|
|
|
|
|
|
The Middle East Council of Churches Executive Committee Meeting
|
|
Finance and administration committee report to Executive Committee
Your Holiness and Beatitudes Your Excellencies and Graces Most respected Fathers Respected brothers, members of the Executive Committee
Warm Greetings. We thank the almighty God for granting us the opportunity to donate so that the journey of the Council continues with effectiveness in deepening the spirit of ecumenical work, and puts an imprint of work and hope in the souls of many who are victims of the circumstances in this Orient. The Council was able to be present to translate the philosophy for which it was founded and to execute the aims it seeks and look for in order to remain an important ecumenical arm consolidating the Christian presence and wiping off the tears to sow hope and joy.
The Finance and Administration Committee was able to carry all burdens mandated to it and to translate into actions the responsibilities and mandatory powers assigned to it. Last year's journey was not easy or ordinary; it was faced with many difficulties and experienced several surprises. It, therefore, had to be up to the responsibility and to face these difficulties with knowledge and care based on its members' experience, taking into consideration the humanitarian and institutional dimensions, and also well aware of the necessity to keep the journey of this Council always strongly bright lighting the way of the ecumenical and humanitarian work with a high Christian spirit in order to create a better present and to put a plan for the future which can adapt to all circumstances and preserve the basics for the existence of this Council and its performance now and in the future.
Hence, this Committee persisted, in most of the important junctures of the administrative and financial work, to be effectively present and aware of all the details, the developments and the related dimensions. It carried the responsibility with all honesty and clarity. Its concern was to properly comply and courageously translate into actions all the decisions and directives of the Executive Committee with all the financial and administrative repercussions. As a result, the Committee was able to realize the aim of putting the financial policy and preparing and modifying the budgets, in line with the regulations in Article Ten of the By Laws where the responsibilities of this Committee were defined asking it to propose the administrative and financial policies and to supervise and follow-up their execution. In fact, following-up the administrative and financial matters and dealing with the circumstances and facts that happened last year had led the Committee to know the minute details and to follow-up the particulars in order to grasp all the resulting repercussions.
The Administrative Performance of the Council
It is necessary to say that administration and finance are two faces to one currency. They are the two sides of one policy, each one of them directly affects the other. Indeed the importance of the administrative decision is measured by its cost. The success of the administrative decision, particularly in non-profit organizations, is in the extent of cost condensation or reduction to the lowest possible level, taking into consideration that reducing the cost is equivalent to an income that ultimately improves the financial performance.
And as it was imperative to deal with leading administrative ideas summarized in writing new job descriptions in order to help finding an increase of efficiency in the services offered by the Council, it was inevitable to do an administrative study in order for the Committee to know the status of the administrative cadre. This was also in the implementation of the request by their most respected Holiness and Beatitudes Presidents of the Council. As a result, the Finance and Administration Committee conducted a field survey and an office analysis covering all the staff working in the Council; this covered the job, education, experience, age and responsibility, and also the church distribution of the staff and their religion. The results of this study permitted to draw a clear map of all staff members. The study results indicated the presence of a surplus of staff in some posts and a deficit in other posts. The study also revealed all the staff members who passed the legal age of retirement and the low percentage of young staff members, and also the consideration of the staff members' years of experience rather than the educational level.
