Role of Regional Offices
The non staff allotment for the year is mainly based on historical expenditure trends in each FAOR Office, adjusted to cater for inflation and other increases in running costs (such as rental of premises, service contracts, etc) as may be justified. The result of this exercise may influence the management of vacant and non-established posts, if resources available for non-staff costs are not sufficient.
Previous years’ data in COIN on local services contracts and Government-provided staff are used to plan the most appropriate budgetary levels for each country office. Allotments also cater for increased recurring costs, such as rental of premises, which materialized in the previous year (when they had been covered through an ad hoc additional allocation).
Standard fixed amounts are included in each FAOR allotment for:
- Staff Development is determined by CSPL
- World Food Day, USD1,680 for fully-fledged Representations and USD840 for double or multiple accreditations (this may be increased up to USD3,000)
- Hospitality (from USD100 to USD700 according to the type of Representation).
In order to provide to the FAORs the means to enhance their advocacy capacity and facilitating exchange of information and views on FAO’s programmes and activities in the country, a special hospitality allocation is included in the FAOR budget. This allocation is available for the organization of working luncheons with development partners and Government counterparts.
Hospitality funds are not fungible and the approved allocation should not be overspent. They are complemented by an additional allocation for Awareness Lunch (Luncheon Briefings), calculated on the basis of expected guests (donors’ representatives, Government counterparts and Heads of other UN Agencies).
The FAORs base working allotments for non-staff costs are based on the previous year's approved allotments and do not include any allocation for non-expendable equipment. A replacement plan for vehicles is prepared and managed at Regional Office level and is mainly funded from staff costs savings realized during the year. Other requests for equipment are evaluated on a case-by-case basis according to the available budgetary resources. IT equipment replacement, requirements are submitted to Regional Offices through the "ICT Equipment Replacement plan" module in COIN. Funding may either be managed by CIO or by the Regional Office.
It is considered a good practice to establish a “reserve” using savings on staff costs to cover unforeseen requirements (e.g. premises renovation) as well as increased running costs during the course of the year.
Role of FAORs
Each FAOR should plan the use of the non-staff allotment and report on any requirement for non-expendable equipment.
Role of OSD
In consultation with the ROs, OSD analyzes the overall non-staff resources planned to ensure it is within the overall FAOR network allotments.