PRESS BRIEFING BY UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR INTERNAL OVERSIGHT SERVICES

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR INTERNAL OVERSIGHT SERVICES

Savings of some $120 million had been identified by the Office of Internal Oversight Services in the past five years, and more than $70 million in savings had been realized, Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, Karl Paschke told journalists at a Headquarters press briefing today.

He was introducing the fifth annual report of that office -- the last to be compiled under his stewardship. The Under-Secretary-General would be "history" in about three weeks, he explained, when he would return to the German Foreign Service.

The impact of the Office of Internal Oversight Services was measurable and the latest report provided some evidence of that, he continued. He recommended that journalists read it, stating that it contained a personal preface that was in effect a "swan-song" without tragedy and, as always, avoided diplomatic double-talk.

Of more than 6,000 recommendations made since its establishment five years ago, mostly aimed at strengthening internal controls, increasing accountability and improving management, more than 70 per cent had been implemented. That was tangible evidence that the Office had become an agent of change in the United Nations.

His independence in the Oversight Office had never been compromised, he stressed, and the full support of both Secretaries- General he had served and the independence of the Office had been keys to its success. He was confident his successor would find a "well-oiled machinery", as terms of reference, procedures and manuals had now been produced, staff had been hired and the skills of existing staff had been enhanced.

The Office focused on activities that were risky or costly, he said. That meant peacekeeping missions were a priority for oversight. Humanitarian activities, which were usually undertaken in risky environments and were costly, were also a priority. From the beginning the Office had also given priority to oversight of procurement, and of the start-up phase of new units and bodies. A fifth priority area, more recently defined, was human resources. Detailed descriptions of actions on those priorities were in chapter 2 of the report.

Chapter three described the various oversight activities -- audit, programme evaluation, monitoring, inspections and investigations.

Paschke Press Briefing - 2 - 25 October 1999

Oversight Office reports were usually addressed to management, because it was management that responded to them, he explained, but reports which gave insight into the responsible use of the Organization's resources were submitted to the General Assembly.

The United Nations of today was a better Organization than five years ago, he concluded. The Oversight Office, as a new component of the management culture, had contributed to that. Of course, efforts must continue to improve the United Nations bureaucracy. Improvement must be a continuous process, and the report mentioned some factors that tended to hamper swift and thorough change in the Organization.

In response to a correspondent’s question, he said some Member States had been against the creation of the Office in 1994 and that, combined with some lingering doubts about its use as an addendum to the management culture, made it impossible to reach consensus on the Office's work in the General Assembly's Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary).

That was not a reflection on the quality of the Oversight Office's work, he added, but was a political problem. Throughout the years he had made an enormous effort to convey the message that the Office was doing its job in an effective and neutral manner, with only the Organization's effectiveness in mind. Noting that the Fifth Committee decided matters by consensus –- a process which made procedures time- consuming and awkward -- he expressed hope that the Committee might pronounce itself on the Oversight Office reports that he had been piling up on its agenda for a number of years.

Asked about the source of the antagonistic staff-management relationship mentioned in the report, Mr. Paschke said management was sometimes reluctant to convey to staff what its intentions were, seeing such dialogue as onerous, tedious and not productive. Staff also seemed to have an exaggerated suspicion of management action. In his experience, he added, a strong spirit of cooperation between staff and management would be better for both sides and there was great merit in sitting together and thrashing things out.

Commenting on micro-management by Member States, he said a number of reform measures aimed at efficiency and economy proposed by the Secretary-General had been stymied by legislative bodies, which sometimes paid lip service to reform and then pulled the brakes on measures to achieve it. That was deplorable. The Secretary-General was eager to modernize the United Nations bureaucracy, and manage it according to modern principles.

Asked the reasons for micro-management, Mr. Paschke said he believed some legislative bodies did not accept that the Secretary- General should have independence and authority in managing the Secretariat. They interfered too much in what was his genuine and legitimate authority and that this was unfortunate, as it had prevented the Organization from becoming more effective and modern.

