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China remains committed to UN auditing work, says top auditor

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-10 12:55

China has made constructive contribution to the work of the UN Board of Auditors since it became a board member for the first time last July, the country's top auditor has told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

Liu Jiayi, auditor-general of China's National Audit Office, also pledged firm commitment to the UN auditing work in the future.

In the Tuesday night interview, Liu said that as a member of the international community, China has made great efforts to honor its obligations to participate in the international affairs in various fields and to share its auditing experience with the rest of the world.

"At the same time, China can also benefit from working with other countries to improve its auditing efficiency," said Liu, who is in New York for an annual regular meeting of the Board scheduled for Thursday and Friday at the UN Headquarters in New York.

Liu became one of the three members of the Board on July 16, 2008 with a six-year term focusing on the auditing of nine UN organizations including UN peacekeeping operations, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations University.

The other two members of the Board are Philippe Seguin, first president of the Court of Accounts of France, and Terence Nombembe, South Africa's auditor-general.

"The three members of the Board are working to fulfill responsibilities to help the world address the financial crisis," Liu said.

"We are also working to make the UN's budget more standardized, open, and transparent," he said.

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The top Chinese auditor said he hopes to improve "openness, transparency, accountability and efficiency" of the UN through auditing, a concept that he and his colleagues are committed to back in China.

"The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, and the other Board members all agreed with me on the idea," Liu said.

China conducted the auditing work on UN peacekeeping headquarters and logistic bases as well as 10 UN missions from July 2008 to February 2009.

Later, it submitted the first audit report, which disclosed a series of problems and put forward proposals such as efforts to improve the efficiency in and the management of the fund- consumption in the UN peacekeeping operations.

The report was approved and appreciated by the UN, and most of the suggestions China made in the report were accepted, Liu said.

He said the other two Board members also introduced many good ideas to the UN auditing work, from which Chinese auditors could learn a lot.

China will remain committed to the future UN auditing work while continuously improving the quality of its own auditing, Liu said.

The UN General Assembly established the Board of Auditors in 1947 to audit the accounts of the UN organization and its funds and programs and to report its findings and recommendations to the Assembly through the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions.

The Board of Auditors is completely independent and is solely responsible for the conduct of the audit. The Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions may, however, request the Board to perform certain specific examinations and issue separate reports on the results.