Independent Audit Advisory Committee Holds Sixty-Eighth Session, 3-6 December
The Independent Audit Advisory Committee of the United Nations held its sixty-eighth session from 3 to 6 December, via hybrid format at the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in Berne, Switzerland. The session was held under the shadows of the recent tragic loss of the Chair, Imran Vanker. The rest of the members of the Committee, namely Anton Kosyanenko, Vice Chairman; Dorothy Bradley; Suresh Sharma; Jeanette Franzel; and Moses Bamuwamye, Executive Secretary, were in attendance.
The session was highlighted by the successful ninth meeting of representatives of the United Nations system Oversight Advisory Committees. The meeting was opened by Vice Chairman and was co-chaired by Marjan Osvald of UPU and Mr. Sharma. In attendance were the Chairs or other high-level representatives of 22 United Nations entities’ Oversight Advisory Committees.
The participants paid tribute to the deceased Chairman and observed a minute of silence in his honour. The meeting included a robust exchange of information on best practices, trends, and lessons learned, focusing on governance, oversight and risk management. The Oversight Advisory Committees achieved a significant milestone by adopting and signing a Terms of Reference for the Oversight Advisory Committee Network.
During the session, the Independent Audit Advisory Committee also held meetings with:
1. Ms. Tatiana Valovaya, Director General for United Nations Office at Geneva, on the effectiveness of the Organization’s internal oversight and ethics functions under the responsibilities of the Office.
2. Ms. Fatoumata Ndiaye, Under-Secretary-General for the United Nations Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) and senior officers on: (i) the status of the peacekeeping workplan implementation for the 2024/2025 fiscal year; (ii) the workplan and the corresponding budget proposal under the support account for peacekeeping operations for the period 2025/2026; (iii) update on the status of the External Quality Assessments; (iv) the trends related to recommendations, including the risks of closing high numbers of recommendations without implementation; and, (v) status and extent of coordination with the oversight bodies.
3. Mr. Chandramouli Ramanathan, Controller and Assistant Secretary-General for Programme Planning, Finance and Budget, on: (i) reviewing OIOS’s proposed budget for the support account for the period 2025/2026; (ii) risks posed by the current financial situation; and (iii) improving the mechanisms for reporting on fraud and presumptive fraud.
4. Mr. Dmitry Mariyasin, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, on the effectiveness of the internal oversight functions, as well as challenges related to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
5. Mr. Bernardo Mariano Junior, Chief Information Technology Officer, on issues concerning information technology risk identification and mitigation, the capital investment plan, the information and communications technology strategy, and the Office of Information and Communications Technology’s contribution to the Summit of the Future.
6. Mr. Juraj Strasser, Director of the Ethics Office, and senior officers, on his Office’s current activities and proposed workplan.
The Independent Audit Advisory Committee unanimously elected Mr. Kosyanenko as Chairman and Mr. Sharma as Vice Chairman to serve out the remainder of the current term and for the following year, starting 1 January 2025.
The Committee’s sixth-ninth session is scheduled for 17-19 February 2025 in New York.
For further information on the Committee’s work, please see its website at: www.un.org/ga/iaac, or contact Executive Secretary Moses Bamuwamye at e-mail: bamuwamye@un.org; tel.: +1 212 963 0788.