At its fifty-fourth session, in 1999, under the item entitled "Programme planning", the General Assembly endorsed the recommendation of the Committee for Programme and Coordination that a progress report on the review of the efficiency of the administrative and financial functioning of the United Nations be submitted biennially to the Assembly through the appropriate intergovernmental bodies (resolution 54/236).

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).

Also at its fifty-ninth session, in April 2005, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to encourage all the organizations of the United Nations system, consistent with their respective mandates, to further improve their procurement practices, inter alia, by participating in the United Nations Global Marketplace with a view to creating one common United Nations global procurement website; requested the Secretary-General to continue to simplify and streamline the vendor registration process and to share responsibilities among the various United Nations organizations; requested the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly an overview and general analysis of the functioning of the principle of best value for money, within the framework of his regular reporting on procurement reform; requested the Secretary-General, as recommended in the report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (A/59/347), to fully document the reasons for not following up on the recovery of liquidated damages for contracts and to apply consistent methods to the collection of liquidated damages from vendors; and requested the Secretary-General to review without delay options to better safeguard the independence of the Headquarters Committee on Contracts, including the option identified in recommendation 1 of the report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (resolution 59/288).

At the same resumed fifty-ninth session, in April 2005, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to continue to consider outsourcing actively in accordance with the guidance and goals mentioned in paragraphs 1 to 3 of resolution 55/232 and to ensure that programme managers satisfied all of the criteria as set out in resolution 59/289 in their assessment of whether or not an activity of the Organization could be fully, or even partially, outsourced (resolution 59/289).

(a) Reports of the Secretary-General:

For the fifty-ninth session (agenda items 107 and 119)