Independent Audit Advisory Committee Holds Fifty-Sixth Session, 7-10 December

The Independent Audit Advisory Committee of the United Nations held its fifty-sixth session from 7 to 10 December 2021.  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.

The Committee’s fifty-sixth session was highlighted by the successful sixth meeting of the representatives of the United Nations system oversight committees. The meeting, which was opened by the Chef de Cabinet on behalf of the Secretary-General, was attended by Chairs and/or other high-level representatives of 23 United Nations system entities.  The meeting saw a robust exchange of information on best practices and lessons learned.  The Committee expressed its deep gratitude to its colleagues for their active and engaged participation and looks forward to working with each one of them.

In addition, the Independent Audit Advisory Committee held meetings with:

1. The Chair and Vice-Chair of the Joint Inspection Unit to share perspectives on matters of mutual concern and to discuss opportunities for cooperation with the Unit.
2. Fatoumata Ndiaye, Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, and with senior managers regarding a wide range of matters, including: (i) the status of vacant posts; (ii) utilization of the peacekeeping budget; (iii) the status of the peacekeeping workplan implementation; (iv) the budget proposal under the support account for peacekeeping operations for 2022/2023; and (v) the workplan and capacity gap analysis for the Internal Audit Division, Inspection and Evaluation Division, and Investigation Division.
3. Chandramouli Ramanathan, Assistant Secretary-General, Controller on: (i) the peacekeeping budget of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) for 2022/23; and (ii) the status update on After Service Health Insurance; (iii) the trends in the fraud and presumptive fraud reporting; and (iv) the financial situation.
4. Christophe Monier, on behalf of the Under-Secretary-General for Management Strategy, Policy, and Compliance, on: (i) lessons learned from the implementation of the three lines of defence; and (ii) update on the fraud reporting process, the process in place to investigate cases of fraud and presumptive fraud, and risk mitigation plans for the fraud risks.
5. Elia Armstrong, Director of the Ethics Office on: (i) the strengthening of the ethics function of the Secretariat; and (ii) developments with respect to the proposal contained in paragraph 94(b) of the Secretary-General’s report A/73/89.

The Independent Audit Advisory Committee also unanimously re-elected Janet St. Laurent as Chair and Agus Pramono as Vice-Chair for the following year starting 1 January 2022.

The next (fifty-seventh) session of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee is scheduled for 16 to 18 February 2022.  The venue and/or mode of the session will be determined at a later date.

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