At its fifty-ninth session, the General Assembly emphasized the importance of establishing real, effective and efficient mechanisms for responsibility and accountability; expressed regret that despite previous information provided by the Secretary-General on the establishment of accountability mechanisms, including the accountability panel, such mechanisms were not in place, thereby affecting the efficient and effective functioning of the Organization; concurred with the view in the annual report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services that a high-level follow-up mechanism under the authority of the Secretary-General should be established in the Organization; requested the Secretary-General to submit annually to the Assembly a report addressing the measures implemented with the aim of strengthening accountability in the Secretariat and the results achieved; also requested the Secretary-General to establish the aforementioned follow-up mechanism as soon as possible and to report to the Assembly on the results achieved; and further requested him to report to the Assembly at its sixtieth session, taking into account the views of external oversight bodies, on how to guarantee the full operational independence of the Office of Internal Oversight Services within the context of resolution 48/218 B (resolution 59/272).
At its resumed fifty-ninth session, in April 2005, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to establish an administrative mechanism for the mandatory reporting by programme managers of allegations of misconduct to the Office of Internal Oversight Services and to report on the establishment of such a mechanism to the Assembly at the resumed part of its sixtieth session; also requested the Secretary-General to ensure that the introduction of a mandatory reporting mechanism would not adversely affect the right of an individual staff member to report cases of allegations of misconduct directly to the Office of Internal Oversight Services; further requested the Secretary-General to ensure that where poor management practice was a contributory factor in cases of misconduct, appropriate managerial action was taken by the Office of Human Resources Management; and requested the Secretary-General to ensure that when conclusions of the Office of Internal Oversight Services were disputed by a programme manager, appropriate action would be taken to resolve the dispute and that information thereon would be included in the annual report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (resolution 59/287).
During the main part of the sixtieth session, the General Assembly decided to defer the above matters to the first part of the resumed session (decision 60/551)
By resolution 59/287, the General Assembly decided to request the Secretary-General to establish an administrative mechanism for the mandatory reporting by programme managers of allegations of misconduct to the Office of Internal Oversight Servces and to report on the establishment of such a mechanism to the General Assembly at the resumed part of its sixtieth session. |
