Independent Audit Advisory Committee Holds Seventieth Session, 14-16 April

The United Nations Independent Audit Advisory Committee held its seventieth session from 14 to 16 April at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa.  The session was chaired by Anton Kosyanenko.  In attendance were all Committee members except the newly elected member, Eric Osae, namely:  Vice-Chair Suresh Sharma, Dorothy Bradley and Jeanette Franzel.

During the session, the Independent Audit Advisory Committee engaged in substantive discussions with key senior officials:

• Claver Gatete, Executive Secretary for the Economic Commission for Africa;
• Parfait Onanga Anyanga, Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the African Union and Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union;
• Yacoub Ali El Hillo, Regional Director for Africa, Development Coordination Office;
• Ramiz Alakbarov, Resident Coordinator, Ethiopia;
• Cheick Condé, Chief of Staff, Office of the Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa.

Discussions centered on the role of these entities within the United Nations system and their contributions towards advancing the Secretary-General’s agenda.  Key topics included:

• The effectiveness of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), including its divisions, in supporting oversight responsibilities and the impact of recommendations issued by oversight bodies;
• Implementation of recommendations from the Board of Auditors and Joint Inspection Unit (JIU);
• The state of enterprise risk management and internal control systems;
• Challenges and risks associated with achieving the 2030 Agenda, including the collection and utilization of data related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A significant part of the session was devoted to finalizing the Independent Audit Advisory Committee’s report on the programme budget of OIOS for fiscal year 2026.  In this context, the Committee met with:

• Fatoumata Ndiaye, Under-Secretary-General for OIOS, and senior officers to discuss the final programme budget proposal for 2026, retaliation case statistics, external quality assessments and the impact of financial constraints on OIOS operations;
• Chandramouli Ramanathan, Assistant Secretary-General and Controller, to review the final proposed programme budget for 2026, recent decisions from the resumed seventy-ninth session of the General Assembly, and critical risks identified in the revised risk register, including financial challenges.

Additionally, the Independent Audit Advisory Committee Chair held discussions with the Management Committee, providing an update on Committee activities since the last dialogue in March 2024.

The Independent Audit Advisory Committee will convene its seventy-first session from 23 to 25 July in New York.

For further information, please visit the Independent Audit Advisory 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.