ACABQ Topics - Ethics
| Symbol | Topic | Year |
| A/60/387 | 24.The Committee notes that the Board has made a specific recommendation to the Economic Commission for Africa with respect to the need to implement a code of ethics and the signing of “declarations of independence” of all staff members involved in procurement . In this respect, the Committee points out that this matter has been of great system-wide concern for a number of years. The Committee has requested during a number of meetings with the Procurement Division, the Office of Legal Affairs and the Office of Human Resources Management, all of whom collaborate regarding the creation of such a document, that a code of ethics be prepared without delay. The Committee notes that, despite a promise to promulgate such a document by the end of the third quarter 2005, it still has not been finalized by the Administration. The Committee remains concerned with the absence of a formal code of ethics and looks forward to the Board of Auditor’s follow-up report in this respect. | 2005 |
| A/60/7/Add.13 | 19.The Advisory Committee points out that the activity being provided for is not new; indeed, it should have been an integral part of the administrative structure of the Secretariat since its inception. The leadership and direction provided by the Secretary-General and the responsibilities he has under the Charter for the administration of the staff, as well as the obligations of staff assumed when they take their oaths of office, make adherence to strict ethical conduct obligatory. | 2005 |
| A/60/7/Add.13 | 21.In paragraph 12 of his report (A/60/537), the Secretary-General proposes the creation of a post at the Assistant Secretary-General level for the head of the office. The Committee is not convinced that the strengthening of ethical conduct in the culture of the United Nations Secretariat would necessarily be enhanced by the creation of another Assistant Secretary-General post, especially since it is the Secretary-General who must personally provide leadership and guidance in this area and must be seen as doing so. Should further assistance be required in the development of a code of ethics, its dissemination and enforcement, those responsibilities could be carried out by an official at the D-2 level. | 2005 |
| A/60/7/Add.13 | 22.The Advisory Committee points out that it is not possible at this juncture to predict the workload of the ethics office. The Committee was informed that the major work of the financial disclosure programme would be outsourced to ensure an independent review, leaving the administration of the programme to the ethics office itself. This approach is analogous to that adopted by other international institutions, including the World Bank, to ensure privacy and the independence of the review. The Committee was informed that the estimate involved start-up costs, which would decrease over time as the electronic system became fully operational and as staff became more aware of their obligations and more familiar with the filing system. Similarly, work involving standard-setting would logically be labour-intensive in the beginning and could taper off once standards were developed, supplemented or properly explained to staff and ethics training programmes had been put in place. | 2005 |
| A/60/7/Add.13 | 25.The Advisory Committee points out that that many ethics-related activities are already carried out in different parts of the Secretariat, including the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, the Office of Human Resources Management, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, the Office of Legal Affairs and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. The Secretary-General has not provided a clear picture of all the elements in the Organization that deal with ethics matters, nor is any attempt to redeploy resources apparent in the documents before the Committee. The Committee requests, therefore, that the Secretary-General describe, in his comprehensive follow-up report (see para. 11 above), the various ethics activities carried out by different organizational entities within the Secretariat, laying out a plan for coordination among them and exploring the possibility for redeployment of resources to the ethics office if needed. The Committee considers this essential to the planning of a rational structure for the ethics office. | 2005 |
| A/60/7/Add.13 | 54.The Advisory Committee recognizes the importance of effective measures to deal with fraud and corruption; however, the Committee points out that the establishment of the office is not directly called for in the Summit Outcome. Furthermore, the Committee is concerned that some of the functions of the Office may overlap with activities of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, the Office of Human Resources Management, the Secretary-General’s (internal) Oversight Committee, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the proposed ethics office. Therefore, the Committee considers it prudent to await the results of the comprehensive review of governance arrangements before establishing yet another unit to deal with such matters. Accordingly, pending the outcome of the review, the Committee recommends against approval of the seven additional staff proposed for the office, with a consequential proportionate reduction in operational requirements. | 2005 |
| A/60/7/Add.23 | 8.On the matter of standard-setting, while the Advisory Committee understands that there will be input on standards of ethical conduct from many parts of the United Nations system, which may reflect different cultural approaches, it trusts that a common standard will be developed to be applied system-wide, leading to a system-wide code of conduct for all United Nations personnel. | 2005 |