Published in News & Notes 27 January 2007 [176] and on Auronet
Information about the constitution of the FAMC on an interim basis
Background
On November 10th 1997, the Government of India passed rules of the Auroville Foundation which were published in the Gazette of India, (Part II, Section 3, sub section (I) No. F. 27-43/91-UU). This stated in part that:
(c) “FAMC” means the Funds and Assets Management Committee constituted by the Governing Board under Sub-section (1) of Section 16;
(b) Funds and Assets Management committee (FAMC) constituted by the Governing Board under sub-section (1) of Section 16 with the Secretary of the Foundation as its Convener and with not exceeding ten other members including the Financial Adviser, Ministry of Human Resource Development.
Some aspects of these Rules were considered in need of modifications and the process began to reform them. A draft of these revised Rules was sent to Delhi and passed through many offices but did not get Notified. Subsequently, Mr Sharma, the former Auroville Foundation Secretary, pointed out that the present constitution of the FAMC was not as defined by the Rules passed in 1997 and therefore not a body with the necessary legal support.
In June 2006, the Chairman of Auroville Foundation made a new proposal for amendment of the Rules concerning the Funds and Assets Management Committee, and the Residents Assembly was called to participate in a process of discussion which reached a final agreement in August 2006.
In the meeting of the Governing Board on September 30th 2006 the Governing Board passed a resolution to amend relevant provisions of the Auroville Foundation Rules, 1997 (as attached) which will now be forwarded to the Law Ministry for review and approval.
After reviewing the situation again, the Chairman has initiated a process to reconstitute the present FAMC as an interim situation in line with the Rules of 1997 and therefore having a legal recognition.
On January 5th 2007 the Working Committee received a communication from our Secretary, M. Ramaswamy which conveyed to us that, based on the recommendation given by the Finance Committee, the Chairman of Auroville Foundation had decided to reconstitute the FAMC on an interim basis following the rules as approved in 1997, since the new formulation of the Auroville Rules, that was approved by the Governing Board on 30th September 2006, has not yet been notified by the Government of India.
It further stated that the Working Committee had to nominate 9 members from the Residents’ Assembly, who are willing to work, and contribute to FAMC and also who are competent in the field of Finance & Assets Management. The Working Committee was requested to recommend the names of the nominated members within a period of 15 days.
Even though we considered it unfortunate to have to constitute the FAMC in a different way from what has been proposed by the Residents’ Assembly and the Governing Board, we hope this is just a very temporary situation which will be soon rectified.
Therefore, the Working Committee, in consultation with some members of the FAMC and the Study Group on the Rules, have decided to propose the following Aurovilians (most of whom were already members of the FAMC) to constitute the membership of the interim FAMC:
1 Ex- officio member of the Working Committee……(Anandi )
1 Ex- officio member of the Housing Group……(Michael Zelnick)
1 Ex- officio member of the Land Consolidation Committee…..(Dhanapal)
1 Ex- officio Executive of the SAIIER……(Sanjeev)
1 Ex- officio member of the Economy Group……(Lyle)
1 Ex- officio Executive of the Unity Fund – Maintenance Fund – Financial Service……(Otto)
1 Ex- officio member of the Auroville Board of Commerce……(Hendrick)
1 Ex- officio member of the Planning & development org……(Luigi) (to be confirmed after the new Planning and Development Committee gets formed).
1 Resource Person and Note Taker……(Isha) (Essential to maintain continuity and link with recordings).
Total: 9
The Working Committee
