Administrative Committee

The Administrative Committee is the control organ for the Secretary General’s administrative and financial affairs.

To take account of a possible increase in the number of Member States of OTIF, the Administrative Committee under COTIF 1999 (Article 15) is composed of a third of the Member States; the Swiss Confederation will no longer have a permanent seat. For the new period, the Committee will therefore be composed of 14 Member States.
   
Having regard in particular to an equitable geographical distribution, the General Assembly designates not only the members of the Administrative Committee, but also a deputy member for each of them, for a period of three years. The General Assembly also elects the Member State which is to chair the Administrative Committee.

The deputy member automatically becomes a member of the Administrative Committee for the rest of the Administrative Committee’s term of office if a vacancy occurs in the member’s seat, if the member’s right to vote is suspended or in the case of absence of a member for two consecutive sessions of the Committee, without the member arranging to be represented by another member of the Administrative Committee. A deputy member that becomes a member of the Administrative Committee in the course of a period, must be designated as a member of the Committee for the period which follows. However, no Member State may sit on the Administrative Committee for more than two full consecutive periods.

The Chairman (Article 15 § 9) must convene the Administrative Committee at least once a year as well as at the request of four of its members or of the Secretary General. As under the COTIF 1980 regime, it will send to the members of the Committee the draft agenda, deal, within the limits and under the conditions laid down in the rules of procedure, with urgent questions arising in the interval between meetings and sign the Headquarters Agreement. However, the Revision Committee rejected the institutionalization of the role of Chairman of the Administrative Committee as an independent organ.

The main attributions of the Administrative Committee are to conclude the Headquarters Agreement, to appoint the senior members of staff of the Organisation, to establish the Organisation’s staff regulations, to ensure the correct application by the Secretary General of COTIF and of decisions taken by the other organs, to approve the Organisation’s programme of work, the budget, the annual report and accounts, and lastly, to prepare and send to the Member States before the General Assembly which is to decide its composition, a report on its work and proposals as to how it should be reconstituted.

COTIF 1999 has also adapted and extended the competencies of the Administrative Committee. Therefore, it will, for example, establish a regulation concerning the finances and book-keeping of the Organisation, approve the taking on of administrative functions by the Organisation and fix the specific contributions due in this respect, resolve disputes between a Member State and the Secretary General with regard to his function as Depositary and take decisions about applications for suspension of membership. In contrast, the General Assembly will elect the Secretary General, whereas under the COTIF 1980 regime, the Administrative Committee appointed both the senior members of staff and the Director General of the former Central Office.

List of members and deputy members (period from 1.10.2009 to 30.9.2012)

*)   Vacant seat by virtue of Article 15 § 3 COTIF.

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