HEADQUARTERS PRESS BRIEFING BY UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL

FOR INTERNAL OVERSIGHT SERVICES

If all of his department's recommendations were implemented, the United Nations could save and recover $56 million, according to Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services Dileep Nair.  Discussing his Office's eighth annual report at a press briefing this morning, he said it contained

2,357 recommendations on such questions as improving efficiency and responding to cases of fraud and misconduct.

Fifty per cent of those recommendations had already been implemented by management, and 30 per cent of those were classified as "critical".  Of the critical recommendations, only 46 per cent had been implemented.  That was because they were more far-reaching and involved highly significant changes.  Although they would result in the greatest amounts of savings and recoveries, they were the slowest to implement because of their substantive nature.

Already, this year's recommendations had achieved expenditure reductions of $27 million and recoveries of $1.1 million.  Additionally, since its inception in 1995, the Office of Internal Oversight Services had exposed waste and fraud totalling $250 million, of which $115 million had already been recovered.

Examples of the Office's proposals included follow-up reviews on mission subsistence allowances.  Specifically, studies found that allowances given to people going on United Nations missions had been overestimated.  If the related recommendations were implemented, $25.5 million could be saved annually.

He also addressed allegations of sexual exploitation at United Nations peacekeeping missions.  Investigations had found that, although not widespread, there were indeed cases of female refugees being exploited by aid workers and peacekeepers at refugee camps in West Africa.  Many of those refugees turned to prostitution or exploitative relationships as a result of extreme poverty.  However, there were also cases of rape and involuntary contact.

When asked to elaborate on the auditing of his own Office, he responded that it had been routinely evaluated, just like other areas of the United Nations.  He added that the Board of External Auditors, currently comprising audit officers from South Africa, the Philippines, and France, had found his Office to be generally performing well. 

Responding to a question about challenges faced by his Office, he said that some people had not accepted the report's recommendations.  That was to be expected, however, and he was optimistic about future negotiations on the subject.  With respect to last year's recommendations, 75 per cent had been implemented. Thus, as time went on, the rate of implementation would rise, he maintained.

Asked about action taken against aid workers and peacekeepers who had committed sexual crimes in West Africa, he said that the reports had been filed,

and that it was now up to the involved national governments or organizations to prosecute them.  He believed that, in one of the instances, national authorities in Sierra Leone had taken up the case against the accused.  Another peacekeeper had been repatriated, and he hoped that the national government involved would take action against that person as well.

Fielding a question about the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Nairobi, he said that refugee smuggling had taken place.  His Office had participated in an investigation and found that 11 people had been involved.  They had been charged, and their trials were currently in progress in Kenya.  His deputy was currently serving as a witness.

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