From 25 to 26 November 2021, a meeting of the Council of Administration (CA) was held, organized via video conferencing.

The event was attended by 36 members of the Administrative Council. In general, more than 220 delegates from member countries, as well as observers from international and regional organizations, joined the meeting. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Communications Administrations and designated operators from the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, as well as employees of the RCC Executive Committee.

Bishar Hussain, Director General of the UPU International Bureau, addressed the participants with a welcoming speech. The session was chaired by the Chairman of the AC Isaac Gamba Yao.

The delegates heard and took into account the report of the CA Steering Committee, as well as the report on the meeting of the Postal Operations Council, which took place on November 22-24, 2021. After that, discussion of the block of financial issues began. Among them were the draft program and budget of the UPU for 2022, which raised a significant number of questions about the grounds for including various projects for funding. The representative of the Russian Federation also repeatedly raised the issue of the number of vacancies and the distribution of UPU staff according to the organization's programs. Representatives of the International Bureau promised to provide such information.

The Syrian Arab Republic's application for the exemption of interest payments on its debt to the UPU was also considered. The Russian Federation supported Syria's request. As a result, the delegates recommended that the International Bureau begin negotiations with the Syrian government on this matter, taking into account the changes in the UPU financial rules in July 2022.

At the end of the meeting, the issue of changing the system of contributions to the UPU in connection with the decisions of the Congress in Abidjan was discussed. Delegates were keenly interested in how the new system would be applied and what it meant to pay off existing debts to the UPU, given the organization's difficult financial situation. The representatives of the International Bureau assured that the existing debts will not be written off.

At the close of the meeting, the outgoing UPU Deputy Director General Pascal Clivaz addressed the participants.

On November 26, the meeting continued with a discussion of the issue of opening the UPU system to other participants. Delegates were presented with a detailed account of how this topic was dealt with within the organization.

The outcome of the report was a proposal to establish a UPU Opening Task Force with the United States and Kenya as co-chairs. Following a lengthy discussion on this issue, the Task Force was established with the replacement of Kenya by Algeria as Co-Chair.

After that, the reports of the external and internal audit for 2020 were considered, in connection with which the representative of the Russian Federation raised a number of questions about the financial activities of the UPU.

Completing their work, the delegates adopted the Abdjan business plan and approved the structure of the CA and the International Bureau.

The date of the next meeting of the CA is set for May 16-20, 2022.