40th Meeting of the Executive Committee

In 2002 UNEP had indicated that it was no longer in a position to provide the services of treasurer without the reimbursements of costs. This led the Executive Committee to consider at its 40th meeting proposals and costs from UNEP, UNIDO, ICAO and the World Bank. The Executive Committee requested the Secretariat to collect additional information on services available in other organizations and draft a new agreement so that the Committee would be in a position to define more precisely the services required of the Fund treasurer. The Executive Committee requested UNEP to continue as treasurer in the meantime and agreed to reimburse UNEP for the costs of doing so.

The Executive Committee established prioritized criteria for the purpose of accelerating
phase-out and/or maintaining momentum and identified potential sources of funds for a special
funding window for this purpose. The amount of any special funding will only be established
after the 41st meeting when the level of un-allocated funds from the first year of the 2003-2005
business plan will become apparent.

Progress reports are presented by the implementing and bilateral agencies once a year. These reports present accomplishments in terms of disbursement rates, project completion and ODS phase-out. The reports showed that targets for disbursements and phase-out in 2002 had been fully achieved. Since the financial information in the progress reports did not appear to be consistent with the report of the treasurer of the Fund, the Executive Committee requested
agencies to re-submit their financial information in their progress reports for the purpose of reconciliation to the 41st meeting.