Independent Audit Advisory Committee Ends Session, Having Discussed Coordination

among Oversight Bodies, Implementation of Board of Auditor’s Recommendations

The Independent Audit Advisory Committee of the United Nations (IAAC) held its eleventh session at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 21 to 23 July.  The session was presided over by the Chairman, David M. Walker, and attended by all the Committee members, Vijayendra N. Kaul (Vice-Chairman), Vadim V. Dubinkin, John F.S. Muwanga and Adrian P. Strachan.

The IAAC’s agenda for the eleventh session included meetings with:  the United Nations Board of Auditors to discuss matters pertaining to the work of the IAAC, including coordination among oversight entities; the status of management’s implementation of the Board’s recommendations; submissions of the Board’s audit reports; trends in financial statements; and other areas of mutual interest and concern.

IAAC senior managers and staff of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) discussed with OIOS the status of implementation of recommendations by management, including the most critical recommendations and recommendations not accepted by management.  The IAAC also was briefed about OIOS staff vacancies, the office’s transition, given the departure of Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services Inga-Britt Inga-Britt Ahlenius, and various investigations issues.  The IAAC also discussed the status of implementation of the OIOS work plan for the second quarter of the current calendar year, the results of client and staff satisfaction surveys launched by OIOS in 2009 and 2010, respectively, an internal quality assessment study commissioned by OIOS in the second quarter of the year, and whether there were any operational constraints experienced by OIOS.

Representatives of the Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Management, it was agreed, will discuss steps that the administration will be taking to implement the General Assembly resolution on accountability (document A/Res/64/259), including timeframes for implementation.  The IAAC also took the opportunity to follow-up with the Department of Management on the status of implementation of recommendations made by oversight bodies.  Department of Management officials also briefed the Committee on steps that the administration is taking to deal with systemic risk issues.

The Deputy Controller and other staff of the Office of Programme Planning, Budget and Accounts will discuss the status of implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards in the Secretariat, as well as issues and trends in the financial statements for the financial period ended December 2009.

During the session, the IAAC discussed matters that it plans to include in its 2010 annual report, which it will submit to the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly.  Among other things, the Committee agreed to include in this report its comments on accountability in the United Nations Secretariat, as well as on the review of its Terms of Reference, which the General Assembly decided to conduct at its sixty-fifth session.

The next (twelfth) session of the IAAC is scheduled for December 15-16, also at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

For further information on the work of the IAAC, please contact the Committee’s Executive Secretary a.i., Hazelien Featherstone, e-mail:  featherstoneh@un.org, tel.:  +1 212 963 1595, fax:  +1 212 963 0600.

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For information media • not an official record