Hold Managers Responsible for Implementing Staff Recruitment Recommendations, Speakers Urge as Fifth Committee Reviews Progress in Strengthening UN Accountability Culture
Managers who don’t implement the recommendations of oversight bodies — including on staff recruitment from unrepresented and underrepresented countries — should be held accountable, speakers told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today during a discussion on strengthening the United Nations culture of accountability.
Kevin Summersgill, Officer-in-Charge of the Business Transformation and Accountability Division of the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, introduced the Secretary-General’s thirteenth progress report on accountability: strengthening accountability in the United Nations Secretariat (document A/78/678) to provide an update on the Organization’s new and ongoing efforts in 2023.
He reported that such measures include work implementing the Organization’s strategic action plan on addressing racism and promoting dignity across its Secretariat; a statement providing reasonable assurance that the Secretariat operates an effective internal control system and did not encounter any significant or material control issues; and completion of a comprehensive risk assessment exercise, including for fraud and corruption risks, and revision of the Secretariat-wide risk register containing 14 critical strategic and operational risks.
Additionally, a new Secretary-General’s bulletin on the Values and Behaviours Framework was finalized for promulgation in 2024, he said, also highlighting various Member States portals that provide useful information, including workforce composition, contributions made, as well as deployment data for troop- and police-contributing countries. “This report shows the Secretariat’s continued progress — not perfection — in reinforcing accountability as a central pillar of its management system and details plans in 2024 and beyond to keep moving forward,” he said.
Jakub Chmielewski, Vice-Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), introduced that body’s related report (document A/78/743), recommending that the General Assembly take note of the progress made and the plans to continuously strengthen the Secretariat’s accountability system.
He said that the Advisory Committee — an Assembly subsidiary organ that examines and advises on administrative and budgetary matters — reiterates the need to fully implement all Assembly-endorsed recommendations of the oversight bodies and ACABQ and persistently hold programme managers accountable for non-implementation.
Recalling the increase in the number of geographical posts available in 2024, he said that ACABQ trusts that continued efforts will be made for the appointment of staff from unrepresented and underrepresented Member States to those posts. Appropriate accountability measures should be taken in the future in cases of non-compliance against the targets stipulated in senior managers’ compacts, he added.
Further, the Advisory Committee recommends that the Assembly request the Secretary-General to strengthen the Organization’s culture of efficiency and incorporate quantifiable targets and incentives in the performance management process, he said. ACABQ also trusts that a more comprehensive assessment and related information on the three lines of defence will be provided in the next progress report, including further clarity on the strengthening of the second line of defence across different departmental activities to support field missions. The next progress report should also include detailed information on the harmonization of frameworks for planning and performance reporting across different funding sources, he added.
For her part, Eileen A. Cronin, Inspector of the Joint Inspection Unit, introduced its report titled “Review of accountability frameworks in the United Nations system organizations” (document JIU/REP/2023/3), a follow-up to a 2011 report. While still largely relevant, the 2011 accountability reference framework was updated to include a definition of an accountability framework, and clarification of accountability lines, including accountability “for what, by whom, to whom and why”, she said.
It further contained a broader recognition of interlinkages within the wider UN system, an explicit acknowledgement of a wider range of stakeholders compared with 2011, and a proposal to move from “zero tolerance” to the concept of “no tolerance for inaction”, she reported, also citing greater importance of the role of legislative and governing bodies and an emphasis on regularly monitoring the more complex and dynamic accountability landscape.
She noted that the review found that the number of UN system organizations with a formal accountability framework has increased since 2011. However, not all have such a framework; many existing frameworks do not fully or consistently reflect the increased complexity of the accountability landscape; and none of the existing frameworks includes all the components of the updated Joint Inspection Unit reference framework.
The report also found that very few organizations carried out independent reviews of their frameworks and that the costs of accountability in many organizations remain elusive, she pointed out. The review includes two recommendations to governing bodies emphasizing their own roles in an accountability framework and building capacity in understanding its elements, as well as three recommendations to executive heads to assess their current frameworks, build a system-wide reference maturity model, and evaluate their entities against it.
However, different organizational mandates and governance structures would not always be conducive to the consistent application of such detailed recommendations across the UN system, said Federica Pietracci, Senior Programme Management Officer of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB), who introduced the Secretary-General’s note transmitting his and CEB comments on the Joint Inspection Unit’s report (document A/78/595/Add.10).
She noted that the proposed recommendations and related accountability framework model provided elements useful across the UN system — even though four of the five recommendations are beyond the sole purview of participating organizations, making their timeframe challenging to comply with. Furthermore, they favour a framework of benchmarks that recognizes the diverse requirements and different cost/benefit considerations of each body, accompanied by a maturity model whereby an organization can ascertain the desired goal level and measure progress over time.
Entities further observed that, while a stand-alone accountability framework can be beneficial in certain cases, it is not a prerequisite for maintaining accountability within an organization, she emphasized.
In the ensuing discussion, the representative of Uganda, speaking for the Group of 77 and China, underscored the importance of the accountability system as “it is one way the Member States can assess whether the decisions and resolutions of the membership are being fully implemented” and hold the managers not implementing them accountable. In this regard, the Group recalls that the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to urge his senior managers to meet the geographical targets contained in the senior managers’ compacts. The Group will be interested in understanding the appropriate accountability measures to be taken in the future in cases of non-compliance against the targets stipulated in the compacts.
In the face of the current financial constraints, the Group believes that the Secretary-General must continue strengthening internal controls through the constant monitoring of effective expenditures to fully implement agreed mandates and programmes, he added.
“A solid and effective system of accountability begins at senior management level, which must set an example for others to follow,” said the representative of Switzerland, who also spoke for Liechtenstein. Since the introduction of the new management paradigm, the system of delegation of authority continues to be strengthened, she noted, also welcoming the improved availability of data and information to increase the essential transparency of activities and results.
Expressing support for the development of management tools designed to facilitate the role of heads of entities and their teams, she concluded: “It must not be possible for anyone to hide behind unclear lines of responsibility.” She then urged support for the Secretary-General’s ongoing efforts to promote and improve accountability within the Organization.