Bedford House Cemetery, Belgium
Finance
The receipts and payments for the financial year ending 31 March 1991, together with the corresponding figures for the previous year, are summarised in Appendix A on pages 28-29. The figures show that annual expenditure increased by 14.9% to £22,081,656, representing an average cost of £13.03 per individual commemoration compared with £11.33 for 1989-90.
The overall income of the Commission is provided by direct grants from the Member Governments in the proportions shown at Appendix B. These proportions derive from a resolution of the Imperial War Conference of 1918 that the cost of carrying out the tasks for which the Commission is responsible under its Charter should be borne by those governments in proportion to the numbers of the graves of their dead.
A small yet significant amount of Commission expenditure, 3% in 1990-91, is met by income from the Imperial War Graves Endowment Fund. This fund, administered by the Trustees listed on page 2, was established by the member governments in 1926, with the intention that it should produce income sufficient to preserve the required standard of maintenance of the graves of the 1914-18 war in perpetuity. Although inflation and the advent of the Second World War defeated this original intention, the income is still substantial and growing. During 1990-91 the income from the fund increased by 14.7% to £663,982.
Further sources of income are the General Fund and interest earned on the Commission's working capital. The General Fund is similar to the Endowment Fund in that any donations and bequests received by the Commission are invested and the income from these investments is used to defray Commission expenditure. Income from these sources amounted to £319,269 during the last financial year.
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