 | Personnel/staffing situation |
| 
| Top |
| 
| Fellowships |
|
| Audit |
Audit
UNU/IIST was audited by the UN Board of Auditors during 18 February to
1 March 2002. The audit covered the review of programme management
activities, particularly research and development programmes;
financial reporting; and administrative services such as budgetary
controls, procurement, and administrative structure. Their report, in
the form of a "Management Letter", was received on 13 August.
The recommendations of the auditors were that UNU/IIST:
- Enhance the monitoring system to provide quantifiable measures
on the extent that the research outputs had been accepted and
utilized by the international community, particularly the
developing countries;
- Provide in the fellowship agreement a feedback requirement from
the Fellows, including, inter alia, a time frame for
submission of such feedback, for purposes of monitoring the success
of its research and fellowship programmes; and consider providing in
the agreement a definition of responsibility of Fellows related to,
inter alia, the custody, use and disposition of research
outputs beyond the fellowship period;
- Ensure that purchase order is completed prior to being issued to
supplier and, whenever possible, the supplier be made to acknowledge
receipt of the document, as otherwise the purchase order date has to
be interpreted as the date of issue to the supplier in accordance
with Section 13.001 of the United Nations Procurement Manual;
- Implement the provision of the United Nations Procurement
Manual, particularly section 10.002 on competitive offers, and in
instances where the regulation allows request and acceptance of
quotations by telephone, properly document the process and file
signed "notes to the file";
- Consider enhancing the Financial, Budgetary, and Personnel
management System (FBPMS) to facilitate monitoring the validity of
unliquidated obligations and unrecovered travel advances;
- Store the back-up tapes in a safe and restricted area outside
the Finance Section, periodically test the back-up procedures, and
regularly verify the usability of back-up tapes;
- Segregate incompatible duties to ensure proper checks and
balances in the processing of transactions; and in the meantime,
that the present staffing does not allow the recommended
segregation, exercise adequate supervision and monitoring of the
work of staff and conduct detailed periodic reviews of financial
reports.
Items 3 and 4 have been acted on, and items 6 and 7 are being acted
on. Item 5 is the subject of a request to UNU HQ for improvement to the
FBPMS system. We propose to implement item 2 by 2003. We are
considering ways to implement 1, but it is difficult to see how these
could be quantified, particularly in terms of developing countries.
| Audit |
| Personnel/staffing situation |
| |
| Top |
| |
| Fellowships |
|