ITER NEWSLINE
28
Buzzing Administration
Shaoqi Wang, ITER Deputy Director General for Administration
ITER Deputy Director-General for Administration, Shaoqi Wang
The last week saw the Administration Department buzzing in preparation of the Financial Audit Board and getting all the facts and figures ready for the upcoming meeting of the ITER Management Advisory Committe (MAC) in May and finally the ITER Council in June.
The Financial Audit Board is coming together in Cadarache this week for the first time in the young ITER history. It consists of seven independent auditors from the seven ITER Members who will check whether the contracts, tenders and other documents issued so far are in line with the Project Resources Management Regulations.
The second big effort for Administration over the past weeks was the preparation for the Management Advisory Committee and the ITER Council. We adopted the changes to the Staff Regulations and prepared the report on contracts and orders as required by the MAC in its last meeting. We are proud to announce that the calls for tender have doubled over the past six months while the number of single tenders has almost halved from 67 to 38.
Also in preparation for the MAC, four major contracts supporting the IO Engineering and Design efforts were prepared and are now ready for final approval by the ITER Council. Good news also from the construction front: the PreArchitect Contract which comprises the preliminary design of the future ITER buildings, is ready to be placed this week.
Also for the MAC, the Financial Statement of the ITER Organization for the year 2007 was written and with it the report on execution of the budget for 2008, the draft budget for 2009, the interim budget for 2010 and the preliminary budget for 2011. In addition we worked out a strategy on how to adapt the recommendations of the Technical Advisory Group in its meeting last week to the Resource Estimates.
As for the new round of recruitments, all seven Domestic Agencies have forwarded their lists of candidates who will be interviewed within the coming weeks. The implementation of the Staff Appraisals was another step forward, the interim assessment report is currently in preparation. With the first meeting of the Staff Committee and the ITER management we started the dialogue. I am sure that this exchange will improve the communication within the IO and by that lead to a constructive cooperation.
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