United Nations Board of Auditors Holds Seventy-Sixth Regular Session on 20 July at New York Headquarters, Remotely from Santiago, Bonn, Beijing, Paris

ORG/1726

26 July 2022

The General Assembly established the United Nations Board of Auditors in 1946 as an important mechanism to promote accountability and transparency in the United Nations. The Board performs external audit of the accounts of the United Nations organization and its funds and programmes and reports its findings and recommendations to the General Assembly through the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) as also to individual governing bodies not under the General Assembly. The members of the Board have collective responsibility for the audits and approved 23 reports at their regular session at United Nations Headquarters, New York, and remotely from Santiago, Bonn, Beijing and Paris from 20—21 July 2022 (refer to annex).

The reports for this session were prepared and approved by the Board Chair and members Jorge Bermudez, Comptroller General of the Republic of Chile (Chairman), Hou Kai, Auditor-General of the National Audit Office of China, and Kay Scheller, President of the German Federal Court of Auditors. Effective 1 July 2022, Pierre Moscovici, First President of the French Cour des comptes, has taken over the Board membership from Mr. Scheller, President of the German Federal Court of Auditors. Each member has a non-consecutive tenure of six years, and the Chairmanship is rotated every two years.

The Board members had a meeting with the Chef de Cabinet for a formal exchange on important priorities and challenges faced by the United Nations on Thursday, 21 July 2022.

Through its work, the Board provides independent assurance to Member States and other stakeholders regarding proper use of the resources of the United Nations entities. It reports on financial matters as well as on regularity and performance issues. It plays a significant role in assisting the United Nations to improve its operations and its internal control systems. The findings and recommendations of the Board have led to continuous systematic improvements in the functioning of the United Nations.

This year the Board of Auditors audited the financial statements and reviewed the operations of 17 organizations. All the audited entities received an unqualified audit opinion. The key trends and cross-entity issues have been included in the Concise Summary Report, along with specific information regarding the management of implementing partners. The Board further produced three subject specific reports for submission to the General Assembly and produced another three reports for submission to other governing bodies. More detailed information about the Board’s findings can be found in the individual reports published on the Board’s website (http://www.un.org/en/auditors/board/)

Annex

List of Board Reports for Review and Approval

Reports submitted to the General Assembly

Chile