Under the cost sharing arrangements, it is estimated that approximately one half of external audit costs are expended on the audit of administrative operations and one half on investment operations.

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.

The additional resources required for the execution of the comprehensive management audit of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations are presented below

The Chairman of the Audit Operations Committee of the Board of Auditors introduced the report of the Board (A 60 5 (Vol. V)).

(b) Audit of construction engineering projects in peacekeeping operations and a review of the engineering section of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, planned to be carried out by a consultant for a total of 15,000.

(j) Report on the audit of the policies and procedures for recruiting staff for the Department of Peacekeeping Operations,See A 57 224.

The Director of External Audit of the Philippines and Chairman of the Audit Operations Committee of the Board of Auditors, Mr. Sabiniano Cabatuan, introduced the reports of the Board of Auditors (A 60 5 Add.5 and A 60 113).

The Office proposes to include those audits in the comprehensive management audit and to utilize the foreseen resources in the support account budget towards the resource requirements for the comprehensive management audit of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

(a) Audit of the supply chain management in peacekeeping operations, originally planned to be carried out by a corporate contractor for a total of 50,000.

The audit budget for 2005, including the cost of the resident auditor for the Sudan and Burundi operations, amounts to some US 2.8 million.

UNHCR properly requires its implementing partners to supply audit certificates delivered by external auditing firms on their local operations funded by it.

The Committee was further informed that an audit of the Institute's operations, including programme management, financial management, use of consultants and follow up actions on previous audit recommendations, had been conducted by the Board of Auditors during the period from 29 August to 9 September 2005 and the findings of that audit had not yet been received.

The plan includes periodic audit reviews of country operations, which are carried out depending on the size and nature of the operation and the potential risks involved.

The following is a preliminary list of topics and areas that will be audited and reviewed as part of the comprehensive management audit of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations

IAMB received, on 21 May 2005, the audit reports by KPMG covering the audit of Iraq's oil export sales and Development Fund for Iraq operations for the period stating with the dissolution of the Coalition Provisional Authority on 29 June 2004 and ending on 31 December 2004.

Scope of audit

With regard to internal audit coverage, it would like to know whether OIOS had hired individuals with the skills needed to examine the highly complex operations of the Fund.

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

Two individual consultants will be employed for a period of approximately two months each to audit the telecommunication assets and related resources of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the field missions

Consequently, a net additional provision of 235,000 would be required for the 2005 06 support account budget, under consultancy, for the execution of the comprehensive management audit of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

Continuing oversight through audits. The audit function will continue to assess and analyze the effectiveness and adequacy of programme and operations management practices, governance processes and internal controls throughout the organization.

(u) Note by the Secretary General transmitting the report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services on the audit of the policies and procedures for recruiting Department of Peacekeeping Operations staff (A 58 704)

OIOS Audit of UNHCR Procurement (Audit report 03 03) of 6 February 2003, paragraphs 25 and 26.

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

During the reporting period, the UNHCR Audit Service covered operations and activities with expenditure amounting to US 362 million, or 34 per cent of UNHCR's total expenditure of US 1,063 million in 2004.

The Office of Internal Oversight Services has reviewed its audit workplan, including a number of outputs proposed under the budget for the support account for peacekeeping operations for the period 2005 06, and has reprioritized its workplan and related resources to carry out the comprehensive management audit requested by the General Assembly.

An information security audit is an audit on the level of information security in an organization.

Audit Recommendations

Internal audit

Audit opinion

Audit process

Internal audit

Audit opinion

External audit

Internal audit

Audit costs

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.

The Panel also noted that the dates of the audit certificates provided by some claimants in relation to post liberation audited financial statements predated the auditing firm's resumption of operations after the liberation of Kuwait.

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

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

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

Global audit of field security management

Global audit of field security management

She expressed her appreciation to UNICEF staff who worked in the area of operations, saying she was very proud of the fact that in the last 10 years, UNICEF had never had a qualified audit.

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