STATEMENT DELIVERED BY AMBASSADOR TEBOGO SEOKOLO, RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVE/GOVERNOR OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, BOARD OF GOVERNORS, VIENNA, 9 JUNE 2015

Agenda Item 4: Report of the Programme and Budget Committee

Madame Chairperson,

My delegation aligns itself with the statement delivered by the Ambassador of Chile on behalf of the Group of 77 and China and thanks the Ambassadors of France and India as the co-chairs of the Working Group on the Regular Budget and TCF Targets 2016-2017, for leading the consultations.

May we also extend our gratitude to Ambassador Paradas and Ambassador  Oyugi of Kenya former co-chairs of the Working Group on Financing the Agency’s Activities and including to examine the ways and means to render resources for the Technical Cooperation Fund sufficient, assured and predictable for laying the groundwork for the negotiations on the budget and TCF Targets for the Biennium 2016-2017.  

Admittedly both these Working Groups undertook herculean tasks of building consensus amongst Member States on the illusive objective of assuring sufficient resources for the Agency.

Madame Chairperson,

We joined consensus on the proposal for the 2016-2017 budget and TCF Targets, not that we agree with everything that is contained within.  We wish to remind the Board that the objective of ensuring Sufficient Assured and Predictable resources for the TCF  is an historic Mission that we are yet to accomplish. This was one  of the key actions contained in the 2010 NPT Action Plan and was also acknowledged during the recent NPT RevCon.   There is no illusion on our part that achieving this objective would be easy.  But what we expect is the commitment in good faith to fulfil this goal.

We understand that developed and developing countries are experiencing financial challenges.  However we are of the firm view if we are to implement the objectives of the IAEA statute and the objectives of the NPT, then we must deploy our best efforts to overcome the resource constraints in the Technical Cooperation Programme.

Madame Chairperson

In assessing the proposal for the biennium we recall the 2013 Board decision to set the Indicative Planning Figure for 2016-2017 at not less than 92 million USD and 92.5 million USD respectively.  This has translated into approximately 84.4 million euro for 2016 and 84.9 million euro in 2017. This by no means brings us closer to the historic mission of making the resources for TC Sufficient Assured and Predictable.  Neither are we satisfied with the fact that there is still a disparity between the promotional and non-promotional components of the Agency’s budget for the coming biennium.

Despite these concerns Madame Chairperson we have joined consensus on the proposed Budget and TCF Targets with the hope that the goodwill we have demonstrated will be reciprocated in the future discussion and negotiations on these matters.

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