292. The Council recalled that when at its Thirty-Ninth Session it was considering the implementation of the Tax Equalization Fund authorized by the Conference at its Eleventh Session, the Council had noted that the Director-General would implement it when circumstances warranted.
293. The Council noted that the Director-General would introduce the tax equalization fund as of 1 January 1972.
294. The Council was informed of the organizational changes which the Director-General had either undertaken or proposed in respect of the Office of Legal Affairs, Area Services Division, Personnel Division, Statistics Division, and Rural Institutions Division as set out in the report of the Twenty-Fourth Session of the Finance Committee. 1
295. It concurred with the proposals of the Director-General, but some members questioned the justification for the creation in the Area Services Division of an Operations Centre to be headed by a D-1. However, after hearing an explanation by the Deputy Director-General, the Council also approved this proposal, with the stipulation that it be undertaken on a trial basis and that the next Session of the Council be informed of the experience of this reorganization.
296. The Council requested that in the future when organizational changes are put forward, the proposal be accompanied by a comparative staffing chart, showing past, present and future biennia. This information would enable the Council to appreciate the effect of the new proposals on the existing staffing pattern.
1 CL 55/6. See also paras. 120–125 above.
297. The Director-General had requested and the Finance Committee had recommended that the Council authorize additional expenditure in the amount of $39 000 out of the revenue accruing from Ceres to further the continued development of this magazine. Noting that any expenditure from revenue should, in accordance with Conference Resolution 7/69, be kept within the amount of firm advertising commitments and sales, and was limited by that Resolution to a maximum of $181 530 for the 1970–71 biennium, the Council endorsed the recommendation of the Finance Committee. The Council also agreed that, apart from quota copies for Governments, free circulation of the review should be reduced to the very minimum.
298. It was noted that while some papers put before the Programme and Finance Committees were not available to Council Members, they were never considered to be “secret” to these Committees. The Council was told that such papers were “draft or working papers” prepared for the Committees' study and upon which the Committees' recommendations to the Council were based. The information contained in these papers was not withheld from Council Members for reasons of confidentiality. But their translation, reproduction and distribution would add considerably to the volume and cost of Council documentation which already was of concern to members.
299. Subject to the comments made above, the Council took note of the other matters covered in the reports of the Twenty-Third and Twenty-Fourth Sessions of the Finance Committee 1 and of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Sessions of the Programme Committee. 2
1 CL 55/4 and CL 55/6.
2 CL 55/3 and CL 55/5.
300. Under authority delegated to it by the Conference at its Eighth Session, the Council appointed Thomas W. M. Smith, Chief, Division of United Nations Economic Affairs, Office of International Economic and Social Affairs, Department of State, Washington, D.C., as Alternate on the FAO Staff Pension Committee, representing the Conference, to replace Paul Byrnes for the unexpired term, i.e. to 31 December 1971.
301. The Council expressed its appreciation of the services Paul Byrnes had rendered as an Alternate on the Committee since 1966.
302. In accordance with Staff Regulation 301.111, the Council appointed H.E. Hamid Nawaz Khan (Ambassador of Pakistan to Italy) as Alternate Chairman of the FAO Appeals Committee, to replace H.E. John Mamman Garba (Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to Italy).
303. The Council decided that the Sixteenth Session of the Conference should be convened in Rome from Saturday 6 November to Thursday 25 November 1971.
304. The Council decided that its Fifty-Sixth Session should be convened in Rome from 7 to 18 June 1971.
305. The Council noted that the following members would complete their term of office on the Council by 31 December 1970:
Central African Republic
Ethiopia
Germany, Fed. Rep. of
Indonesia
Japan
Nepal
Peru
Philippines
Romania
Turkey
Uruguay
The Council thanked the retiring members for their contribution to its work. The Council noted that the seats thus vacated would be filled as from 1 January 1971 for a term of office of three years by the following Member Nations:
Argentina
Ceylon
Congo, Dem. Rep. of the
Germany, Fed. Rep. of
Indonesia
Italy
Japan
Peru
Philippines
Romania
Togo
