Minister Counselor for UN Management and Reform Stephen Lieberman today said the Office of Internal Oversight Services will continue to play an important role in enhancing the transparency, accountability and effectiveness of the United Nations by exercising appropriate internal oversight, by promoting responsible use of resources, and by identifying and reporting instances of waste, fraud and mismanagement.
In his remarks to the UN General Assembly’s Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), on OIOS and the IAAC, Mr. Lieberman commends Ms. Lapointe for the work she has done over the past year to revitalize and strengthen OIOS including filling the long vacant Director level positions for the Investigation and Inspection and Evaluation Divisions and reducing the overall vacancy level.
“We appreciate her innovation in streamlining audit reports and categorizing recommendations to provide more useful products for UN managers and we applaud her initiative to increase transparency by posting audit reports on the OIOS website in 2012. We are confident that these initiatives will contribute to improved management effectiveness and accountability in the UN.” -Mr. Liberman
He stressed that the United States has long been concerned about the state of the investigative capacity within OIOS since the termination of the Procurement Task Force in 2008. He hoped that with leadership positions filled, a realignment on how investigations and audits are conducted to ferret out system weaknesses that could lead to fraud and corruption, as well as hiring of qualified persons to investigate financial crimes, OIOS will soon achieve its true potential and provide robust oversight and accountability of the United Nations and the resources entrusted to it.
“With all these much needed improvements underway, we note the need to enhance OIOS’s leadership team. We strongly support the resources requested for an Assistant Secretary General, who will assist the Under-Secretary-General with management of the Divisions as well as administrative and crosscutting issues.” -Mr. Liberman
