Artikel XI

A. The Secretariat shall assist the Assembly, the Council, and their subsidiary organs in the performance of their functions. It shall carry out the other functions entrusted to it under this Statute as well as those functions delegated to it by the Assembly or the Council.
B. The Secretariat shall comprise a Director-General, who shall be its head and chief administrative officer, and such staff as may be required. The Director-General shall be appointed by the Assembly upon the recommendation of the Council for a term of four years, renewable for one further term, but not thereafter.
C. The Director-General shall be responsible to the Assembly and the Council, inter alia for the appointment of the staff as well as the organisation and functioning of the Secretariat. The paramount consideration in the employment of the staff and in the determination of the conditions of service shall be the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity. Due regard shall be paid to the importance of recruiting the staff primarily from Member States and on as wide a geographical basis as possible, taking particularly into account the adequate representation of developing countries and with emphasis on gender balance.
In preparing the budget the proposed recruitment shall be guided by the principle that the staff shall be kept to a minimum necessary for the proper discharge of the responsibilities of the Secretariat.
D. The Director-General or a representative designated by him or her shall participate, without the right to vote, in all meetings of the Assembly and of the Council.
E. The Secretariat shall:
1. prepare and submit to the Council the draft work programme and the draft budget of the Agency;
2. implement the Agency’s work programme and its decisions;
3. prepare and submit to the Council the draft annual report concerning the activities of the Agency and such other reports as the Assembly or the Council may request;
4. provide administrative and technical support to the Assembly, the Council and their subsidiary organs;
5. facilitate communication between the Agency and its Members; and
6. circulate the policy advice after it was given to the Members of the Agency in accordance with Article IV paragraph C number 2 and prepare and submit to the Assembly and the Council a report on its policy advice for each of their sessions. The report to the Council shall include also the planned policy advice in implementing the annual work programme.
F. In the performance of their duties, the Director-General and the other members of the staff shall not seek or receive instructions from any government or from any other source external to the Agency. They shall refrain from any action that might reflect on their positions as international officers responsible only to the Assembly and the Council. Each Member shall respect the exclusively international character of the responsibilities of the Director-General and the other members of the staff and shall not seek to influence them in the discharge of their responsibilities.