Her delegation was therefore puzzled by the observation made by the Advisory Committee in paragraph 21 of its report, which seemed to question the need to maintain the Cell.

On the basis of that information, a request for expressions of interest had been issued for a firm to act as consultant and adviser on the financing issues.

However, the action taken focused primarily on the situation of children, and she therefore inquired how the Government intended to extend the scope of that action to include women.

She also inquired about the criteria used by the Government to select the civil society organizations with which it maintained links and asked whether those organizations had been involved in the drafting of the report.

In meetings with the Secretariat on the budgets of various peacekeeping missions, the Committee has consistently enquired as to the division of investigative responsibilities between the Office of Internal Oversight Services and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations in matters relating to sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.