The above-mentioned study revealed the necessity of taking decisive administrative decisions aiming to remove the additional burdens, guide the useless expenses/ salaries/compensations and to support the staff with young elements, hence to apply the Council's Constitution and what was based on that in the decision number SCAF/13/2006 taken by the Executive Committee meeting in Cairo on 23 and 24 March 2006. And to administratively deal with these directives according to the minimum possible and with no effect on the production or the productivity, the approach was based on two axes: first to pension off those who passed the retirement age, and second to issue overall administrative instructions aiming to control the administrative work, job commitment and expenditure. In the first axe, five employees were pensioned off which saved not less than $82,000.- yearly without affecting the productivity and presence of the Council. It is expected to complete these measures for the current year to pension off three employees realizing a new saving this year reaching about $34,000.- which makes the total financial effect for this decision during 2006 and 2007 equivalent to about $155,000.-. As to the second axe, several related decisions were taken with positive effect on the financial situation of the Council and with what consolidates the effective impact on the basic approach in controlling the expenditure and reducing the costs to the minimum possible. From these decisions what was taken regarding the Council's cars as four cars used by the staff were sold to them leading to saving about $10,000.- yearly. Also canceling the payment of staff cars' parking saved the amount of $7,200.- yearly. And given the existence of the social security for the staff, the medical insurance with MED NET company was also cancelled, and with this the Council saved an amount of $18,700.- yearly. In addition, electronic mail is being used in correspondence instead of international telephone calls, and the number of meetings that are not important and effective and are repetitive in nature was reduced with the accomplishment of the same work and achievement of the same aims with less meetings. In this context, a package of measures and administrative instructions were issued (enclosed and distributed to you) which finally pour in the equation of controlling the expenditure and lowering the administrative cost without affecting the production and productivity.
What was achieved cannot be labeled as an administrative reformation but can be considered an important step, rather a humble step on the long way to the improvement of the Council's performance according to the equation of maximizing the benefits and services and lowering the cost which fact leads to reducing the percentage of salaries and fees to the total expenditure.
Quite as the offering by the Coptic Church of a place in Cyprus to the Council of Churches as a free donation saved an amount of $12,000.- yearly which is the rent that used to be paid during the past years for the old place. Also, in the course of controlling the expenditure, we dispensed with the offices in the fourth floor of the MECC headquarter in Beirut, Lebanon for which we were able to get the amount of $12,000.- from the owner and to save a yearly rent of $4,800.-. Further, it was possible to take advantage from the issuance of decree number 753 dated 12/5/2006 in the Council's exemption from paying the Social Security fines reaching up to $23,000.-. The administrative decisions and measures that were taken reflect the desire of the Finance and Administration Committee to see the future through a correct reading of the actual financial and administrative situation, giving a new push to all the employees and introducing a new blood capable of renewing the gift of donating and accelerating the frequency of the Council's work and its performance.
The Financial Performance of the Council
a- The Council's Units and Departments:
The estimated budget for the Units and Departments of the Council for the year 2006 reached around $1,395,000.- of which a total of $1,163,000.- was spent, that is about 83 percent. The total income for the year 2006 reached $973,000.- that is about 70 percent of the budget. A comparison of the financial data for the year 2006 with those of 2005 shows that the financial performance of the Council was able to realize an improvement in the year 2006 compared to the year 2005 that is the financial deficit went down from $319,000.-in 2005 to $184,000.- in 2006 thus the percentage of the deficit to the expenditure went down to about 15.6 percent compared to deficit/expenditure 23 percent for the year 2005. The Units and Departments of the Council participated in the reduction of this deficit; the General Secretariat saw the disappearance of deficit for the second year consecutively while the deficit of the Finance and Administration Department went down from $119,000.- in the year 2005 to about $70,000.- in the year 2006 that is with a decrease reaching about 41 percent. And despite the decrease in the deficit phenomenon in general in the units and departments of the Council yet the participation of these units and departments in the deficit registered about 38.6 percent for the Finance and Administration Department, 40.8 percent for the Communication Department, 19.3 percent for the Unit on Life and Service, 11.4 percent for Unit on Education and Renewal and 8.3 percent for the Unit on Faith and Unity. b- ICNDR Program
The actual total expenditure of this Program for the year 2006 was about $195,300.-. The Program received funds close to the amount of expenditure reaching about $190,400.-. The presence of funds transferred from last year and amounting to $7,600.- helped in covering the deficit for 2006 and ending with a surplus in this account for the year 2006 in the amount of $2,700.-.
|