Financial Management in the United Nations System

There is a need for improvement in the financial management of the United Nations (U.N.) system, and the Department of State should improve its management over United States participation in international organizations. The U.N. system should be restructured to make it more capable of dealing with problems of international economic cooperation and development; a committee is now working on major problem areas. Problems in the Department of State that have contributed to the inadequacy of the management of U.S. involvement in the U.N. system include: (1) constant rotation of U.S. staff; (2) inadequate definition of U.S. objectives in individual U.N. organizations; and (3) limited U.S. review and evaluation of U.N. budgets and programs. Steps should be taken to improve auditing, evaluating, and reporting techniques.