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<div dir="ltr">Rafik,<br>
<br>
Thank you for the time you took to respond. I have read both.
While this may not make it as a question for the Board, it is a
nagging issue. <br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_extra"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/planning-en">https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/planning-en</a></div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/financials-en">https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/financials-en</a><br>
<br>
Here are my quick thoughts, based on my unease about apparent
level of transparency. Previously, as the head of a Board with a
multimillion dollar annual budget I had to dig fairly deeply
into the financials for reporting purposes and before I could
put my signature on them. For some reason I have a lot of
trouble with the ICANN documents. In <a
href="https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/adopted-opplan-budget-fy15-16sep14-en.pdf"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/adopted-opplan-budget-fy15-16sep14-en.pdf">https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/adopted-opplan-budget-fy15-16sep14-en.pdf</a></a>
<br>
<br>
I find:<br>
<br>
<i>Under:</i> Statement of Activities: <br>
• Community Support Requests $700.000 <br>
<br>
<i>Under:</i> Strategic Capital Expenditures: <br>
• Online Community Services: $1,100,000 => Includes
website improvements (GDD, ICANN.org SO/AC), collaboration tools<br>
• On-going replacements & Improvements: Online Community
Services $200,000 <br>
<br>
Under: Resource Utilization - ICANN Ops:<br>
<ul>
<li> SO/AC Policy and Engagement $5,900,000</li>
</ul>
The numbers are quite aggregated, and hence give no detail.<br>
<br>
In particular, I would like to know how much SO/AC funding was
spent on NCSG and its constituency groups, and what it was spent
on. I would like broader transparency of course, but for now
this would be enough.<br>
How can we (NCSG/NCUC/NPOC) monitor and evaluate those
expenditures to hold ourselves accountable, and to evaluate
those expenditures in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, if
we have no information. <br>
<br>
In a normal organization we, as a unit of the organization,
would have those numbers and we would be expected to worry about
efficiency and effectiveness. Here we (only I?) have nothing. <br>
<br>
Beyond that question, when things like <a
href="http://domainincite.com/19630-icann-reveals-1m-of-not-lobbying-lobbying-expenses"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://domainincite.com/19630-icann-reveals-1m-of-not-lobbying-lobbying-expenses">http://domainincite.com/19630-icann-reveals-1m-of-not-lobbying-lobbying-expenses</a></a>
boil up, I find it almost impossible to cross reference numbers,
to confirm facts, and to defend NCSG against the argument that
it helps legitimate an ICANN that is less transparent than one
would expect from an accountable not-for-profit multistakeholder
organization. <br>
<br>
Those are the thoughts that leave me uneasy about the apparent
level of transparency here. If the data is under an accessible
rock that I somehow just missed, I would appreciate help
locating that rock(file).<br>
<br>
Sam L.<br>
<br>
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