Office at the United Nations, New York

Panelists
Mrs. Inga-Britt Ahlenius, Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services
Ms. Angela Kane, Under-Secretary-General for Management
Ms. Susana Malcorra, Under-Secretary-General for Field Support
Mr. Jules Muis, former Director General of the Internal Audit Service of the European Commission and former Vice President and Controller of the World Bank
Mr. David Walker, Chairman of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee

Moderator
Dr. Jean-Marc Coicaud, Director, United Nations University Office at the UN, New York

Event Files
Watchdog or Lapdog? Event Report.doc
Watchdog or Lapdog? Event Report.pdf
Mrs. Ahlenius' Presentation.ppt

To listen to the audio recording of the event:

To download full MP3 recording Click Here

Further Information and Background Readings:

Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) website.

OIOS Organizational Chart

OIOS Information Booklet

UNU Policy Brief - Accountability and the UN System

Annual Reports:
General Assembly Resolution A/64/326 (Part I)
General Assembly Resolution A/64/326 (Part I)/Add.1

General Assembly Resolution 48/218B, OIOS' founding resolution.

General Assembly Resolution 59/272, also referred to as the transparency resolution.

Proposals for Strengthening OIOS, also called the 901.

UNU Press Publication - Envisioning Reform: Enhancing UN Accountability in the 21st Century, Edited by Sumihiro Kuyama and Michael Fowler

Mr. Ban Ki-moon is the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations. His career encompasses many years of service both in government and on the global stage, including as his country's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade; postings in New Delhi, Vienna and Washington D.C.; and responsibility for a variety of portfolios, including foreign policy, national security and policy planning.

Mr. Ban's ties with the United Nations date back to 1975, when he worked for the Foreign Ministry's United Nations division. In 2001-2002, he was Chef-de-Cabinet during the Republic of Korea's Presidency of the General Assembly. In 1999, he served as Chairman of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization.

Mr. Ban has also been actively involved in promoting peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. He holds a bachelor's degree in international relations from Seoul National University and a master's degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Mrs. Inga-Britt Ahlenius of Sweden was appointed as Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services for a five-year term starting on 15 July 2005.

Prior to joining the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), Mrs. Ahlenius was Auditor General of Kosovo from 2003 to 2005. Previously she served as the Auditor General of Sweden from 1993 to 2003. Before her appointment as Auditor General of the Swedish National Audit Office, Mrs. Ahlenius worked for the Ministry of Finance of Sweden as Head of the Budget Department from 1987 to 1993. During her tenure as Auditor General of Sweden , Mrs. Ahlenius chaired the INTOSAI Auditing Standards Committee for eight years. She was chairman of the Governing Board of the European Organization for Supreme Audit Institutions (EUROSAI) during 1993 to 1996. Mrs. Ahlenius was a member of the Committee of Independent Experts that was called for by the European Parliament with a mandate to examine the way in which the European Commission detects and deals with fraud, mismanagement and nepotism. [Their report led to the resignation of the Commission.] During Mrs. Ahlenius' career in the Ministry of Finance, she also served as head of the Ministerial Department from 1980 to 1987, responsible for issues related to education, agriculture, environment, energy, and the judiciary. Her work in the Ministry of Finance started 1975 to 1980, as Head of Section in the International Department and in the Budget Department. Mrs. Ahlenius' public employment started 1968 in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, where she was engaged in the programme of cooperation among the Nordic countries, and participated in the negotiations and preparations for Sweden 's free trade agreement with the European Economic Community (EEC).

Mrs. Ahlenius public career has been founded on experiences from the private financial sector. From 1962 to 1968, Mrs. Ahlenius worked in the economic secretariat of Sweden's largest commercial bank, Handelsbanken. During 1963 to 1964, she was granted a leave of absence to work at the Societé Tunisienne de Banque in Tunisia where she was employed in the department for medium-term credits. Mrs. Ahlenius' education includes humanities and languages, and she holds a degree in business administration from the Stockholm School of Economics.

Ms. Angela Kane of Germany assumed the position of Under-Secretary-General for Management on 1 June 2008.

Previously, Ms. Kane had been serving as Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, and as Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management.

She also held the positions of Director in the Department of Political Affairs and Director in the Department of Public Information.

Her field experience includes Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), and postings in Indonesia and Thailand.

Ms. Kane also served as Principal Officer for Political Affairs in the Office of former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, worked with the Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for the Central American Peace Process and managed the World Disarmament Campaign.

On 14 March 2008, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Susana Malcorra of Argentina as Head of the Department of Field Support at the Under-Secretary-General level.

Ms. Malcorra, who assumed her position on 4 May 2008, directs all support for United Nations peace missions worldwide. As the Head of the Department of Field Support, she is leading staff at Headquarters in support of 32 field operations currently comprising over 100,000 military, police and civilian personnel.

Ms. Malcorra took over from Jane Holl Lute, who had been leading the Department since its establishment in July 2007. Expressing great appreciation for Ms. Holl Lute's important contribution through that critical start-up period of the Department, the Secretary-General said he looked forward to her continued service.

Prior to her appointment as the Head of the Department of Field Support, Ms. Malcorra served as Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), overseeing daily emergency and humanitarian operations in more than 80 countries, with over 10,000 personnel. During her tenure at WFP she led the initial phase of the operational response to the tsunami emergency in December 2004 and managed human resources, budget, finance, information, technology, telecommunications, administration and security. Before joining WFP in 2004, she had accrued 25 years' experience in the private sector, including leadership roles at IBM and Telecom Argentina.

