996-(12)

II SÉRIE-A — NÚMERO 36

AGREEMENT RELATED TO THE LATIN AMERICAN CENTRE FOR DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION (CLAD)

The Governments of Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, whereas:

Several Latin American countries have made efforts during the last years aimed at reforming their public administrations according to rigurous reviewing criteria regarding their structures and functions departing from overall normative models and global or special diagnoses of the public administration as a whole or of some of its most strategic components that may allow for coherent reform proposals;

This attempt to set forth a radical proposal of the public structures and functions demands the growing utilization of interdisciplinary theories, doctrines and techniques pertaining to such sciences as political, economy and law, as well as general sociology and the historic evolution of the region;

Without prejudice of the proper characteristics of each Latin American country and of each of its forms of government the region shares a common administrative problem, which is reflected in the similarity observed in the approaches of each government to their reform proposals;

It is advisable to make joint efforts and to take advantage of the still insufficient human and material resources of the countries, avoiding as much as possible to undertake similar programs in a separate manner;

This kind of integration effort should be designed and operated with great flexibility in order to privilege the individualized products brought about by the cooperation, instead of creating institutions whose products may not always be in agreement with the needs of the public administrations involved;

Nonetheless, the institutionalization of an intergovernmental body devoted to the performance of said programs and in charge of supervising the elaboration of the products is essential, for which reason the Government of Venezuela has submitted to the consideration of all the Latin American countries a project for a Latin American Centre for Development Administration, with the favorable opinion of a considerable number of them;

Each of these programs should comply with its own — purposes and produce the expected final results headed by a responsible and independent direction— within the scheduled terms and with its own human and financial resources;

it is resolved to constitute the Latin American Centre for Development Administration (CLAD), giving the opportunity to the remaining Latin American states to adhere to said Centre as members, under the following provisions:

First. The Latin American Centre for Development Administration (CLAD) shall be entrusted with the implementation of international cooperation programs, dealing with the topics related to public administration reform that its Directive Council deems relevant.

Second. The headquarters of the Centre shall be located in the Latin American city determined by the Directive Council for a period of no less than three years.

Third. The Centre shall be headed by a Directive Council integrated by the higher authorities in charge of the administrative reform programs in each country, or by the governmental representatives appointed by the member countries.

The Directive Council shall have a president and a vice-president. The president shall be elected within the Directive Council by absolute majority, and shah' perform his duties during a three-year period at the headquarters of the Centre. The vice-president shall perform duties as such during one year. This position shall be occupied successively and in alphabetical order by the representatives of the member countries belonging to the Directive Council, after the first election. The internal bylaws shall be prepared by the Directive Council, including provisions regarding the functions of the president and vice-president.

Fourth. The expenses related to the functioning of the Directive Council shall be covered by the country in which.the headquarters of the Centre is located.

Fifth. The activities of the Centre shall be performed through several programs to be determined by the Directive Council. Each program shall be headed by a director, and the Directive Council shall be in charge of his appointment and dismissal. Each director shall be free to appoint and remove the personnel working for the program under his responsibility.

Sixth. Any member of the Directive Council may propose the creation of the programs of the Centre, establishing and giving reasons for the objectives to be fulfilled, as well as for their final products, duration, organization, coordination, human and material requirements, location and cost estimates. Once the initiative is approved by the majority of the members of the Directive Council, all of them shall commit themselves to make joint dealings in order to ensure its implementation, also appointing the director responsible for the program.

Each program shall be governed by the terms of reference set forth by the Directive Council at the beginning of the same.

Seventh. Each of the programs of the Centre shall be administered as an identified unit under the immediate responsibility of its director and based on its own objectives, resources, organization and location. Therefore, the Centre shall be able to undertake different programs in various countries simultaneously and in those areas in which they are specialized or particularly interested. The directors of the programs developed by the Centre shall be supervised by the Directive Council or by any of its members specially appointed to this end by the same, rendering an account to the Directive Council of all their activities within such periods, terms, places and dates set forth by the Council. The member

countries shall be able to appoint the number of national officials they may deem convenient to participate in the activities scheduled in the programs of the Centre.

Eighth. The Latin American States shall be able to adhere to this Agreement by means of a written notice forwarded to the Government of Venezuela, which shall proceed to inform the other members of the Agreement in this respect. The Government of the country where the headquarters of the Centre is located shall promote the adhesion to the Latin American Centre for Development Administration among the Latin American States.

Ninth. This Agreement shall be in force from the date of its signature and the Member States shall be