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Annual Report 2003 : Maximizing Institutional Effectiveness

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Mobilizing Human Resources and Budget

Human resource programs and activities continued to focus on attracting, retaining, and motivating highly qualified staff. In addition offering competitive salaries on appointment, ADB formalized the outsourcing of background checks for senior and other sensitive positions. Vacancies were posted on web sites targeting international development specialists specifically those with skills in social protection, social development, private sector development, derivatives, transport, renewable energy, and project/operations administration.

Based on the interventions identified by a study of human resource challenges,¹ ADB completed its self-review and identified 10 priorities (see box). Of these, the Gender Action Program II, staff participation in selection and promotion panels (6-month trial basis), and the revision of the Staff Service and Exemplary Performance Recognition Program were approved and implemented. A review of the current performance management system was conducted. Behavioral, cultural, and structural changes in managing and conducting the present system were recommended to senior management and to ADB’s Staff Council and were the basis for workshops with staff.

Training and development activities focused on providing opportunities for staff to align their skills with the desired mix under the new organizational structure and business processes. Alternative delivery methods were used to expand audience numbers and access to training programs by a wider range of staff especially in the resident missions. An operations tool kit was launched, providing a one-stop source on policies, strategies, procedures, and business processes.

ADB continued to subsidize postgraduate studies, membership in professional associations, and the ADB-Ateneo² Masters in Business Administration Program and also provided capacity-building initiatives such as the Orientation Program for Developing Member Country Officials, the Secondment Program, and the Internship Program.

At the end of the year, ADB had a staff of 2,311 representing 51 of its 63 members. The total comprised 836 professional staff,³ 356 national officers, and 1,119 administrative staff,⁴ of which 362⁵ or about 15.7% were located in the field offices. There were 89 appointments and 47⁶ departures of professional staff members, while 110 national officers and administrative staff joined ADB and 59⁷ left. The number of women professional staff increased from 217 (27.3% of the total professional staff) at the end of 2002, to 241 (28.8%) at the end of 2003.

ADB provided regular services to staff members to ensure optimum staff welfare, fundamental to developing, updating, and retaining the core competencies that are needed to deliver ADB’s increasingly complex work program.

An ADB-wide survey to ascertain and better gauge staff perception of the overall working environment, as well as a review of professional staff job offer rejections⁸ was completed. The survey noted that staff morale was an issue that ADB needed to address. Work on a human resource strategy was begun.

Security was a primary consideration as was the health of staff. ADB provided regular advisories on severe acute respiratory syndrome, took appropriate measures for staff members’ health, and maintained close coordination with medical representatives from the World Health Organization and various embassies in Manila.

Consistent with ADB’s market-driven compensation system, a 4.2% weighted average increase in professional staff salaries was approved in 2003 (effective 1 January 2004). For local staff at headquarters, the salary survey for 2003 resulted in a 10.1% weighted average salary increase effective 1 January 2003. An overall weighted average salary increase of 9.3% for local staff in 19 field offices was also implemented.

The existing compensation and benefits package for professional staff in the field offices was monitored and revised as necessary. The mandatory and optional life and disability insurance plans were rebid and renewed.

Significantly, ADB was the first MDB to get ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certification⁹.

Internal Administrative Budget

Actual internal administrative expenses for 2003 amounted to $252.6 million, a utilization rate of 98% for a savings of $6.1 million against the original budget of $258.7 million. The budget for 2004 amounts to $279.5 million, including a general contingency of 1% (summarized in Appendix 8). The increase over the 2003 revised estimate is 8.3%, largely due to further increases in ADB’s contribution to the Staff Retirement Plan, implementation of the accountability mechanism and antimoney laundering policies, the cost of new resident missions, increased depreciation charges, and securityrelated costs. The overall price increase is estimated at 5.1%, while the net volume increase is about 3.2%.

Priorities to be funded by the 2004 budget include implementing new Board-approved policies and mandates, expanded work programs and portfolios of regional departments, increased activity in private sector operations, compliance-related legal services, the managing-for-results initiative, and an action plan for the knowledge management framework.

In addition to internal administrative expenses, the 2004 budget also includes an annual capital budget of $4.85 million covering, among others, security-related capital expenditures at the resident missions and technology-related infrastructure/systems consolidation and updates.

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