Ms. Malcorra was born in 1954 and graduated as Engineer in Electronics from the University of Rosario in Argentina.

Jules Muis is former Director General and Chief Internal Auditor of the European Commission (2001-2004) and Vice President and Controller of the World Bank (1995- 2000).

Prior to those engagements, Jules had a long career at Ernst & Young where he served as Executive Partner for European Operations from 1991 to 1994. In 1991 he was President of NIvRA, the Dutch Institute of Registered Accountants.

Systemic issues in the global setting have always captured his attention, and it is on these issues that he has focused his energies: controls, audit and accounting standard setting and quality control; strategic planning and risk management; institution building and good governance.

When Jules joined the World Bank in 1995, he took it upon himself to introduce COSO-predicated modern controllership to the Bank. He championed the need for the Bank to identify and address the public and private good governance issues at the base of the various Latin American and (in 1997) East Asian crises. Seeing countries implode under the collective weight of poor governance, he repeatedly made the case that accounting and auditing--in addition to sound public and corporate governance--are economic fundamentals. His advocacy awakened within the Bank a growing willingness to acknowledge these new policy areas as preconditions for sound economics. He continued to champion these principles during his tenure at the European Commission.

After leaving the Commission, Jules spent some six months touring the world to take stock of the state of financial fragility; and assess the systemic risks in financial systems. In December 2004 he shared his alarming conclusion in public forum ("Accountantsdag") in the Netherlands; concluding that a fundamental breakdown of our opaque, overstressed, disjointed and under-controlled financial system was an accident waiting to happen--for most of the same reasons we know today. In 2005 he followed up on his dire warnings with a co-authored publication "Survival Kit for Accountants and Auditors in a Turbo Derivative World", preferably to be deployed before the financial fragility shoe were to drop.

November 2009 he will finish a five-year term as Chairman of the Audit Committee of the International Baccalaureate organization (IBO). He is presently also the Chairman of the Oversight Committee of "Common Content", an European professional accounting bodies' initiative at harmonizing and upgrading the European professional qualification requirements for accountants in business and practice.

September 2009

Today, Mr. Muis continues to contribute to the systemic risks and good governance dialogue, at conferences, workshops and hearings of primarily multi-lateral organizations; and as a blogger for the Dutch Institute of Registered Accountants.

Mr. David Walker is a Certified Public Accountant. He holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from Jacksonville University, a Senior Managers in Government Certificate from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and several honorary doctorate degrees from various universities, including the American University and his alma mater.

Mr. Walker is currently the President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a position he took up in March of 2008. Before this he served for 10 years as the seventh Comptroller General of the United States and head of the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO)

He has held several key leadership positions within the domestic and international accountability community as Chairman of the United States Inter-governmental Audit Forum and Chairman of the United States Joint Financial Management Improvement Programme, and as a member of the Governing Board of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI).

Mr. Walker had over 36 years of public- and private-sector experience. He served as a partner and Global Managing Director of the Human Capital Services Practice for Arthur Andersen LLP from 1989 until 1998. During that time, he also served as a Public Trustee of the United States Social Security and Medicare programmes from 1990 to 1995.

Mr. Walker also served within government as Assistant Secretary for Labour for Pension and Employee Benefit Programmes and acting head of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. His initial professional and private-sector experience was gained with Price Waterhouse, Coopers & Lybrand and Source Services Corporation.

Mr. Walker has won many awards for his leadership, writing and speeches.

Dr. Jean-Marc Coicaud is the Director of the United Nations University (UNU) Office at the United Nations Headquarters (New York). He was Senior Academic Officer and Director of Studies at the UNU headquarters (Tokyo) from 1996 to 2003. From 1992 to 1996, he served in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General as a speechwriter for Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali. A former fellow at Harvard University (Center for International Affairs, Department of Philosophy and Harvard Law School, from 1986 to 1992), Coicaud has held appointments such as Cultural Attaché with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Legislative Aide with the European Parliament (Financial Committee). He has also been a Visiting Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure-Ulm in Paris and has taught at the New School for Social Research (New York). In addition, he has been a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (Washington, D.C.), a Global Research Fellow at New York University School of Law and a Visiting Scholar at the School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University (Beijing). Coicaud holds a Ph.D. in Political Science-Law from the Sorbonne and a Doctorat d'Etat in philosophy from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques of Paris. He also holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in literature and linguistics.

Jean-Marc Coicaud has published 14 books in the fields of comparative politics, political and legal theory, international relations and international law. They are available in English, French, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Arabic, and include the following single-authored books: L'introuvable démocratie autoritaire (L'Harmattan, 1996), Légitimité et Politique (Presses Universitaires de France, 1997), Politics and Legitimacy: A Contribution to the Study of Political Right and Political Responsibility (Cambridge University Press, 2002), Beyond the National Interest (United States Institute of Peace Press, 2007), Kokuren no Genkai/Kokuren no Mirai (Future of the UN/Limits of the UN - Fujiwara Shoten, 2007), Mai Xiang Guo Ji Fa Zhi (Towards the International Rule of Law - Sanlian Shudian, 2008). His latest book, co-edited with Hilary Charlesworth, is Fault Lines of International Legitimacy (Cambridge University Press, 2009). Jean-Marc Coicaud is now finishing two new single-authored books, Kissing War Goodbye, and Knowledge and International Institutions.

Jean-Marc Coicaud is a member of the Advisory Board of the Carnegie Council's Global Policy Innovations (New York). He also serves as an adviser for the Fondation pour l'Innovation Politique (Paris).