EU Presidency Statement - Reports of the Board of Auditors

I have the honor to speak on behalf of the European Union. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe associated with the European Union (Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia), and the associated countries of Cyprus, Malta and Turkey, align themselves with this statement.

Mr. Chairman,

Permit me to thank Mr. Joseph E. Connor, Under-Secretary-General, Ms. Marieta Acorda, Director of External Audit and Chairperson of the Audit Operations Committee and Ambassador Mselle for their reports.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union approves the report of the Board of Auditors on the audited financial statements of the voluntary funds administered by the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees for the year 2000, and the report by the ACABQ on that report.

The European Union is pleased to note that the HCR has managed to reduce by 186,5 million dollars the amount of expenditure for which subproject monitoring reports had not been received. The European Union notes the qualification in the Board of Auditors' opinion on the financial statements of HCR in respect of a total amount of 43,5 million of expenditure, due to a number of irregularities that have existed for several years.

It also notes the Auditors' conclusion on the lack of monitoring reports from implementing partners, and the inadequacies in verification and validation by officers responsible for field monitoring of implementing partners' expenditure.

The European Union also regrets that the HCR and the Auditors could not have access to the accounts of some implementing partners.

Furthermore, although it also welcomes the fact that the HCR has also succeeded in securing independent audit certificates to cover 330 million dollars of expenditure incurred by implementing agents, the European Union, like the ACABQ, would ask for measures to be taken to improve the quality of the certificates.

The European Union is certainly fully aware of the difficult circumstances in which the HCR must work, especially at local level. It would, however, ask the HCR administration to take prompt and effective measures to ensure, particularly at the level of local offices and the implementing partners, that the justified recommendations of the Board of Auditors for improved monitoring and more stringent application of accounting rules are put into effect.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union is also concerned at the deterioration in the financial situation of the HCR and would ask it to take steps to limit its expenditure with a view to aligning it on expected revenue.

Finally, the European Union would emphasize the HCR's shortcomings in the management of information technology, in particular as regards the Integrated System Project. It regrets that no prior assessment was made of the advantages of the new system, the high cost of certain unnecessary purchases, and the fact that the HCR, which has already spent 8,7 million dollars, still has no operational integrated system.

Mr. Chairman,

I will conclude this statement by raising very briefly the question of the action taken on the Board of Auditors' recommendations for the biennium 1998-1999.

The European Union welcomes the fact that the vast majority of the 15 bodies listed in the Auditors' report - including the UN - have substantially improved their rate of implementation of those recommendations compared with the biennium 1996-1997. Nevertheless, like the ACABQ, it would like the reports of the Board and the Secretariat to indicate the results of implementing the recommendations.

Mr. Chairman, I thank you.

| Top |