2020 Financial Highlights1
The delay in the receipt of assessments caused a liquidity crisis in 2020 unmatched in the Organization’s history. The delay in receipt of a significant 2019 contribution during that year, combined with further delays in the collection of the 2020 assessments until the last two months of 2020, created the almost constant risk of a liquidity crisis, where cash inflows and outflows for RP activities had to be carefully managed. The Secretariat took mitigation measures to actively manage the budget and cash situation. Intensive efforts to collect assessments, with the assistance of the Regional Offices and the Council, along with continual efforts to reprioritize activities and take cost containment measures, such as freezing of recruitment and consultancies and on-boarding of selected candidates etc., enabled the Secretariat to successfully manage the budget and expenditure within available cash. Although payment of assessments improved dramatically in the last quarter of 2020, the mitigation measures and continuing COVID restrictions had a very severe negative impact on ICAO’s ability to implement the programme activities approved by the Assembly.
During this period of unprecedented risk, the Secretariat expended a lot of effort to reprioritize activities and manage the situation. Furthermore, despite the improvement in the liquidity position by the end of 2020, COVID restrictions continue to impact implementation of the programme.
Swift repositioning of resources and reprioritization of activities focused on the management and mitigation of the COVID-19 crisis, in close cooperation with Member States, UN organizations and the industry, and in coordination between HQ and Regional Offices. These efforts have generated numerous positive results in navigating the restart and recovery of operations, including but not limited to: harmonization of measures globally/regionally which are also mutually accepted by States; wider use of a multilayer risk management strategy by States; more structured and coordinated assistance provided to States; increased availability of information to States on COVID-19 developments impacting aviation through the provision of data, publications and webinars; and sharing of best practices to address emerging challenges.
The budget appropriations for 2020-2021-2022 and the financing of the appropriations, as approved by the Assembly, are shown in Table 1:
As shown in Table 2, the final appropriation for 2020 was adjusted to CAD 93 490, as a result of:
- the carry-over of 2019 appropriations to 2020 for a total of CAD 23 665 in accordance with Financial Regulations 5.6 and 5.7;
- the transfer between Strategic Objectives or Supporting Implementation Strategies in accordance with Financial Regulation 5.9; and
- the following adjustments for a total amount of CAD 33 488 to decrease 2020 appropriations and to increase 2021 appropriations:
The actual expenditure for 2020 amounted to CAD 102 949. The exchange difference of CAD 9 459 on expenses
is due to the difference in the rate of exchange used to prepare the budget versus the monthly UN rates of
exchange applied to expenses during the year. This exchange difference has been allocated to actual
expenses in order to restate it to the approved budget exchange rate.
1 Note: All figures reflected in the 2020 Financial Highlights are unaudited and there may be slight
discrepancies (in tables) due to rounding.
