UNITED NATIONS LAUNCHES INITIATIVE TO STRENGTHEN STAFF INTEGRITY AS PART OF ONGOING REFORM EFFORTS

UNITED NATIONS LAUNCHES INITIATIVE TO STRENGTHEN STAFF INTEGRITY

AS PART OF ONGOING REFORM EFFORTS

NEW YORK, 1 May (Office of the Internal Oversight Services) -- The United Nations announced today that it has launched an Organizational Integrity Initiative to strengthen support for staff integrity and better protect its resources and reputation.  To match its efforts at the forefront of the battle against fraud and corruption around the world, the United Nations is undertaking this Initiative to mainstream ethics and integrity within the Organization.

“Integrity and ethics are a high priority for the United Nations and a crucial ingredient in the Secretary-General’s ongoing efforts to reform and strengthen the organizational culture to one of high performance, accountability and results”, said Dileep Nair, Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, which is launching the Initiative in cooperation with several other United Nations Departments.

The Initiative comes at a time when major organizations around the world, public as well as private, are taking a closer look at corporate governance issues, and the United Nations is pushing for a Convention against Corruption to be signed by Member States at the end of 2003.  “We must ‘walk the talk’ that our development agencies address to Member States in the field of good governance and encourage our senior managers to become ‘champions of integrity’ to lay a solid foundation for future integrity building”, said Mr. Nair. “This Initiative will enable the UN to apply emerging approaches to corruption control in an international context and to enhance organizational ethics and integrity.”

As part of the Initiative, which is supported by a financial contribution from the Government of Norway, the United Nations is undertaking a comprehensive programme, including staff perception surveys, ethics training and oversight capacity-building.  The training programme is designed around organizational core values and competencies, particularly integrity and accountability.  The training will also raise awareness of the accountability mechanisms in place and provide guidelines for action to deal with corruption, fraud and other forms of unethical behaviour.

As a first step, key United Nations senior officials will participate in an Executive Programme on Corruption Control and Organizational Integrity, which will take place from 8 to 13 June 2003.  The Programme, for which the United Nations is a founding partner, is offered by the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts.  It will be taught by leading experts and practitioners in the field and appeals to a broad international audience, including representatives from public, private and not-for-profit sectors.

External consultants will conduct an Integrity Perception Survey later this summer to gauge the perceptions and attitudes of United Nations staff regarding integrity.  The results will provide inputs for training courses and serve as a benchmark for preventive strategies.  An Organization-wide publicity campaign will ensure that the goals and objectives of the programmes under the Initiative are communicated to all staff.

Mr. Nair will present the Initiative to the press at the noon briefing on Thursday, 1 May, in room S-226.  Representatives of the Permanent Mission of Norway and the Office of Human Resources Management will also be present.

* *** *