UNGA 59: Fifth Committee
November 4, 2004
Statement by Mr Jerry Kramer, Counsellor, Canadian Mission to the United Nations, on behalf of Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Item 118: Report of the Secretary-General on the activities of the Office of the Internal Oversight Services
As delivered
Mr. Chairman,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of Australia, New Zealand and Canada. We thank Mr. Nair for his introduction of the annual report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services. We also thank him for his stewardship of the OIOS these past five years, for the initiatives he has taken to develop the Office further, and to improve its contribution to the Organization. His effort to undertake a self-assessment in the context of the five year review was also extremely helpful.
The internal oversight functions of the OIOS are fundamental to the sound operation of the United Nations. The present annual report illustrates once again that the independent work of the OIOS contributes to increased efficiency and accountability and is an important pillar for the confidence among Member States that their contributions will be well used.
As there is not time today to comment on the great many issues that the OIOS has studied over the past year, we will pursue specific questions in the informals. Five main points merit emphasis however.
We are concerned that large numbers of recommendations have not been acted upon. Mechanisms for systematic follow-up need to be improved.
Second, OIOS internal audit should continue to expand the attention it devotes to safety and security issues. A good start was made this year. We are concerned about the degree of non-compliance found in UNHCR field operations and will want to know how that will be remedied. Looking ahead, we envisage an important role for OIOS internal audit in connection with future security operations.
Third, information technology remains a high risk area which requires enlarged and competent OIOS attention. We were disheartened to read about the continuation of piecemeal approaches to the development of systems in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Impediments to the formulation and implementation of an Organization-wide information technology strategy appear not to have been overcome. We have made known on earlier occasions our disappointment at the slow pace with which OIOS has developed its audit capacity in this field.
Fourth, peacekeeping operations must remain a high internal audit priority and the demand will grow as missions do. The problems in MONUC illustrate the importance of proper control mechanisms. We wonder what the OIOS has learned about how accountability works in these missions, and if it conducts similar work in special political missions.
Finally, it is essential that the outcomes of investigations be acted upon. We would appreciate an assessment of where that stands, and on the related question of the steps being taken to address the perception found in the integrity survey that accountability is unevenly distributed. We also expect to be apprised of the findings of the present investigation of the sexual exploitation of young girls by military mission members in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Mr. Chairman,
We thank the OIOS for its much improved programme performance report for 2002-03, for its contributions to identifying ways to make conference management more cost-effective, and for its interesting work on regional economic commissions. The OIOS observations about the contribution made by regional advisors financed from the regular program of technical cooperation may help us when we examine that programme later this session.
Mr. Chairman,
The Secretary-General is proposing a comprehensive independent review of the OIOS. We would welcome more information on this idea because it is not clear to us precisely what the Secretary-General has in mind, or what problem he believes needs to be solved. Our delegations are always open to learning from experience and to the advice of independent experts. We see internal audit and investigation as fundamental oversight functions that are not open to question. How well they are done, and what skills and resources are needed to do them well, could of course be examined periodically, as they should be for other key Secretariat functions. We would like to see a more focused formulation of a possible review.
To help improve United Nations governance, an external review should also address the adequacy of how OIOS findings and recommendations are acted upon. Reporting procedures are related to this because the direct reporting by OIOS to the General Assembly is part of our system of governance. It hard to contemplate change in this element outside the context of broader governance reform that would strengthen confidence that internal oversight findings and recommendations would be acted upon systematically. We emphasize that our priorities for reform run in the direction of enhancing transparency further and in strengthening the independence of the OIOS. The statement yesterday by the delegation of the United States outlined good ideas on these issues.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.