INTERNATIONAL UNION OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES. TREASURER s REPORT. January 2004 June 2008

Transcription

1 INTERNATIONAL UNION OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES TREASURER s REPORT January 2004 June 2008 Trieste 10 July 2008

2 INTRODUCTION The Treasurer s report stressed, modern management of a business, such as IUGS should be transparent, and must be based on three fundamental rules, as follows: 1. increase of income 2. maximum containment of management expenses 3. increase of long tem investments in science The policy followed successfully by IUGS, as indicated in the three above points, has managed to effectively balance certain reductions in income (for example 75,000 USD from US for IGCP is no longer provided). The future will likely not be more favourable, if we consider the uncertainties due to the present financial climate, to a low profile of the Earth Sciences adopted by politicians, and to the precariousness of several programmes with co-sponsoring organizations. Follows the results of this strategy : Point 1: income has been improved through the following: outstanding recovered from Adhering Organizations: 8,072 USD new Adhering Organizations: 4,473 USD upgraded Adhering Organizations: 41,997 USD increase (virtual) of membership fees due to inflation: 2.63% average per year increase in bank interests in 4 years ( ): 95,073 USD royalties from Geological Society of London: Publication Special Volumes 32nd IGC: 13,060 USD for a TOTAL of 192,675 USD (162,675 + about 30,000 (virtual: 2.63% average inflation)) Point 2: administrative expenses decreased from 174,539 USD (2004) to 83,993 USD (2007). A slight increase (113,250 USD) in 2008 is planned due to the additional activities of the EC, Committees, editing, etc. in regards to the 33 rd IGC. Point 3: the investment of science remained relatively constant even in the face of cuts of funding by the US for IGCP. In fact, the IUGS has increased its contribution for IGCP from 13,500 USD (2004) to 60,000 USD (2008), for a total amount in 4 years ( ) of 216,500 USD. Moreover IUGS has supported IYPE with a total amount of 112,500 USD, in the same period, in addition to an amount of 70,000 USD given during the past four years ( ). This resulted in a reduction of the investment in other areas of research. Therefore, the IUGS policy scientifically supported IGCP, IYPE and in a broad sense GEOPARKS, by establishing a Permanent Secretariat in Beijing (point 3). As far as point 2 is concerned, basic expenses have been reduced to the minimum, also thanks to the positive disposition of several countries in supporting the general management expenses (by hosting either the EC and Bureau, totally or partially), so that these expenses do not fall into the budget. Finally regarding point 1 the goal has been reached as has been shown in detail. 2

3 IUGS ADHERING ORGANIZATIONS One of the major concerns of IUGS was to reinstate Inactive Adhering Organizations and to acquire new members. For this purpose the IUGS EC offered a ONE TIME OPPORTUNITY to waive the prerequisite 3 years backlog penalty for INACTIVE Adhering Organizations. This action resulted in the reinstatement of 5 countries: Botswana, Cameroon, Congo, Jordan and Malawi. Recently 3 more countries became ACTIVE adhering organizations given that their fees were paid through the courtesy of the Royal Society of London U.K. Two inactive: Ivory Coast and Senegal and one new member: Lesotho. During the past 4 years IUGS had another two new Adhering Organizations join on their own accord: Latvia in 2005 and Mozambique in In total then, in the past 4 years IUGS had 3 new and recovered 14 Inactive Adhering Organizations. Moreover to stimulate Adhering Organizations to upgrade their categories, IUGS constituted a Membership Task Group whose aim was to provide an analysis of the situation of all Adhering Organizations. For each country the group considered the following parameters: population, density (h/km 2 ), Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDP in USD) and Total Gross Domestic Product (GDP TOT in USD), Industry (%) and Literacy (%). In other words it was verified if there was coherence between the social-economic situation and the IUGS category of each country. The analysis for each continent has shown that the GDP of Category 1 is on the average much higher in Europe than in Africa as well in Asia but lesser in Central South America. Similar considerations can be done for the other categories. Each country is free to choose its category but we suggest that on the basis of GDP some countries should upgrade their category. Assuming that the best hypothesis for the assessing the IUGS membership types is to relate each Adhering member category to GDP per capita, we tried several correlations between category and GDP range. This action gave rise to the following upgrades: Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia from 1 to 2 Czech Republic and South Korea from 2 to 3 Ireland from 2 to 4 Denmark from 3 to 4 Canada from 5 to 6 UK from 7 to 8 The results of the above mentioned actions gave rise to an increase in the total number of IUGS Adhering Organizations from 116 (2004) to 119 (2008), as well as to an increase in the Active Members from 79 (2004) to 93 (2008) and a consequent decrease in the Inactive members from 37 (2004) to 26 (2008) (Fig. 1). 3

4 Total: 116 Total: 117 Total: Total: Total: ACTIVE INACTIVE Fig. 1: Total IUGS Adhering Organizations, Active and Inactive ( ). As a positive consequence of all these actions IUGS obtained an increase in membership fees from 234,380 USD (2004) to 297,836 (30 June 2008). It is important to stress that on 30 June 2008 we received most of the membership fees and that we expect in the next months an additional 80,000 90,000 USD (Fig. 2). 4

