Report on the Activities of the Office of Internal Oversight Services

A/RES/80/237No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda items 134Review of the efficiency of the administrative and financial functioning of the United Nations and 145Report on the activities of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, published in 2025.

What other versions does this mandate have?

12 versions · 2013–2025

2025A/RES/80/237Report on the activities of the Office of Internal Oversight ServicesLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/247Report on the activities of the Office of Internal Oversight ServicesCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/77/259Report on the activities of the Office of Internal Oversight ServicesCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/241Report on the activities of the Office of Internal Oversight ServicesCompare with previous version
2021A/RES/75/247Report on the activities of the Office of Internal Oversight ServicesCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 topics

Auditing Internal Investigations Internal Oversight Programme Evaluation

What does this mandate say?

26 operative paragraphs

I.Activities of the Office of Internal Oversight Services

Reaffirms its primary role in the consideration of and action taken on reports submitted to it;

Also reaffirms its oversight role and the role of the Fifth Committee in administrative and budgetary matters;

Further reaffirms the independence and the separate and distinct roles of the internal and external oversight mechanisms;

Recognizes the important roles and operational independence of the oversight bodies, including the Office of Internal Oversight Services of the Secretariat, in contributing to improvements in the effectiveness, transparency and accountability of the Organization;

Recalls that the Office of Internal Oversight Services of the Secretariat shall exercise operational independence relating to the performance of its internal oversight functions, under the authority of the Secretary-General, in accordance with the relevant resolutions;

Reaffirms that the purpose of the Office is to assist the Secretary-General in fulfilling his internal oversight responsibilities in respect of the resources and staff of the Organization, with due regard to all mandates of the Office, which are equally relevant;

Also reaffirms the operational independence of the Office, stresses that its independence and objectivity are vital in ensuring that its internal oversight functions are carried out in a credible, factual and unbiased manner, and further reaffirms the authority of the Office to initiate, carry out and report on any action to fulfil its responsibilities within its mandate and with due regard to all relevant rules, policies and other procedures of the United Nations;

Further reaffirms that the Office, with respect to its inspection and evaluation functions, shall evaluate the efficiency and the effectiveness of the implementation of the programmes and the legislative mandates of the Organization, in accordance with resolutions of the General Assembly;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the annual reports of the Office continue to include a brief description of any impairment of its independence;

Encourages United Nations internal and external oversight bodies to further enhance the level of cooperation with one another, such as through joint work-planning sessions, without prejudice to the independence of each;

Welcomes continued coordination between the Office of Internal Oversight Services, the Board of Auditors and the Joint Inspection Unit, and notes that the distinct mandates and reporting lines of each oversight body shall not impede the distinct authority of each other;

Takes note of the report of the Office on its activities for the period from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that all relevant resolutions pertaining to the work of the Office are brought to the attention of the relevant managers;

Also requests the Secretary-General to ensure that all relevant resolutions, including those of a cross-cutting nature, are brought to the attention of relevant managers and that the Office also takes those resolutions into account in the conduct of its activities;

Stresses that the work of the Office shall continue to remain within its oversight mandate and shall complement, but not substitute, managerial responsibilities over human resources, ethics, workplace conduct or staff engagement policies;

Emphasizes the importance of the timely completion of the capping review of the Office, encourages the Office to continue drawing on lessons learned from both the capping review and external quality assessments of its individual functions, and looks forward to feedback on the Office’s engagement in any future evaluations to promote the transparency and accountability of the Office;

Notes the actions of the Office in addressing fraud and presumptive fraud, and urges the Office to further enhance investigations, reporting and follow-up so as to ensure accountability and transparency;

Also notes the efforts of the Office and its work with the Business Transformation and Accountability Division to enhance the use of evaluation in order to drive improvements in programme performance and mandate delivery and, if applicable, share good practices for achieving organizational results across the United Nations;

Further notes that there are accepted recommendations that are beyond their targeted date for implementation, also notes that administrative bureaucracy should not slow progress in this regard, and encourages the Office to continue to make recommendations more actionable and to work with the Organization, where appropriate, to ensure the long-term effectiveness and unselective and full implementation of the accepted recommendations;

Notes the increase in the Office’s investigative case load, further notes the importance of the prioritization of cases that may lead to disciplinary action or financial recovery that pose institutional and reputational risk to the Organization, and requests the Office to include, within existing resources, a rubric regarding the prioritization of investigations in the context of its next report;

Recalls paragraphs 1 (c) and 2 of its resolution 59/272 and paragraph 4 of its resolution 54/244, and reaffirms that the Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services may make available to a requesting Member State original versions of the reports of the Office of Internal Oversight Services not submitted to the General Assembly and with consideration for the existing provisions related to confidentiality and due process, where appropriate;

Welcomes the continued efforts of the Office to implement multilingualism;

II.Activities of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee

Recalling its resolutions 61/275 of 29 June 2007, 64/263, section II of its resolution 65/250, section II of its resolution 66/236, section II of its resolution 67/258, section II of its resolution 68/21, section II of its resolution 69/252, section II of its resolution 70/111, section II of its resolution 71/7, section II of its resolution 72/18, section II of its resolution 73/275, section II of its resolution 74/256, section II of its resolution 75/247, section II of its resolution 76/241 and section II of its resolution 77/259, its resolution 77/278 of 18 April 2023 and section II of its resolution 78/247,

Having considered the report of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee on its activities for the period from 1 August 2024 to 31 July 2025,

Notes with appreciation the work of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee;

Reaffirms the terms of reference of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee, as set out in the annex to its resolution 61/275, and the mandate of the Committee, as contained in its resolutions 60/248 of 23 December 2005 and 77/278, notes the distinct mandates of the Ethics Office, the Office of Internal Oversight Services and the Independent Audit Advisory Committee, and invites the entities to continue to avoid duplication and overlap in the implementation of their mandates;

Recalls paragraphs 63 and 68 of the report of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to ensure that enterprise risk management and internal control frameworks remain tools under Secretariat authority and do not duplicate or substitute the oversight functions of the Office of Internal Oversight Services or the Committee;

Requests the Independent Audit Advisory Committee to enhance its future reports by identifying systemic issues and to consider including proposed timelines and benchmarks for the implementation of its recommendations.

69th (resumed) plenary meeting

30 December 2025