Committee 0503 (Democratic Federation of Exturbon)

Committee 0503

Institution Information

Established	2013
Chief Executive	Ivan Kohln
Annual Budget	$10,000
Jurisdiction	Democratic Federation of Exturbon
Headquarters	Central Ministry Office Block, #05-03
Employees	8

"Open 9am to 5pm, except on weekends and public holidays. Please knock twice before entering!"
-Central Ministry Office Block #05-03, official office of Committee 11

Committee 0503 is a Ministerial Committee for the Democratic Federation of Exturbon. It is well known for being the smallest Ministerial Committee, both in terms of employees and budget.

It's main objective was to handle the DFE's public publications, however most that responsibility has been assumed by the Public Accountability Committee. Since then, the committee's responsibility is to publish the 0503 Newsletter and aid in editing the DFE's Information Wiki.

History

The Committee was set up during the 2nd Central Ministry via a referendum that was passed by the CMin unanimously and by the people with a 20% margin. It was named after the unit number of its allocated office space in the Central Ministry Office Block.

The original Committee was allocated an annual budget of $500,000 and had 50 staff. The original referendum that formed the Committee defined the Committee's objective as "to keep the public informed regarding the Central Ministry's activities and stances."

After the establishment of the Public Accountancy Committee due to the Royce Scandal in 2012, a majority of Committee 0503 resources and personnel were reallocated to the Public Accountancy Committee in 2013. Following this, the annual budget was slashed to $10,000 and only 4 members of the executive board remained as the sole employees of Committee 0503.

The committee was supposed to be dissolved after the start of the 4th Central Ministry in 2016 and its assets and duties wholly assumed by the Public Accountancy Committee. However, in the years leading up to the committee's dissolution, a stark change in the tone of the committee's main publication under the then chief executive, Jones Ironwood, and a joint agreement between the chief executives of both the committee and the Public Accountancy Committee convinced the Central Ministry to allow for the continued existence of Committee 0503 as a de facto independent publication.

The committee largely depends on publicly sourced funding rather than the government-allocated annual budget. The committee is also unique in that the choice of chief executive is mostly done within the committee itself, with the Central Ministry's role in appointing the chief executive being largely ceremonial.

Employment at the committee after 2013 has never exceeded 15 employees.

Responsibilities

The objective of Committee 0503 is to author and publish the 0503 Newsletter, an independent newsletter written by editors with insider access to the government of the Democratic Federation of Exturbon. It also is a major editor of the federation's official wiki.

Despite officially being a Ministerial Committee, since 2014, the committee has not advised the Central Ministry on any matters relating to government, and the Central Ministry in turn no longer hold much sway on the contents published by the committee.

Executive Board

Position	Person	Qualifications	Start of tenure
Chief Executive	Ivan Kohln	BEcon MSc (Real Estate)	2046
Chief Editor	Quincy Tan Kou'ji	BComn	2046
Treasurer	Alexander Holmes	BEng (Civil Eng.) MEng (Civil Eng.)	2046
Chief of Operations	Katherine Baker Umbridge	BSocSc (Political Science)	2048