The UN system includes the General Assembly, the Secretariat, peacekeeping missions throughout the world, and separately administered funds, programs, and specialized agencies that have their own governing bodies. The General Assembly established the separately administered funds and programs with responsibility for particular issues, such as children (United Nations Children’s Fund) or the environment (United Nations Environment Program), that are funded mainly by voluntary contributions. While separately administered, these entities are under the authority of the Secretary-General, who appoints the heads of each entity, but they have their own governing bodies instead of being governed by the General Assembly. In contrast, the heads of the specialized agencies are elected by their own governing bodies, and these autonomous agencies do not fall under the authority of the Secretary-General and therefore are not within OIOS’s purview. OIOS is part of the Secretariat and is under the authority of the Secretary- General, who reports to the General Assembly. According to its mandate, OIOS’s purpose is “to assist the Secretary-General in fulfilling his internal oversight responsibilities in respect of the resources and staff of the Organisation,” and OIOS’s chief executive, the Under-Secretary- General for Internal Oversight Services, reports directly to the General Assembly. The Secretary-General has therefore stated that OIOS is mandated to provide oversight only of activities that fall under the Secretary-General’s authority. These include activities of the Secretariat in New York, Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna; the UN’s five regional commissions; peacekeeping missions and humanitarian operations; funds and programs administered separately under the authority of the Secretary-General (including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Environment Program, the United Nations Human Settlements Program, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights); and other entities that have requested OIOS services such as the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In addition to the OIOS mandate, the Financial Regulations and Rules of the United Nations designate OIOS as the financial management internal auditor for the UN. OIOS is composed of the Office of the Under-Secretary-General, an Executive Office, and three divisions, namely, Internal Audit, Investigations, and Inspection and Evaluation. Figure 1 provides the number and location of staff for each of these divisions as of September 2011. Appendix II provides additional information on OIOS’s locations and staffing. The Internal Audit Division provides assurance and advice designed to improve and add value to the UN’s operations. Internal audits bring a systematic approach to evaluating and improving the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes. The Inspection and Evaluation Division assists UN intergovernmental bodies and program managers in assessing the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of UN Secretariat programs. The division’s role is twofold: to help assure that these programs follow their mandates and to foster institutional learning and improvement through reflection by program officials and UN member states on performance and results. The majority of OIOS funding comes from two budgets approved by the General Assembly: one for normal, recurrent activities such as the core functions of the Secretariat (regular budget), and the other for peacekeeping activities (peacekeeping account). Both the regular and peacekeeping budgets are financed largely through assessed contributions from member states. A small portion of the peacekeeping account, the peacekeeping support account, provides funds for OIOS to conduct audits, investigations, inspections, and evaluations of peacekeeping activities. In addition to funding from the regular budget and peacekeeping account, OIOS receives funds from “extrabudgetary” sources. These are voluntary contributions from member states that pay for the activities of UN funds, programs, and other entities. The United States contributes a fixed percentage to the regular budget, which was 25 percent prior to 2000 and 22 percent thereafter, and which funds the UN Secretariat and its various activities and functions, including OIOS (shown in figs. 2 and 3, respectively). For example, the United States contributed about $1.2 billion to the UN Secretariat regular budget in the current biennium (2010-2011). The United States also contributes annually to peacekeeping operations and to extrabudgetary items. For example, in 2010, the United States contributed about $2.6 billion to peacekeeping operations (about 27.3 percent of the total peacekeeping budget) and about $4.4 billion to other UN activities, including those funded through extrabudgetary sources. As shown in figure 4, OIOS funding from all three sources—regular budget, peacekeeping, and extrabudgetary—has generally increased over time. The peacekeeping portion has been the fastest growing component over the last 10 years due to the rapid rise in peacekeeping activities around the world, while the regular and extrabudgetary portions have grown more slowly. OIOS’s total appropriations for the 2010-2011 biennium were over $100 million, approximately five times what they were when OIOS was established in 1994. OIOS’s authorized staffing levels have also increased, due in part to the expansion of UN peacekeeping activities (see fig. 11 in app. II). We have previously reported that OIOS has had difficulty filling its authorized staff positions. The UN General Assembly strengthened internal oversight of the Secretariat and peacekeeping missions by creating the IAAC, which is responsible for advising the General Assembly on the scope, results, and effectiveness of audit and other oversight functions, especially OIOS. The IAAC is also responsible for advising the General Assembly on measures to ensure management’s compliance with audit and other oversight recommendations, as well as with various risk management, internal control, operational, and accounting and disclosure issues. The committee examines OIOS’s work plans, taking into account the work plans of other UN oversight bodies, reviews OIOS’s proposed budget, and makes recommendations to the General Assembly through the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. (See app. III for a timeline showing the preparation, approval, and execution of OIOS’s regular budget and the IAAC’s role in that process.) The committee also advises the General Assembly on the quality and overall effectiveness of risk management procedures, on deficiencies in the internal control framework of the UN, and on steps to increase and facilitate cooperation among UN oversight bodies. The General Assembly in 2007 appointed three members to serve a 3- year term and two members to serve a 4-year term on the IAAC, all beginning on January 1, 2008; the committee, which generally meets four times a year, held its first session in February 2008. It has issued 11 reports, including one on vacant positions at OIOS. The IAAC held its 15th session in July 2011, during which it discussed with the Under- Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services a wide range of issues, including funding arrangements, risk assessments conducted, value provided by OIOS, and performance audits. In addition, the committee covered standard agenda items with OIOS, such as relationships with management, high risks identified by OIOS, coordination with various oversight bodies, implementation of oversight recommendations, and OIOS staff vacancies. The committee is scheduled to hold its next meeting in December 2011. The U.S. Mission to the UN strongly supported the establishment of the IAAC and has also supported other initiatives to improve transparency and accountability in the UN system. For example, it has endorsed a new UN effort to consolidate the management of all financial, human, and physical resources, including for peacekeeping and field missions, under one integrated information management system. The UN General Assembly is addressing some previously identified impediments to OIOS’s ability to provide independent oversight, but certain UN funding arrangements and oversight relationships continue to limit the independence and authority of OIOS. In January 2003, the General Assembly reaffirmed the prerogatives of separately administered funds and programs to decide their own oversight mechanisms and their relationship with OIOS. The UN Secretariat’s Office of Legal Affairs stated that this action clarified the role OIOS plays in the internal oversight of separately administered funds and programs, with these entities deciding their own oversight mechanisms and their relationship with OIOS. An independent review of UN oversight commissioned by the Secretary- General noted, however, that the arrangements used to fund OIOS’s audits of those separately administered entities that choose to utilize its audit services do not meet Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) standards for independence. OIOS also reported that it is not able to issue consolidated audit reports for joint UN activities that included entities over which OIOS does not have oversight authority, even when directed to do so by the General Assembly. The General Assembly has addressed OIOS’s oversight authority several times since the creation of the office (see app. IV), and the new Under- Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services requested a legal opinion from the UN Secretariat’s Office of Legal Affairs regarding OIOS’s oversight responsibility for funds and programs. OIOS’s founding mandate states that OIOS’s purpose is to assist the Secretary-General in fulfilling his internal oversight responsibilities with respect to the resources and staff of the organization. The Secretary-General has stated that the resources and staff of the organization include separately administered organs. The General Assembly also stated that OIOS has the authority to initiate, carry out, and report on any action that it considers necessary to fulfill its responsibilities with regard to monitoring, internal audit, inspection and evaluation, and investigations. In January 2003, the General Assembly adopted a resolution that reaffirmed the prerogatives of separately administered funds and programs to decide their own oversight mechanisms and their relationship with OIOS.