  
. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/BFA/W/123/Rev.1 
2 December 2004 
 
 (04-5274) 
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration  
  
 
 
MONITORING AND CONTROL OF TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE 
 
Revision
 
 
 
I. BACKGROUND 
1. The significant increase in the workload of th e WTO in the years since its coming into 
existence has resulted in a situation whereby a numb er of individuals are f unded on a long-term basis 
by Temporary Assistance (TA).  The main reason for th is development is that staff resources have, in 
many instances, not been wholly adequate to fu lfil the Organization's increased responsibilities both 
in terms of breadth and volume of tasks.  This  reality has been rec ognized by the Committee on 
Budget, Finance and Administration (CBFA) in the last two budget exercises, whereby a number of positions, in the same Division filled by the same pe rson for at least four years, funded under TA have 
been consolidated into the regular staffing of  the organization on a cost-neutral basis.   
II. FUTURE POLICY 
2. Henceforth TA funds will be provided and used exclusively for the following purposes: 
(a) for temporary  peaks in workload, particularly in  such areas as translation, word-
processing, and, to a lesser extent, reproduction of documents; 
(b) for occasional situations which require manual work ers for a short period of time, 
e.g. a large number of office moves which exceed the capacity of regular staff to 
effect in a reasonable period of time; 
(c) for replacement of staff on long medical leave and maternity leave; 
(d) to implement the WTO Internship Prog ramme, normally limited to three months' 
duration per intern; 
(e) for short-term consultants to undertake specifi c tasks, such as in th e informatics area;  
and 
(f) for overtime of staff required to work  in excess of the normal work week; 
(g) for other purposes of an exceptional nature, subject to the approval of the CBFA.  
III. PROPOSED ACTIONS 
3. In order to reduce the number of staff funded from TA on a long-term basis, and to minimize 
the chances that such situations should recur,  the following plan of action will be adopted: 
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(a) the consolidation, on a cost-neutral basis, of five
1 positions, each filled by the same 
person in the same Division, to be accepted by Members of the CBFA in the context 
of the recommendation to the General Council on the revised budget for 2005; 
(b) the Human Resources Management Committee (HRMC) will examine those 
remaining long-term TA positions with a view to reassessing their continuing need; 
those positions whose continuing need has been reaffirmed by the HRMC will be 
examined to see whether a reallocation of posts, including vacant posts, can be used 
to advertise a post corresponding to the f unctions currently being handled on TA, 
thereby further reducing the number of long-term positions filled by TA; 
(c) other than replacement for staff on special leave without pay or on long sick and 
maternity leave, which is limited to the duration of the leave, any proposal for a new 
TA contract of more than three months' duration , or any extension of a TA contract 
over three months must be approved by the Deputy Director-General in charge of 
finance and administration who will report regularly to the CBFA in the context of the Progress Reports on Human Resources,  on action taken in this regard; 
(d) no TA contract may be extended beyond 11  months of continuous service, unless 
exceptional circumstances so require, and only in a very limited number of cases each year, decided by the CBFA on the basis of proposals made by the Secretariat. 
(e) the extent to which TA associated with  implementation of the DDAGTF and other 
trust funds is properly reflected in the st aff resources available through those funds 
will be reassessed in order to avoid a situ ation whereby implementation of trust fund 
technical assistance activities relies disproportionately on regular budget TA 
resources. 
IV. OTHER MEASURES WHICH COULD LIMIT EXPENDITURES ON TA: 
4. The following measures will also  be pursued in the context of limiting the use of TA: 
(a) institute greater control on utilization of  overtime and apply a mandatory policy for 
taking a certain amount of overtime as compensatory time-off; 
(b) investigate creative solutions for situatio ns when TA is used or proposed; and 
(c) investigate other avenues for possible outsourcing which could impact on both 
regular positions and TA. 
5. The Committee may wish to endorse the measures outlined in this paper. 
 
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1 Four in the WTO Secretariat and one in the Appellate Body Secretariat. 