Commonwealth Secretary-General - Staff and Responsibility

Staff and Responsibility

The Secretary-General is in the head of the Commonwealth Secretariat, and all Secretariat staff are responsible and answerable to him or her. He or she is supported by two Deputy Secretaries-General, which are elected by the Heads of Government via the members' High Commissioners in London. Currently, the two Deputy Secretaries-General are Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba and Ransford Smith. He is also assisted by an Assistant Secretary-General for Corporate Affairs Stephen Cutts. The Secretary-General may appoint junior staff at his own discretion, provided the Secretariat can afford it, whilst more senior staff may be appointed only from a shortlist of nominations from the Heads of Government. In practice, the Secretary-General has more power than this; member governments consult the Secretary-General on nominations, and the Secretary-General has also at times submitted nominations of his own.

Formally, the Secretary-General is given the same rank as a High Commissioner or ambassador. However, in practice, his or her rank is considerably higher. At CHOGMs, he or she is the equal of the Heads of Government, except with preference deferred to the longest-serving Head of Government. At other ministerial meetings, he or she is considered primus inter pares. But for the first 3 years (of the job's existence) the Foreign Office refused to invite the Secretary-General to the Queen's annual diplomatic reception at Buckingham Palace, much to Arnold Smith's irritation, until in 1968 this refusal was overridden by the Queen herself

The Secretary-General was originally required to submit annual reports to the Heads of Government, but this has since been changed to reporting at biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM). The Secretary-General is held responsible by the Commonwealth's Board of Governors in London.