Internal oversight: helping further the respect.

Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

- Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 

In 1996, an investigation in the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus discovered a scheme to defraud the Organization by siphoning funds from the mission's account for fresh food rations provided to peacekeeping troops. It was established that the Chief Financial Officer - who was subsequently dismissed - had covered up the losses and submitted documentation indicating that the account had a balance of nearly $100,000 when, in fact, it had a deficit of almost $450,000. Also in 1996, investigators were able to retrieve stolen UN equipment of about $400,000 in Mombasa, Kenya, from a vendor providing services to peacekeepers.

Throughout much of its existence, criticisms have been made against the United Nations, accusing it of being an inflexible, resource-devouring bureaucratic monster prone to mismanagement and wasteful behaviour, mainly because, unlike other large public administrations throughout the world, the Organization lacked independent internal control over staff and resources for nearly 50 years. In 1994, Member States decided to change that and established an Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).

"The decision to create this Office is probably one of the most effective reform steps that it could have taken", the OIOS chief, Under-Secretary-General Karl Theodor Paschke told the UN Chronicle. In its yearly reports, OIOS not only informs the General Assembly of cases of fraud and mismanagement, but also looks into ways of precluding their recurrence in the future. And it has set its priorities on the following cost-intensive areas: peacekeeping, humanitarian and related activities, and procurement.

"I have sent resident auditors to all of the bigger peacekeeping operations", says Mr. Paschke. "We dispatch auditing teams at least once a year, and this creates a conscience of being overseen in a rather continuous way. It also contributes enormously to streamlining and savings in operations, which are quite costly." According to an August 1998 report of OIOS on the inquiry into procurement planning of aviation services in peacekeeping missions, significant corrective actions implemented since 1994 dramatically improved the situation in this area. Aviation procurement planning by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations have since reduced the unused block hours from 40 per cent in 1993 to approximately 2 per cent in 1997.

In the humanitarian field, an OIOS investigation determined that fraud had been perpetrated by a former staff member of the West Bank Field Office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), in East Jerusalem, who had used false refugee registration numbers, with names from his extended family, to defraud UNRWA of approximately $355,000 over the period 1992 to 1995.

But procurement in general has always been a difficult area, observes Under-Secretary-General Paschke. "This Organization buys, rents or leases a lot of things ... and all of this is costly. These procedures, because of our existence and our oversight work, have been, in the meantime, significantly streamlined and reformed", he adds.

OIOS is not a "grand inquisitor going about to get people", says Mr. Paschke. While it does play a "deterring role for those who would not normally be particularly careful about rules and regulations", OIOS strives to cooperate with the areas being audited; and what needs to be done to enhance efficiency is always first discussed with the concerned Departments. "I want this Office to be viewed as a help to management to improve the performance of this Organization", he explains.

"Whenever we hear of some administrative weakness or deficiency, we send in a team of inspectors who take a 'snap-shot' review of the situation and come up with short-term recommendations for improvement", the Under-Secretary-General says. The Office even operates a telephone hot-line through which it can be contacted confidentially.

"Probably, the savings that we generate are much higher than our $20 million budget because ... wrongdoings that people intend to permit are eventually not permitted since our Office deterred this through our work. But this cannot be documented. So I think, savings are much higher", the Under-Secretary-General says. Mr. Paschke mentions a lack of fiscal awareness and an effective management culture - two problems OIOS is working hard to improve. "The managers in the UN were not used to constantly reminding themselves of the fact that they are handling taxpayers money, so that, for instance, in procurement, the question to really go for the most efficient, most economical purchase never occurred to people. "Secondly, managers did not stringently supervise their people under that same aspect. 'We have this task, so let's do it, whatever it costs!' - that was the attitude."

"A public administration has to constantly rethink itself", says Mr. Paschke. "What may have been right 20 years ago, may not be the way to do things 20 years later. So, a good manager or good administrator will constantly ask himself: 'Isn't there a better way?'"

And there are a number of things that can be improved, such as the system of United Nations Rules and Regulations, observes the Organization's chief inspector. For instance, it takes up to a year to recruit somebody for the United Nations. "There are so many wasteful and unnecessary steps in the recruitment procedure that the whole process needs to be revamped and reformed. But all of these things take a very long time in the UN. Therefore, the role of oversight is also very much a reform push", he says.