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

Press Briefing

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

In a "more or less coming of age", the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services had been accepted as an "agent of change", the Under- Secretary-General for International Oversight Services, Dileep Nair, told correspondents this afternoon at a Headquarters press conference.

Mr. Nair said that the annual report of Oversight Office would be released tomorrow morning. As an interim measure, he had released the preface of the report, as well as a United Nations booklet on the Internal Oversight Office. The sixth annual report was the first he had the pleasure of presenting. The role of Oversight Office had been reaffirmed by intergovernmental groups, and particularly, earlier this year, through the adoption of General Assembly resolution 54/244, which basically concluded that the Office supported work done by intergovernmental bodies to ensure United Nations resources were well used. Last year's accomplishments were itemized in the report, which contained 968 agreed recommendations, representing a 15 per cent increase in agreed proposals. In the future, however, he would prefer to examine the more significant recommendations.

[According to a United Nations handout to correspondents at the briefing, the Office of Internal Oversight Services was created and then changed by the General Assembly in 1994. It is self-described as an agent of change, a partner of management committed to the continuous improvement of programme performance, responsible administration of human and financial resources, and a culture of accountability and transparency. Its modern and comprehensive oversight aimed to be proactive and not just reactive, and preventive and not just detective. Its findings and recommendations were meant to enhance the way the United Nations did business. The Oversight Office had operational independence, under the Secretary-General's authority, to initiate and carry out any action which it considered necessary to fulfil its mandate. Its annual reports to the Secretary-General had helped the Office become a significant element in the accountability structure of the Organization].

Last year it had garnered some $17 million in cost savings, he said. This was a smaller amount than had previously been cited, but that was because the focus last year had been more on audits of a policy and programmatic nature. Those, by their very nature, resulted in less direct, but more long-term, savings. The Office had completed 82 audit reports and 35 investigations reports, of which 20 had been reported to the General Assembly. It had also logged 287 new investigation cases, which was a 16 per cent increase over the previous 12 months. The rate of implementation of recommendations had been some 73 percent -- again, marginally higher than what it had been in the previous 12 months.

The priorities of the Oversight Office were in line with those of the Organization: peacekeeping, humanitarian activities; and human resource management and procurement. In peacekeeping, for example, the Office had expanded its coverage to 11 field audits, in addition to those undertaken by resident auditors in the major peacekeeping missions. It had conducted investigations into wire fraud in Angola, travel in the United Nations Mission

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in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIB) and aviation safety. Concerning humanitarian matters, internal audit services had been provided for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), covering operations in 35 countries. An audit of the implementation of UNHCR's implementing partners had also been done. Auditing of the oil-for-food programme in Iraq had been expanded, and coordinated audits of the various programme agencies had been undertaken. In the area of human rights, auditing had taken place on the productivity of field operations in Burundi, Rwanda and Colombia. Human Resources Management had conducted a follow-up audit on recruitment to see how it was done and whether it could be expedited. An audit of the attendance and leave system had also been completed.

In the area of procurement, he said, a follow-up review of procurement reform had been concluded. Fortunately, much had been very successfully put in place, but some things remained to be done, as indicated in the audit report. He had only been in office for seven months, and it was, therefore, early to make major changes, but he had made some observations. For example, organizationally, the Oversight Office might have to become more coordinated with how the United Nations was organized, as the Organization was becoming much more field-based. Indeed, two-thirds of its activities were taking place in the field. Yet, according to Oversight Office, 70 per cent of the Organization's resources were actually here in New York. So, the roles were reversed and some adjustment might have to be made.

In peacekeeping operations, he went on, the focus had so far been on auditing. In major peacekeeping operations, like those in Kosovo and East Timor where peace-making was underway, it was very important to put investigators on the ground, because it was in such instances where large-scale fraud and misconduct could occur. Such investigations could preempt possible wrongdoing. A strategic planning review of the Office was under way to take stock of its work during the past six years and determine any further adjustments that could add value to the work it provided to the rest of the Organization. Reports that were more integrated, for example, were more valuable to the Organization and could be acted upon more expeditiously. Overall, the independence of the Oversight Office was fundamental to its success. The Secretary-General had assured him that such independence would continue in the future.

Asked it he could identify the important new recommendations in the forthcoming annual report, the Under-Secretary-General said that 968 recommendations was a long list, but his criteria for so-called significant recommendations were those with far-reaching implications. He was looking at recommendations, which were systematic in nature, revealing some problem with the system. He was not looking at recommendations about saving a small amount of money here or adding a small internal control there. Rather, he was looking at things which, if taken to heart by programme managers, would result in far greater improvements. His Office had not categorized the 968 recommendations into significant and non-significant ones; it was an ongoing exercise. However, he was quite confident that, by next year, he would be able to discuss all of the significant recommendations.

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Another correspondent asked whether the $17 million in cash savings he had referred to was a recommended amount saved or had already been saved. Mr. Nair said that about $5 million had already been saved, so the $17 million were savings that could be obtained from following up on recommendations. And, those were hard savings, concerning cutbacks in posts, activities, and so forth.

The correspondent asked about the difference in savings between this year and last year. Mr. Nair said, here again, he had concentrated on looking at policy and programmatic areas. In the past 12 months, a couple of audits had been done on the liquidation of peacekeeping missions. These resulted in a large dollar sum of savings. There had not been similar liquidations of peacekeeping missions in the last 12 months, so the opportunities were not there. The focus had changed somewhat.

Last year's report had contained a section on the numerous recommendations which were still pending. Were those rolled over into the $17 million, the reporter asked. Mr. Nair said he thought the journalist was referring to the annex to last year's report, which contained a list of recommendations that had not been agreed. Those were major recommendations requiring follow-up. For example, one of them concerned the Integrated Management Information System, but there were only two significant recommendations in the report for this year which had not been followed up. Mr. Nair said that the $17 million was new and was separate from the $72 million. Out of the $72 million, he did not know how much had actually been saved. He only knew that the savings from the past two years were completely separate.

Asked about the impact of the gap between his predecessor’s departure and his arrival, he said that things had been a little difficult in that interim period, but there was still an overseer. Hans Corell, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, had overseen the Oversight Office. Everything requiring attention of an Under-Secretary-General had his attention. Nevertheless, given the limitations of wearing two hats, new initiatives had decreased.

Asked to comment on the case of a Brooklyn woman who found some $700,000 in her Chase Manhattan Bank checking account and had decided to keep it. Mr. Nair said he believed the woman had been sentenced just two weeks ago. Money transfers had apparently been made on the strength of an instruction giving just the account number to which the money would be transferred. It happened that the United Nations account number and that of the woman had only one digit, a zero, separating them. Somehow, some Member States had mistakenly dropped that zero, and Chase Manhattan Bank had mistakenly not checked whether the zero had been dropped. The mistake made by the Bank had resulted in putting a correctly assigned deposit into that woman's account. So, there was a mistake, but it was not wrongdoing or wilful or gross negligence. It was one of those things that happened. Corrective measures should be taken and his Office had made recommendations on how those corrective measures should be put in place by both Member States and the Bank, and also by receiving organizations, especially the United Nations.

Asked if it was possible that other contributions could just as easily been routed into other accounts that were off by one digit, Mr. Nair said that

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it was, but only if both the Member States making the deposits and the United Nations receiving those monies, did not realize that monies had been sent and not received. His Office wished to ensure that the reconciliation was done on a more timely basis so that it would not go undetected.

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