the clearest way possible?” In concluding, the Secretary General proposed “that we take this Report and go through it paragraph by paragraph to see if there is a discrepancy between what it says – in both the analysis as well as the recommendations – and then we will decide whether we move ahead or not.”
On another agenda item, the Council approved, at the proposal of Guatemala, the convocation to the collaborative contest “The Voice of the Youth of the Americas,” through which the young people between 18 and 30 years old from the member states of the Organization are urged to propose ideas for the discussion of the drug problem that is being held by the hemispheric institution. “The objective is to give incentives for young people to participate in the debate that has been generated around this problem in the search for different approaches,” said the Permanent Representative of Guatemala, José María Argueta, who added that “we want to ensure that the youth of the Americas feel that their voices are being heard on a problem that affects them in a direct way.”
The winners of the context will present their proposals at the Special General Assembly that the OAS will hold in September in Antigua, Guatemala, whose central theme will be the worldwide drug problem. Moreover, they will discuss their proposals with the President of Guatemala, Otto Pérez Molina, The Vice President of Guatemala, Roxana Baldetti, the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, and a group of experts. The rules of the context can be found here.
Secretary General Insulza, who together with President Pérez Molina launched the contest last week in Guatemala City, highlighted the importance of involving youth in the debate on the worldwide drug problem. “I congratulate Guatemala for presenting this proposal because, unfortunately, the issue of drugs is a youth issue,” he said. “This doesn’t mean that people of other ages don’t consume drugs, but the statistics demonstrate clearly that the use of drugs begins before age 30,” he added. The Permanent Representative of Saint Kitts and Nevis and Chair of the Council, Jacinth Lorna Henry-Martin, also congratulated Guatemala-on behalf of the body she leads-on the presentation of the proposal.
On another issue, the Council took note of the report presented by the Inspector General of the OAS, Martín Guozden, on the activities of his office during the period between January 1 and December 31, 2013. The report can be read here.
During the meeting, the representatives of Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Dominica, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Uruguay, Trinidad and Tobago (on behalf of CARICOM), Argentina, the United States, Paraguay, Brazil, Canada, and Panama all took the floor.
A gallery of photos of the event is available here.
The video of the event will be available here.
The audio of the event is available here.
For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.
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