5 ,380 $ 247,165 $ 247,742 $ 271,651 $ 297,836 $ USD ,222 $ 35,499 $ 29,081 $ 50,783 $ 31,081 $ June 2008 Membership fees for current year Membership fees for previous years Fig. 2: Membership fees ( ). 5

6 BANK INTEREST IUGS has two foreign accounts in Trieste (Unicredit Bank), one for USD and one for (no and no , respectively). In order to obtain the maximum benefit from our reserve, IUGS put 400,000 USD into a short term guaranteed deposit account to Assicurazioni Generali Trieste on June 2004 and in March 2006 an additional 125,000 USD were put in the same short term guaranteed deposit account, for a total of 525,000 USD, leaving sufficient funds to balance income-expenses in a current account. The Generali Vita S.p.a. Insurance Company - Trieste have guaranteed an annual income of about 4.25%, except for the first year when the money was tied at an entry interest of 1.75%. In practice, as the current account is sufficiently high, we should never need to access the reserve deposits. A current account of just one year fees is more than satisfactory for routine activity. In conclusion it must be stressed that the IUGS EC new policy of bank investments, produced a very high amount of interests (141,708 USD) with respect to the past years ( ), largely respecting the optimistic prevision of 107,300 USD presented during the 32 nd IGC in Florence. Figure 3 and Table 1, show the development of bank interest with a marked increase in the 4 years, partially due to the low exchange rate of USD, being the short term account in Euro. In the same figure we also report the bank charges, that has decreased following the successful IUGS policy regarding the control of the expenditures: 14,157 USD (2004) 4,097 (2007) USD June 2008 Bank interests Bank charges Fig. 3: Bank interests and bank charges in

7 USD June 2008 Bank interests Bank charges Table 1: Bank interests and bank charges in

8 ROYALTIES FROM GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON After the 32 nd IGC, IUGS received in 2006 and 2007 royalties for the publication of the following Special Volumes, for a total amount of 13,060 USD Special volume 255: Cool Water Carbonates Special volume 257: Geomaterials in Cultural Heritage Special volume 261: Fractal Analysis for Natural Hazards Special volume 264: Compositional Data Analysis in the Geosciences Special volume 265: Non-marine Permian Biostratigraphy & Biochronology Special volume 266: Functions of Soils for Human Societies Special volume 273: Myth and Geology Special volume 276: Economic and Palaeoceanographic Importance of Contourites It is hopped that the 33 rd IGC products a series of high level papers to be published as Special Volumes from the Geological Society of London to guarantee additional income during the next term of 4 years. 8

9 ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES The significant decrease in administrative expenses, shown in Figure 4, reflects the policy carried out by IUGS, which has favoured investments (science block) and planned a significant reduction in the expenses (administrative block), giving raise to an increase in the science/administration expenses ratio in the 4-year period. It should be stressed that the member-countries hosting the Bureau and the Executive Committee meetings did their best to support these meetings from their own resources. This allowed us to keep the expenses related to these meetings at a reasonable level. We have to thank the host-countries, their National Committees and the sponsors for organizing these remarkable scientific meetings % Scientific Expenses Administrative expenses Fig. 4: Scientific and Administrative expenses ( ). Figure 5 and Table 2, show the expenses in detail highlighting the significant decrease due primarily to a fiscal control of the routine and representative meetings even though in 2008 we will have a temporary increase due to additional meetings of the IUGS Bureau and EC as part of the 33 rd IGC. 9

10 ,539 $ USD ,857 $ 93,146 $ 83,993 $ 113,250 $ Bank charges Contingency Promotional items Brochure Annual report Exhibitions IUGS to ICSU Representative meetings Routine meetings Fig. 5: Administrative expenses ( ). Administrative expenses Routine meetings Representative meetings IUGS to ICSU Exhibitions Annual report Brochure Promotional items Contingency Bank charges Table 2: Administrative expenses in detail ( ). 10

11 SCIENTIFIC EXPENSES Following the policy of investing in science (invest for the future), larger funds have been invested in IGCP for a total amount of 216,500 USD ( ), in response to the cut of US financial support to IGCP (75,000 USD/year). In fact the IUGS EC planned to increase progressively funds for IGCP from 13,200 USD (2004) to 60,000 USD (2008), (Figure 6, Table 3). Moreover funds have been invested in GEOPARKS, but especially, IUGS has made some real longer-term investments as recommended in the Mid-Term Vision and of which the International Year of Planet Earth is really the best example of a very high international level activity. IUGS supported IYPE for a total of 112,500 USD in 4 years ( ), in addition to the amount of 70,000 USD given during the previous four years ( ). Finally, IUGS also supported with particular effort: ILP (Scientific Commission on the Lithospere) with a total amount of 83,000 USD GARS (Geological Application of Remote Sensing) with a total amount of 38,000 USD ICS (International Commission on Stratigraphy) with a total amount of 180,000 USD and EPISODES, with annual contributions of 23,000 USD/year, for dissemination of the IUGS House Journal. Appreciation and thanks are due to China for its fundamental contribution and to UNESCO that allows us to circulate this journal, free of charge, within developing countries. More specifically, within the framework of the expenses for science, it has been favoured with respect to previous years, the Affiliated Organizations supported with a total amount of 71,500 USD. 11

