128. Report on the activities of the Office of Internal Oversight Services

The Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) was established by the General Assembly in its resolution 48/218 B of 29 July 1994. The Assembly decided to include in the provisional agenda of its fiftieth session an item entitled “Report of the Secretary-General on the activities of the Office of Internal Oversight Services”.

At its fifty-fourth session, the General Assembly, under the item entitled “Review of the implementation of General Assembly resolution 48/218 B”, reaffirmed its resolution 48/218 B, subject to the provisions of the new resolution (resolution 54/244).

At its fifty-ninth session, the General Assembly, under the item entitled “Review of the implementation of General Assembly resolutions 48/218 B & 54/244”, requested the Secretary-General to ensure that annual reports and semi-annual reports submitted by OIOS to the Assembly contained the titles and brief summaries of all other reports of the Office issued during the year and that original versions of the reports of the Office not submitted to the Assembly were, upon request, made available to any Member State; and further decided that reports of the Office should be submitted directly to the General Assembly as submitted by the Office and that the comments of the Secretary-General might be submitted in a separate report (resolution 59/272).

The General Assembly considered the item at its sixtieth session (resolutions 60/255, sect. I, 60/257 & 60/259; decision 60/551 A). At its resumed sixtieth session, in May 2006, the General Assembly decided to modify the title of the agenda item to read “Report on the activities of the Office of Internal Oversight Services” (resolution 60/259).

At its resumed sixty-first session, in June 2007, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to entrust the Office of Internal Oversight Services with reviewing and analysing the structure of the Secretariat for managing and sustaining peacekeeping operations, as established in the resolution, and to report thereon to the Assembly at the second part of its resumed sixty-third session (resolution 61/279, para. 65).

At its sixty-second session, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to entrust the Office of Internal Oversight Services with a comprehensive review focusing, inter alia, on the structure of the Office of the Capital Master Plan, compliance with United Nations regulations and rules on procurement and contracting, adherence to the terms of contracts, internal controls and processes in place to properly manage the project and other high-risk areas, and to report thereon to the Assembly at its sixty-third session (resolution 62/87, para. 15).

At the same session, under item 131, the General Assembly requested the Office of Internal Oversight Services to conduct a comprehensive review of the existing special arrangements governing the recruitment of temporary assistance staff in the language services at the four main duty stations, in particular as regards their compliance with relevant staff regulations and rules and General Assembly mandates in the field of human resources management, and to submit a report thereon to the Assembly at its sixty-third session through the Committee on Conferences (resolution 62/225, sect. V, para. 4).

Also at its sixty-second session, under item 161, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to entrust the Office of Internal Oversight Services to undertake a comprehensive review of the use of the extraordinary measures for the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur contained in the letter from the Secretary-General to the President of the General Assembly (A/62/379) (resolution 62/232, para. 30).
At the same session, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to entrust the Office of Internal Oversight Services to include in its report on the evaluation of human resources management, as requested in its resolution 61/235, a comprehensive review of the implementation of the recruitment, promotion and mobility policies of United Nations staff over the past five years and to report thereon to the Assembly at its sixty-third session in the context of human resources management (resolution 62/236, para. 36).

At its resumed sixty-second session, in April 2008, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to prepare in close cooperation with OIOS, for consideration at its sixty-third session, (a) a report providing detailed information on the status if implementation of its resolution 59/287; on all the entities other than the Office of Internal Oversight Services carrying out administrative inquiries and investigations; and on the stats of work done under general temporary assistance resources equivalent to six positions to establish a training capacity for the Investigations Division; and (b) a report providing information on terms of reference with regard to the proposed comprehensive review of investigations in the United Nations before the General Assembly decides on the necessity of such a review; and further requested the Secretary-General to report to the Assembly on practices related to the sharing of information between the Organization and law enforcement authorities of Member States as well as to referrals to such authorities of possible criminal cases related to United Nations staff and United Nations officials and experts on mission (resolution 62/247).

Also at its resumed sixty-second session, in April 2008, under item 126, the General Assembly decided to defer until its sixty-third session consideration of the report of OIOS on the audit of the management of special political missions (A/61/357) by the Department of Political Affairs (decision 62/545 B).