Panel of External Auditors Holds 60th Meeting at UN Bonn

The sixtieth meeting of the Panel of External Auditors, chaired by Gareth Davies, Comptroller and Auditor General of the United Kingdom, was held from 23 December 2019 at the United Nations Campus in Bonn, Germany.  The Panel consists of the Heads of 11 Supreme Audit Institutions who are either elected or selected to conduct the external audit of the United Nations Secretariat, funds and programmes and specialized agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).  The meeting was attended by representatives from Canada, Chile, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Ghana, Philippines, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United Republic of Tanzania as an observer.

External auditors are independent of the United Nations and conduct financial statements and performance audits.  The United Nations Panel of External Auditors is a unique forum for the exchange of information and methodologies to further develop and improve the value and quality of the external assurance process.  The Panel seeks to support the delivery of high quality, standardsbased assurance, to ensure that reported financial information provides a transparent and accurate basis for the financial decisions made by the United Nations, its specialized agencies and IAEA.  The Panel’s Technical Group also met on 2729 November to discuss technical matters and prepare for the ensuing discussions by their Principals on 23 December.

The Panel discussed matters such as the SecretaryGeneral’s reform agenda and the impact of change on governance and assurance mechanisms, developments in fraud prevention and detection measures, opportunities for enhanced coordination in the management of implementing partners and the Panel’s increased interaction with the wider United Nations system.

The Panel also met with Jens Wandel, Special Adviser to the SecretaryGeneral on Reform; and Robert Piper, Assistant SecretaryGeneral of the Development Coordination Office, to discuss the SecretaryGeneral’s reform agenda.  The Panel also met with Vitaly Vanshelboim, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Project Services; Martin Frick, Senior Director for Policy and Programme Coordination of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat and Andrey Pogrebnyak, Director of Management Services of the United Nations Volunteers to understand the programme challenges in the implementation of their mandates.

More details on the Panel’s work is available at its website: http://www.un.org/en/auditors/panel/

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