PRESS BRIEFING ON ORGANIZATIONAL INTEGRITY INITIATIVE

To match its efforts at the forefront of the battle against fraud and corruption around the world, the United Nations was undertaking an initiative to mainstream ethics and integrity within the Organization, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press briefing today. 

Presenting the Organizational Integrity Initiative, Dileep Nair, Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, said that integrity and ethics were a high priority for the United Nations and a crucial ingredient in the Secretary-General’s ongoing efforts to reform the Organization and strengthen the culture of high performance, accountability and results. 

Mr. Nair was joined at the briefing by Ole Peter Kolby, Permanent Representative of Norway, whose Government is providing financial support for the Initiative.

Mr. Nair said the Initiative came at a time when major organizations around the world, public as well as private, were taking a closer look at corporate governance issues.  As a strong advocate of good governance and accountability among Member States, the United Nations was pushing for a convention against corruption to be signed by Member States at the end of

2003 in Mexico.  The Initiative had been designed as a step, that would show the United Nations was “doing what it preaches” when its development agencies addressed Member States in the field of good governance. 

The new programme would allow the Organization to apply internally the emerging approaches on corruption control and building organizational integrity, he said.  The Initiativerepresented a comprehensive and holistic approach to the matter.  It included diagnostic training, publicity, enforcement and early detection measures, as well as perception surveys.

Mr. Nair said a major component of the Initiative would be an Executive Programme on Corruption Control and Organizational Integrity, which would take place in the second week of June.  Key United Nations officials would participate in that event, which was offered by the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts.  It would be taught by leading experts and practitioners in the field and appeal to a broad international audience, including representatives from public, private and not-for-profit sectors.  Upon their return from the programme, the United Nations senior officials were expected to lead future programmes.  Training would also be provided for the larger body of the Organization’s employees.  

A correspondent commented that the United Nations Charter specified the standards for the behaviour of international civil servants, which included integrity and independence.  Why did the United Nations find it necessary to integrate its Initiative now?

Mr. Nair replied that, while the majority of staff at the United Nations were people of high integrity, it was no secret that there were instances of fraud and corruption within the United Nations system.  Actually, that was one of the reasons why the Office of Internal Oversight Service was set up in 1994. 

The United Nations wanted to take proactive steps to prevent those issues from becoming a real problem and raising the integrity within the Organization even higher.  In a way, the Initiative was an attempt to inoculate the Organization against the “possible cancer” of corruption.

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