JOINT INSPECTION UNIT ELECTS CHAIRMAN, VICE-CHAIRMAN FOR 2004

JOINT INSPECTION UNIT ELECTS CHAIRMAN, VICE-CHAIRMAN FOR 2004

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 21 January (UN Information Service) -- At the first meeting of its winter session on 20 January, the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) elected Inspector Ion Gorita (Romania) as its Chairman and Inspector M. Deborah Wynes (United States) as its Vice-Chairman for the current calendar year.

Chairman Gorita was the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Romania to the United Nations from 1994 to 2000.  He joined the Foreign Ministry of his country in 1961 and has served in various diplomatic assignments since then, including service from 1966 to 1970 at the Permanent Mission of Romania to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, and at United Nations Headquarters, New York from 1973 to 1981.  Prior to his appointment as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Romania to the United Nations in 1994, he served at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bucharest, as Head of International Economic Organizations (1981-1988), Deputy Director, Department for Asia and the Far East (1988-1989), Director, European Department (1990-1992) and State Secretary for European Affairs (1992-1994).

Mr. Gorita has been elected to a number of positions in the United Nations:  Vice-Chairman, Second Committee (1976), President, Executive Board of UNICEF (1996), Chairman, United Nations Commission for Social Development (1997), and others.  He has served as a member of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) (1984-1988) and on the Committee on Contributions (1984-1994).  He has also served in the Unit as an Inspector since January 2001, and as Vice-Chairman during the year 2003.

Vice-Chairman Wynes was a career member of the United States Senior Executive Service who joined the United States Department of State in 1973.  In 1978 she joined the Bureau of International Organization Affairs where she worked, until she assumed her position with the JIU, on developing and implementing United States policies relating to budgetary, administrative, and management issues of the United Nations and over 60 other international organizations.  In July 1998 she was named Director of the Office of United Nations System Administration.  In that capacity, she managed the entirety of the United States Government’s efforts for the management and administration of the United Nations, the United Nations affiliated agencies, the inter-American system, regional organizations and others.  She was responsible for developing, formulating, coordinating, recommending and implementing United States policies regarding budgetary and management reform of these institutions.  She oversaw the development and presentation of budget requests to Congress to finance United States assessed and voluntary contributions to international organizations and programmes.  She guided these requests through the budget process within the Administration and served as the supporting witness to the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs at Congressional hearings.  She also served as the principal briefer to Congressional staff on all budget and finance issues relating to the United Nations and other international organizations.

Mrs. Wynes has served as the United States Member of the Finance Committee of the International Hydrographic Organization.  She was elected to and has served in her individual expert capacity on the Finance Committee of the International Seabed Authority in Kingston, Jamaica.  She has also served as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly and to the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.  In June 2001 she served as head of the United States delegation to the United Nations Committee for Programme and Coordination meeting.  She has served the Unit as an Inspector since January 2003.

The current members of the Joint Inspection Unit, in addition to the Chairman and Vice-Chairman are:

            Doris Bertrand (Austria),

            Even Fontaine-Ortiz (Cuba),

            Sumihiro Kuyama (Japan),

            Wolfgang Münch (Germany),

            Louis-Dominique Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso),

            Guangting Tang (China),

            Christopher Thomas (Trinidad and Tobago),

            Victor Vislykh (Russian Federation), and

            Muhammad Yussuf (United Republic of Tanzania).

The Joint Inspection Unit of the United Nations System is the only external oversight body of the United Nations system, responsible for conducting inspections, evaluations and investigations regarding all matters having a bearing on the efficiency of the participating organizations and the proper use of resources.  Further information on the Joint Inspection Unit may be found at the Unit’s web page: www.unsystem.org/jiu/.

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