The UNHCR Audit Service, in close cooperation with the UNHCR Audit Coordinator in the Controller's Office, vigorously follows up on outstanding audit recommendations.

While possible, the Panel considered that close scrutiny of the audit working papers and procedures was warranted.

The UNHCR Audit Service works in close cooperation with UNHCR's Inspector General's Office and liaises with the United Nations Board of Auditors to ensure coordination between external and internal audit.

UNHCR's internal audit plan is developed in close consultation with management, the Oversight Committee, the Inspector General's Office and the United Nations Board of Auditors.

The Audit Services Branch will update the checklist for the 2005 audit exercise.

We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for the audit opinion.

Audit the Fed?

At the present time, audit assignments are shared among the audit staff provided from the audit services of the members of the Board on an equal basis.

The call for the 2004 audit of nationally executed projects emphasized the requirements for the audit.

The working group fully supported the resources requested for external audit ( 479,900) and internal audit ( 1,240,700).

The regularity audit will be taken forward through a pre final audit in the last quarter of 2005 and a final audit after the closure of the financial period.

Audit opinion

Audit process

Audit opinion

External audit

Internal audit

Audit costs

Audit Division

The audits of Treasury and the relevant specialist areas have been included in the 2005 audit plan of the Internal Audit Section of the Office of Audit and Performance Reviews.

Internal audit is conducted by a dedicated UNHCR Audit Service, which forms part of Internal Audit Division II that is headquartered at Geneva.

The Office of Audit and Performance Review has incorporated procedures in its country office audit guide to ensure that audit clauses are included in all project agreements.

One D 1 post would be redeployed from Internal Audit in New York to Internal Audit in Geneva to strengthen audit operations handled from the Geneva office.

These include the implementation of a web based audit recommendation tracking dashboard (http audit dashboard.undp.org) to manage corporate audit issues, and the establishment of a quality assurance function within the Bureau of Management (BOM) to analyze systemic issues arising from audit observations.

(d) Enhancement of the external audit functions of the Fund and expansion of the Fund's internal audit coverage

To ensure an effective internal audit mechanism, the Coordination Council has adopted a Charter for Internal Audit.

Internal audit ratings

So we audit.

Internal audit function

Scope of audit

OIOS Audit Service

UNHCR Audit Service

At the operational level, the Office of Audit and Performance Review has already started adopting a preliminary risk based audit planning methodology with the purpose of improving the country office audit coverage (para.

In 2005, the UNFPA Audit Services Branch carried out an audit of the data transfer from IMIS to Atlas.

UNICEF is reviewing alternative audit options with the objective of allocating audit resources to strategically important business units.

(b) Notes the Principles for best audit arrangements for international institutions' established by the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions

A financial audit conducted by the European Commission sponsored audit firm Ernst Young in September October 2004 revealed the following

During the reporting period, the UNHCR Audit Service issued a total of 31 final Audit Reports (listed in Annex 1).

Urges UNOPS to remain committed to its audit response and achieve a clean audit for the biennium 2004 2005

423) and plan and implement the audit of headquarters offices (para. 429), including audit coverage of the Treasury Division (para. In addition, the Office of Audit and Performance Review will leverage the newly implemented software AutoAudit and the use of a revised template of audit reports to closely monitor the timely issuance of audit reports within the standard time frame of three months (para.

Another speaker queried whether the endorsement of audit guidelines by division directors compromised the independence of the audit process and investigations.

This evaluation will also prepare the UNHCR Audit Service for the external audit envisaged by the United Nations Board of Auditors.

Annual report and audit

Audit recommendation tracking dashboard

Independent Audit Advisory Committee

(c) Audit and Inspection