International Civil Aviation Organization

During its 36th and 37th sessions, held in February and May 1959, respectively, the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) spent considerable time on the preparation of documentation for the forthcoming Assembly. Special attention was paid to the budget estimates for 1960, 1961, and 1962, a review of the basis of assessment, documentation on questions of a constitutional and general policy nature, the policy and program of ICAO for the provision of air navigation facilities and services, ICAO policy on technical assistance, and the future frequency of Assembly sessions. Opinion in the Council was evenly divided on asking the Assembly to vote funds to cover the basic estimates of meetings and activities and to authorize the Council to make, if required, supplementary appropriations up to the amounts indicated in a list of contingent expenditures, as opposed to asking it to vote a budget that would include the contingent expenditures, identified as such, with the proviso that the amounts voted for these expenditures would be available only for the purposes indicated and that assessments for them would be made by the Council if and when necessary. Both alternatives subsequently having been put to the Assembly, the latter body decided to do nothing about the contingent expenditures for meetings, while authorizing the Council to make supplementary appropriations to cover the contingency that the post adjustment for Headquarters would be raised. On the subject of assessments, two tasks were undertaken, one being the drafting of instructions to the Secretary General of ICAO on the preparation of the draft scale of assessments for 1960–1962, and the other being a general review of the basis of assessment, while on the subject of the future frequency of Assembly sessions the Council decided to recommend a major session in 1962 and, if necessary, another session of limited scope either in i960 or in 1961, preferably the latter.