Independent Audit Advisory Committee Holds Its Fifty-fourth Session Virtually, 21-23 April

The Independent Audit Advisory Committee of the United Nations (IAAC) held its fifty-fourth session from 21 to 23 April.  Due to the ongoing challenges associated with the pandemic, the meetings were held virtually.  The session was presided over by the Chair, Janet St. Laurent.  All the other members of the Committee — namely Agus Pramono (Vice-Chair), Dorothy Bradley, Anton Kosyanenko and Imran Vanker — were in attendance.

IAAC’s deliberations included a preliminary review of the Committee’s report on the regular budget of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) for 2022.

In addition, IAAC held meetings with:

1. Catherine Pollard, Under-Secretary-General for Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, on:  (i) status of the implementation of oversight body recommendations, including an update on the review of the actions to address the overdue recommendations of the Board of Auditors; (ii) progress in embedding enterprise risk management, including the status of the Risk Treatment and Response Plans and the enterprise risk management module in Umoja; (iii) an update on the maturity level of the second line of defence as it relates to the three lines of defence model, introduced by the Secretary-General in his report (document A/72/492/Add.2), that underscored the importance of the second line of defence.
2. Fatoumata Ndiaye, Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, on her vision and the programme work of the Office; and with senior managers regarding a wide range of matters, including: (i) status of the regular budget workplans implementation for the periods 2020-2021 for the Internal Auditing Department, Inspection and Evaluation Division and Investigations Division; (ii) budget proposal for the regular budget for 2022, including capacity gap analyses for the Internal Auditing Department, Inspection and Evaluation Division and Investigations Division ; (iii) status of the revised Key Performance Indicators for the Divisions; (iv) status of the implementation of the recommendations of OIOS by Management, including a list of the top 10 to 20 recommendations which have not yet been implemented; and (v) significant findings reported by the Office during the first quarter of 2021.
3. Chandramouli Ramanathan, Assistant Secretary-General, Controller on:  (i) the proposed programme budget for 2022; (ii) the regular budget of OIOS for 2022; (iii) update on the operational implications of any issues and trends apparent in the Organization’s financial statements pertaining to Volume II; (iv) the current financial situation; and (v) an update in the status of after-service health insurance.
4. Lotta Tahtinen, Chief of Outreach and Partnership Branch of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, on the Sustainable Development Goals Action Database maintained by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

The next (fifty-fifth) session of IAAC is scheduled for 21 to 23 July.  The venue and/or mode of the session will be determined at a later date.

For further information on the work of IAAC, please see the Committee’s website at: www.un.org/ga/iaac; or contact the Committee’s Executive Secretary, Moses Bamuwamye, at email:  bamuwamye@un.org, or tel.: +1 212 963 0788.