12 nd IGC GEOHOST, HUTCHISON 33rd IGC HUTCHISON AWARDS (32 IGC) GEOHOST (32 IGC) IUGS to China for Episodes GEOSEE - GEOPARKS IYPE IUGS Affiliated Organizatios USD IUGS Committees IUGS Iniziatives IUGS Task Groups IUGS Commissions IUGS for ILP IUGS for GARS IUGS for IGCP Fig. 6: Scientific expenses ( ) Scientific Expenses IUGS for IGCP IUGS for GARS IUGS for ILP IUGS Commissions IUGS Task Groups IUGS Iniziatives IUGS Committees IUGS Affiliated Organizatios IYPE GEOSEE - GEOPARKS IUGS to China for Episodes GEOHOST (32 IGC) HUTCHISON AWARDS (32 IGC) Table 3: Scientific expenses in detail ( ) 12

13 FINANCIAL SITUATION AND DEVELOPMENT Coming now to some comments concerning the IUGS financial situation at the end of each past year, figure 7 and the table 4 show that the budget was more less constant during the four years, with a very high increase in 2007 and 2008 and a very light decrease in 2006, due to the payments in advance that IUGS faced for UNESCO to support IGCP. This was done in order to assure a satisfactory implementation of scientific programs, especially those involving UNESCO, but also those supported by IUGS, due to the fact that UNESCO transferred only in 2007 the IGCP support funds for The exceptionally high financial situation of 2007 and 2008, is due to the above mentioned reasons and also to the effect of the exchange rate of USD in our short term guaranteed deposit account that is in Euro. According to our budget policy we imposde a rigorous balance of income and expense budget, checking moreover the expenses. It must be highlighted that Hutchison Fund increased from 37,737 USD in 2004 to 46,640 in According to the IUGS EC decision, this fund has been incremented each year since 1997, by the corresponding fraction of interests gained on the current account. To which has been added in the period , an extra USD 2,000/year following the EC recommendation to preserve the capital of this fund and to use part of this for a grant to young scientists participating in the International Geological Congress. Each year, the accounts have been published in Episodes. Also, the Russian Reserve account has been incremented every year by the corresponding fraction of interests of the account. Moreover, during the EC meeting in Punta Arenas in 2006, decided to start a Reserve Fund to fully support one EC officer from a developing country. In 2008 this fund consisted of 9,000 USD (Fig. 4, Table 4). 13

14 USD June 2008 IUGS (reserves + income - expenses) Hutchinson Russian reserve Officers developing countries Fig. 7: IUGS financial situation USD June 2008 IUGS (reserves + income - expenses) Hutchinson Russian reserve Officers developing countries TOTAL Table 4: IUGS financial situation in details ( ) On the basis of the above considerations, Figure 8 and table 5 show the evolution of the financial situation year by year regarding the three main items: reserves, income and expenditures. It clearly shows a very high increase of the reserves in 2007 due, as it has already pointed out, to the recovery of 2006 funds from UNESCO and to the effects of the exchange rate of USD in our short term guaranteed deposit account that is in Euro. Moreover for the end of 2008 beginning 2009 we estimate an extraordinary income of about 75,000 USD from 33 rd IGC Oslo. With regard to the expenditures we stress a relevant decrease with respect to those of 2004, due to the 32 nd IGC; expenses that will be proposed again in 2008 in view of the 33 rd IGC. 14

15 USD June 2008 Financial Situation at the end of the year Income Expenses Fig. 8: Financial situation, income, expenses ( ) USD June 2008 Financial Situation at the end of the year Income Expenses Table 5: : Financial situation, income, expenses ( ) 15

16 Concluding these brief considerations, we want to highlight that our budget policy imposed a rigorous balance of income and expense budget, as clearly illustrated in Figure 8 and in Table 5. Finally, it must also be stressed that all the expenses, including salaries and travel, related to the activities of the Bureau officers (President, Secretary General, Treasurer and their assistants) as well as those of supporting staff are covered by the respective mother organizations and at no cost to the IUGS. This represents an inestimable help to the Union. The IUGS Permanent Secretariat in Trondheim (Norway) is totally supported by the Norwegian government which is also gratefully acknowledged as an important cost savings. Moreover I would like to thank my Department for the support given to me during the 4 years of my term. My thanks also go to all the colleagues of the Bureau: Hongren Zhang, Peter Bobrowsky, to the IUGS Vice Presidents: Eldridge Moores and Sylvi Haldorsen, to the councillors of the EC and to the Permanent Secretariat in Norway, in particular to Anne Dehls. Special thanks go to Ioanna Protopsalti for her fundamental contribution and assistance in handling all the administrative IUGS matters. 16