EU Presidency Statement - The Board of Auditors

Mr Chairman,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Central and Eastern European countries associated with the European Union, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, the other associated countries Cyprus, Malta and Turkey, as well as the EFTA country member of the EEA, Norway, align themselves with this Statement.

The European Union would like to thank Mr Carague, for presenting the note by the Secretary-General on the comments of the Board of Auditors concerning actions taken by the UNDP, the UNPF and the UNDCP to remedy the serious shortfalls found in their financial statements. Likewise, the European Union would like to thank Ambassador Mselle for his presentation of the ACABQ recommendations on this matter.

In view of these comments and recommendations, the European Union makes no objection to the approval of the financial statements of these Funds and Programmes for the financial period ended 31 December 1999.

This being said, we urge their administrations to adhere strictly to the plans they submitted to the Board of Auditors to correct the situation. The European Union fully endorse the comments of the ACABQ in its report A/55/487 on the seriousness of a qualified audit opinion issued by the Board of Auditors and on the important effect that this opinion can have on the operations and future financing of the organisations concerned.

The European Union trusts that the UNDP, the UNPF and the UNDCP will take all the necessary steps to prevent such shortfalls from occurring again, starting with their financial statements for the financial period 2000-2001

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union would like to thank USG Connor, for presenting the report of the Secretary-General on the review of the question of the term of office of the Board of Auditors.

The European Union considers this report as a helpful basis for discussions on this matter, which requires additional clarification on several points before a decision can be taken. We believe that an informal session on this item would be useful.

I thank you.

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