The Regional Service Centre Entebbe (RSCE) has significantly contributed to achieving the Under-Secretary General’s (USG) Compact goals for 2019 through its Compliance Unit by achieving 72% implementation rate of the audit recommendations from Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).

The USG’s Compact goal for the implementation of current year outstanding OIOS recommendations is set at 70%. RSCE surpassed all expectations by successfully ensuring the implementation of 18 out of 25 outstanding recommendations which were due in 2019.

At the United Nations, auditing is a very critical function and provides an important means of evaluating the effectiveness of the organization’s internal controls. Maintaining an effective system of internal controls is one step forward towards realizing organization's strategic objectives. It is perhaps important to point out that both internal (OIOS) and external auditors (the United Nations Board of Auditors - BOA) contribute to the United Nation’s audit system in different but equally important ways.

According to Mr. Djomo, the Chief RSCE, “Auditors are valuable partners for the organization since they bring in valuable and independent assurance of the management controls in place. It is for this very reason that audit compliance has been one of the fore-most issues of concern and priority.”

At the RSCE, the Audit Response, Compliance and Risk Management Unit (Compliance Unit), is the focal point for all matters relating to the oversight bodies, wherein it is responsible for facilitating the work of oversight bodies by coordinating with the relevant stakeholders within the RSCE to ensure that any audit recommendations are fully addressed and implemented. RSCE’s performance in audit response is tracked against the USG’s Compact goals.

The above significant milestone was only realized through teamwork, proactiveness in engaging respective Pillar/Service Line Managers, process owners and the resident auditors. To this end, the Unit’s Chief, Ms. Metougue stated the following, “The appropriate and timely implementation of audit recommendations agreed by management is an important part of realizing the full benefit of an audit. Our partners (the managers and auditors) have been unrelenting in taking actions and providing useful input towards the implementation of the many open recommendations.”

Of the overall 29 initial outstanding recommendation in 2019, only 7 are still under implementation. For the year 2020, the RSCE has already successfully championed the implementation of 50% of the recommendations due in September 2020.

The RSCE is also preparing for the annual BOA’s field visit in the coming months and has already proactively started engaging with the various stakeholders to guide the implementation of outstanding BOA recommendations. It is the Center’s goal and commitment to ensure the timely and full implementation of all outstanding audit recommendations. To achieve the above goal and commitment, the RSCE recognizes that it will need to foster an effective and healthy interaction between the RSCE Management and the Auditors.