TNAG-2752-FCO40-3967-Organisation-for-Economic-Co-operation-and-Development-(OECD-1994 — Page 113

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Decentralised Budget

10. In what amounted to a substantial shift from the position he had taken last year Abel welcomed the limited decentralisation of budget responsibility for certain support services which was now being introduced. Going off at a slight tangent he criticised the budget process for not taking sufficient amount of directorates' Part II

resources in assessing the balance of the Part I settlement. [Comment: he spoke as a Director who has no significant Part II input and seems determined to keep his Directorate's work Part I funded. In a subsequent conversation with his staff officer, Amy Plantin, I suggested that a limited change of policy for short duration, high priority work might be no bad thing see my 7 July letter to ian Fletcher on Trade/Environment.]

Committee Process

11. Abel stressed the need to find new ways of pushing work forward, suggesting small groups doing initial work informally to feed into the Committee. [Comment: John Cooke put this idea into Abel's head at the February Trade Committee. Abel's difficulty is that he would want the secretariat engaged in each group which may be neither feasible nor desirable.]

Alastair Newton

CC

I Fletcher Esq, ITP/1a. DTI R Wilson Esq, EPED,

R Crick Esq, ECGD

BAG, ERDA FCO

DOE

P Young Esq, UKMis Geneva

Miss Hyland

or