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	SAFA Protocols and Rules of Procedure

1. Order of Priority : A. In all matters of procedure and precedence, the following shall be the order of priority accorded:- 1.  President, SAFA 2.  Vice-President, SAFA (by virtue of convention being President-elect) 3.  Advisor, SAFA 4.  Permanent Secretary, SAFA 5.  Heads of Delegations of Member Bodies in alphabetical order of countries (within the countries, the order will also be alphabetical, for instance, Institute of Chartered Accountants will precede Institute of Cost and Management Accountants), such Member bodies not belonging to the country which is the host for the SAFA event. 6.  Heads of Delegations of Member Bodies who are the Hosts [within the country Rule as in (5) above shall apply]. 7.  Other Officers of SAFA Secretariat [ Executive Secretaries and other officers are included in this category]. B.   In Assembly Meetings, the Head Table shall be arranged as follows: Centre : President Left of President : Permanent Secy. Left of Permanent Secy : Executive Secretary/ Other officers as the case may be in the order of seniority. Right of President : Vice-President Right of V-P : Advisor The order of seating of the various member bodies shall be anticlockwise beginning from the right of the Advisor and in alphabetical order of name of countries. C.   In Seminars, the order of precedence to be observed shall be as follows (for inaugural functions only) : President of Host Bodies - Welcome Vice-President, SAFA Advisor, SAFA President, SAFA Chief Guest Vice-President, SAFA Permanent Secretary, SAFA Provided that if the Chief Guest is below the rank of a Minister of the Central Government of the country in which the event is being held, or of equivalent position as may be indicated in the Governmental Protocol List of that country, or an Officer of an international body such as the United Nations of the World Bank of the rank of Director of a Region, then he shall speak before the President SAFA, and in that case the address of the President SAFA shall be treated as a Presidential Address. In case of doubt as regards either the physical placing of a Guest from a multilateral body, or his order of Precedence specified in the Protocol list of that body may be followed provided that the body in question represents a larger number of countries than SAFA and has been lawfully established and/or recognised by intergovernmental consensus. D.   In technical Meetings, of which the President is not the Chairman, the Chairman shall be seated in the center of the Head table, and if the President is also to be present, then he shall be seated to the right of the Chairman. In case the Vice-President is also required to be present, he shall be seated to the left of the Chairman, with the Permanent Secretary on the right of the President, and the Secretary of the Meeting, on the left of the President. In case the President is not required to be present, but the Vice-President is, then he shall be seated to the right of the Chairman, and in this way the order of precedence as specified in (1) above shall be followed. 2.Flags The flag of SAFA shall be the Logo of SAFA as approved by the Assembly, on a white ground. The flag shall be on silk and not any other material. The size of the flag shall normally be 6ft. x 4ft., or, if smaller, in that proportion. The flag shall be flown in all meetings of the SAFA assembly and in all those meetings Chaired by the President. The position of the flag shall be at the center of the flags of the various countries represented in SAFA. Damaged or discolored flags shall not be displayed. The flag cannot be used for display at a venue where President/Vice President is not present, unless special permission has previously been obtained from the Permanent Secretariat. 3. Logo The Logo of SAFA shall be used on all stationery. However, only the President, Vice-President, Permanent Secretary, and Officers of the Permanent Secretariat shall be allowed to use the Logo on their business cards. The visiting cards should not carry the position as above held in SAFA, with office address (without references to professional affiliation). 4. Annual standing activities of SAFA The following shall be the annual standing activities of SAFA: 1.  Best Presented Accounts Awards 2.  Presentation of Annual Report 3.  Assumption of Office by the New President. Best Presented Accounts Awards Member bodies shall send their nominations to the Permanent Secretariat by the month of June every year. The Accounts shall pertain to the fiscal year falling in or ending in the calendar year previous to the year in which the accounts are considered. To qualify for consideration, each body shall recommend not more than 3 reports in each of the two categories (Financial Sector including banks, insurance companies and NBFCs, and non-financial sector including corporate) and submit 20 originals of each report to the permanent secretariat so as to reach the secretariat at least three weeks in advance of the date fixed for the evaluation meeting. Each body shall nominate one country representative for the evaluation committee meeting which shall be held in the month of September every year unless the Assembly decides otherwise. The awards shall be given away in the Assembly meeting held immediately after the evaluation committee meeting. The awards shall be as follows: Financial Sector : 1st Prize : A shield and a citation (scroll) 2nd Prize : Citation 3rd Prize : Citation Non-Financial (Corporate) Sector : 3 prizes, as in the case of the Financial Sector. The President, SAFA, in addition to the Head of Host member bodies could participate in the meeting as host. The permanent Secretary, shall be the Convener of the evaluation meeting. The criteria for evaluation and the verbiage for the citations shall be as enclosed at Exhibit 1 to this document unless modified hereafter by the Assembly. Annual Report The Annual Report of SAFA shall be presented at the Assembly Meeting held in January of every year. Assumption of Office by the New President The new President of SAFA shall assume office in the month of January. The assumption of Office shall be marked by the new President wearing the SAFA medallion. The SAFA medallion shall be a silver and gold medallion with the SAFA emblem on it. The medallion shall be hung on a broad ribbon in the SAFA color (pale blue) with gray borders. The outgoing President shall also formally hand over the gavel for conduct of meetings to the incoming President. The gavel shall be in wood and brass. In the meeting, the Executive Secretary shall hand over copy correspondence/documents initiated or received by the President, SAFA and Executive Secretary to the Permanent Secretary. 