UNITED NATIONS INDEPENDENT AUDIT ADVISORY COMMITTEE HOLDS FOURTH SESSION

The Independent Audit Advisory Committee of the United Nations held its fourth session in New York from 1 to 3 December 2008.  The Advisory Committee is a subsidiary body of the General Assembly, serving in an expert advisory capacity to assist the Assembly in fulfilling its oversight responsibilities.

During this session, all Committee members were present, and the session was presided over by the Chairman, David M. Walker.  The Committee adopted the summary record of proceedings of its third session, held 16 to 18 July 2008.

The Committee’s agenda for the fourth session included meetings with: 

-- The Fifth Committee –- an informal interaction on the occasion of the fourth and last session for this, the first year of the Advisory Committee’s operation.  The meeting included discussion of past Advisory Committee activities and plans for the future.

-- The Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions –- informal interaction to discuss past Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) budget-related issues and the Independent Audit Advisory Committee’s plans for the future.

-- The Under-Secretary-General, Department of Management –- follow-up on ongoing work arising from the Secretary-General’s report to the General Assembly on an accountability framework, enterprise risk management and internal control framework, and efforts by the Administration to implement recommendations of oversight bodies and the monitoring systems that are in place to expedite this process.

-- The Controller and other representatives of the Office of Programme Planning, Budget and Accounts -- on OIOS budget process and the OIOS 2009/2010 budget under the support account for peacekeeping operations; the status of implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards; and the United Nations Fraud Prevention and Anti-corruption Plan.

-- The Under-Secretary-General and other representatives of the OIOS -- on the 2009 workplans of all Divisions in OIOS, including proposed budget resources under the support account for peacekeeping operations; discussion of various value and risk considerations; staffing and vacancies; and integration of the work of the Procurement Task Force into the Investigations Division of the OIOS.

The English version of the Advisory Committee website was approved by the Committee members and will be launched on 18 December 2008.  The translation of the website into the other five official United Nations languages is expected to be completed by July 2009.  The Committee agreed on a three-year work plan to implement its terms of reference, which would include a timeline linked to meetings of the governing bodies, and will be published on the Committee’s website.  In this session, the Committee also re-elected David M. Walker as Chairman and Vijayendra N. Kaul as Vice-Chairman, for the year 2009.

The next session of the Committee is planned for 16 to 18 February 2009.

For further information on the work of the Committee, please contact the Committee’s Executive Secretary, Uren Pillay at e-mail: pillay@un.org, telephone:  +1 212 963 5674, fax: +1 212 963 4365.

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For information media • not an official record