Historical Costs

["Raimundo Beca" <rbeca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At Prague, I made a statement in the Public Forum regarding the Historical
Costs of the New gTLD program.

 

Namely, my comments at Prague regarding the Historical Costs addressed three
issues: the name given to the Historical Costs, the total amount of the
Historical Costs and the opportunity in which the Historical Costs should
be returned to ICANN.

 

Regarding the name given to the costs incurred by ICANN in the preparation
of the New gTLD program, I stated that they should not be called with the
euphemistic term of "Development Services Fees" used in the 2013 Budget, but
that they should be called Historical Costs, as they effectively are. I am
pleased to learn today that effectively in the 2013 Forecast Budget and in
the 2014 Budget they are called Historical Costs.

 

Regarding the total amount of the Historical Costs, I expressed at Prague my
concerns about the fact that the Historical Costs were capped at a value of
32.5 million, artificially estimated.  Incidentally, the last formal figure
of the Historical Cosst incurred by ICANN was reported in September 2010,
with a value of 29.9 million. Of course, it is hard to believe that from
September 2010 to June 2012 ICANN incurred only in 4.6 million of additional
Historical Costs, in circumstances that in that period a number of highly
expensive programs, like the TAS System and the Outreach Program, were
funded by ICANN. Consequently, I asked that the real amount of the
Historical Costs should be estimated in a fair an audited manner.
Unfortunately, this has not been yet the case.

 

Regarding the opportunity in which the Historical Costs should be returned
to ICANN, I expressed at Prague that, given that the Historical Costs are
expenses effectively incurred by ICANN , they should be returned as soon as
the fees collected are available for expenditure. Unfortunately, this has
also not yet been the case. Effectively, in the 2013 Forecasted Budget of
the New gTLD program it appears that only 18 million of Historical Costs are
forecasted, in circumstances that an impressive Change in  Net Assets of 74
million appears in the 2013 Forecasted Budget of the New gTLD program.