Panel of External Auditors Holds Fifty-seventh Meeting at Headquarters, 21-22 November

The fifty-seventh meeting of the Panel of External Auditors, chaired by Musa Juma Assad, Controller and Auditor-General of the United Republic of Tanzania, was held on 21 and 22 November at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.  The Panel consists of Auditors General of 11 supreme audit institutions who are either elected or selected to conduct the external audit of the United Nations Secretariat, funds and programmes and specialized agencies.  This also includes two observers who remain on the Panel, for a period of three years after they rotate off the Panel.  The meeting was attended by Auditors General or their representatives from the United Republic of Tanzania, France, India, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Ghana, Philippines, Switzerland, Indonesia and Canada.

External auditors are independent of the United Nations and conduct the audits on the financial statements and managerial and performance audits.  The main objectives of the Panel are to further the coordination of the audits for which its members are responsible, and to exchange information on audit methods and findings.  The Panel’s Technical Group also met from 16 to 18 November to discuss technical matters and prepare the discussions by their Principals on 21 and 22 November.  The Panel discussed matters such as important developments in the United Nations, accounting and auditing standards, oversight practices and audit fatigue, cost of operations, management of voluntary contributions and implementing partners and frameworks and tools for auditing.

The Panel also met with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to brief him on important issues identified by them.  The Chef de Cabinet, Edmond Mulet, and the Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, Atul Khare, also met with the Panel to discuss challenges faced by the United Nations in implementing their programmes.

Both meetings were held in paperless mode supported by the PaperSmart team of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management.

For more details on the Panel’s work, please visit www.un.org/en/auditors/panel.