Paschke Press Briefing - 3 - 25 October 1999

By way of example, he explained, when the Secretariat had come under pressure to find greater economies, and the only possibility was to cut staff, a very modest programme to terminate people whose posts had become obsolete had been developed. The legislative bodies had intervened immediately, saying that they could not be terminated, but rather must be accommodated elsewhere. That was clearly micro- management -- and an infringement of the authority of the Secretary- General as the supreme manager of the Organization.

Asked about efforts to prosecute those people responsible for theft or loss of United Nations resources, he said that as recently as four weeks ago, in a New York Federal Court, a former staff member who had siphoned off some $800,000 from the Organization, had been found guilty of a number of counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. The sentence would be handed down in a few weeks, and the United Nations trusted the guilty party would receive a stiff prison sentence and that it would obtain a title to recover some of its losses.

He had introduced a report to the Fifth Committee earlier today which detailed how, in a court case that occurred two years ago in Geneva, the United Nations had obtained a verdict against a former staff member and recovered more than 60 per cent of the money he had stolen from the Organization. Such efforts would be ongoing, and a few other cases were pending. Here were also cases in which disciplinary action had been effectively taken against staff members who committed wrongdoing against the Organization.

Quick success was not common in such cases, because of the intricacies of international law, he added, but the Oversight Office had been heavily involved in those cases. He explained that Oversight Office investigators were not prosecutors, but rather a tool of management to establish evidence that could be turned over to law enforcement agencies. However, the Investigations Section stayed involved until a verdict was handed down.

Asked about the Office’s response to recommendations about increased delegation of authority, he said the fact that increased delegation was still an issue clearly indicated that, while it was a fine thing on paper, to translate it into reality required a good deal of training, guidance and oversight. On the matter of delegation of authority, more needed to be done. When it was fully developed, it would improve the work of the Organization by ensuring that managers were empowered and that their accountability was established beyond any doubt.

Responding to a question about the reception by the United States of the Oversight Office’s work, he said he thought it had gained a reputation in Washington D.C. He had made a number of trips to Capitol Hill to explain its work and impact in detail and had observed a growing sense of satisfaction in the United States Congress with what the Office did.

Paschke Press Briefing - 4 - 25 October 1999

However, it had not been his intention to cater to one Member State and he had never done so, he explained. That said, what the Office had done was clearly a factor in creating a better acceptance of the United Nations in Washington. He hoped one day the United States would decide to pay its arrears, and that the work of the Oversight Office would be a factor in that decision.

Overall, oversight was not something that created joy, he concluded, and everyone basically preferred to see the inspector going, rather than coming. However, the cooperation he had received throughout the United Nations system for his work had made his task a positive experience.

Asked for his opinion about suspending maintenance of the Headquarters building, Mr. Paschke said he felt compassion for those responsible for maintaining the building on a shoestring budget. They had to do patchwork. For example, two years ago, part of the roof of the General Assembly Hall had flown off, and then just patched together again. The maintenance and renovation of the fifty-year-old Headquarters building was impeded by meagre resources.

A correspondent asked whether the Oversight Office had been able to allay the doubts of those in Washington who feared mismanagement and whether the investigation continued on some $10 million stolen in Somalia.

To the first, Mr. Paschke said he believed fears had been allayed regarding the effectiveness of the Oversight Office and its position in the Organization’s management culture. The case of the $3.9 million stolen from a peacekeeping mission in Somalia was still not solved. It had occurred long before the Oversight Office was created and evidence was not available. Still, it should be considered an open case and should any evidence every turn up, the Oversight Office would pursue it.

Audit practices were changing, he said, when asked what words he would give a successor. The techniques of oversight followed technological developments in the world. The more philosophical advice would be to emphasize the proactive aspect of oversight work. The deterrent side came with the Office, which should and did generate apprehension. But, it was important to stress the proactive side -- the fact that the Oversight Office wanted to be a partner with management -- since both had the same goal, which was to make the Organization more effective.

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