5. Conduct of Assembly Meetings Notices of Assembly Meetings shall be sent out a minimum of three weeks before the proposed date of the meeting unless the circumstances otherwise warrant. Agenda shall be circulated a minimum of seven days before the date of the Assembly. As preparation for Assembly meetings, the host body shall have to arrange the venue which shall be of sufficient standard and accommodation for international meetings. Approval of the venue must be taken from the Permanent Secretariat, unless the same is agreed upon in the Assembly itself. The host body shall finalise the arrangement in consultation with the President, SAFA/Permanent Secretary, SAFA. The host body should ensure the following: 1. Large size flags of SAFA member countries and of SAFA itself to be hung on poles behind the head tables (size of flags - 6ft. x 4ft.) pole height. 2. Table flags of SAFA countries (6in. x 4in) to be placed on the table. 3. Table flag of SAFA (6in. x 4in.) to be placed in front of President, SAFA on the head table. 4. Place-names for countries, member bodies. 5. Place-names for SAFA office bearers 6. Pads, pencils, files, copies of agenda papers for each member of the delegation. 7. Availability of photocopying facility, at least one computer with laser printer, and an overhead projector. 8. Name badges for delegates with SAFA logo (Specimen at Exhibit 2). 9. Mineral water for all delegates to be placed on the tables. 10. Receiving delegates at Airport and seeing them off at the Airport. 11. Note - if mementos are desired to be given, the same should be handed over to the delegates in their hotel rooms, and not during the Assembly. 12. To be presented or exchanged at the time of Assembly 13. Meetings. 14. Photographers/Press/Media should not be allowed into the Meeting venue during the conduct of the meeting. If the host body desires to have photographs taken or any video recordings done, the same must be done before the meeting formally begins or after the President declares the meeting closed or adjourned. In any case no photography etc. is to be permitted without the express permission of the President. 15. The Host body(s) should not arrange any other function /seminar etc on the day of the Assembly meeting unless prior permission for same has been obtained from the President. 16. No observers, guests etc. are to be permitted to attend the Assembly without permission of the President. Observers, if permitted, shall as a rule sit away from the main meeting table. The same shall hold for guests. 17. In case President permits guests from another international Federation to attend the Assembly and sit at the meeting table, a separate place may be set for him at the meeting table with a place card clearly saying "OBSERVER". The Observer will not speak unless the President asks for comments from him. 18. In case Observers are permitted to attend technical meetings by the President as per consultations between the President and the Chairman of the Meeting, the same rules as above shall apply. 19. Meetings shall be regarded as formal occasions and casual dress will not be permitted. Proceedings. 20. In case heads of delegations are required to leave during an Assembly Meeting, they shall nominate an acting head of delegation, and have such nomination endorsed by the President, before leaving the meeting table. 21. The Proceedings of Assembly meetings shall be confidential. 22. As a normal routine, all of the proceedings of the Assembly meetings shall be tape-recorded. The cassettes, after the minutes are prepared by the Executive Secretary, shall be sent to the Permanent Secretariat. 23. President may, at his own discretion, declare part of the proceedings not to be on record. 6. SAFA Seminars 1. SAFA Seminars shall be conducted in a manner befitting a regional multinational body. 2. Flags of all SAFA nations and of SAFA itself shall be displayed at the Seminar venue. 3. Seminar should be inaugurated by a person of sufficiently high standing. This matter should be discussed with the Permanent Secretary and the President before it is finalised. 4. To the extent possible, multinational representation at the seminar must be ensured. 5. Seminar themes as well as topics should be approved by the Assembly. 6. It should be ensured that no other conferences of any of the member bodies are scheduled at the same time as the SAFA Seminar. 7. Each seminar should be financially self-sufficient. Any losses, if incurred, will be borne by the host body. Surpluses, if any, will also accrue to the host body. 8. In allotting topics/papers to speakers, it must be ensured that every member body is represented at least once - (a) as a speaker. (b) as Chairman/Co-Chairman of a Session. In case Chairmanship/Co-Chairmanship is not possible to be allotted to every member body then, country-wise representation as Chairman or Co-Chairman must be ensured. If there is more than one body in a country then, the host body should consult with all the bodies before deciding upon the Chairmanship/Co-Chairmanship. 9. The SAFA Logo should be prominently printed on the cover of the background materials to be circulated in the Seminar.