United Nations

More Can Be Done To Strengthen the U.N. Joint Inspection Unit Gao ID: NSIAD-86-141 June 17, 1986

GAO reviewed the effectiveness of the United Nations (UN) Joint Inspection Unit's (JIU) role as an independent evaluation unit, focusing on: (1) whether it functions as intended and fulfills the evaluation role Congress expected; (2) assessing the Department of State's actions to monitor JIU activities and improve JIU effectiveness; and (3) identifying ways to enhance JIU effectiveness in evaluating UN programs.

GAO found that: (1) 76 percent of JIU-issued reports failed to meet State's quality assurance standards; (2) JIU needs to develop written standards to improve report quality; (3) JIU inspectors lack the necessary qualifications and experience to ensure quality performance; (4) many JIU recommendations were not implemented because they were inadequate or vague; (5) some sound JIU recommendations were set aside without substantive action; (6) JIU should develop a multi-year work program to identify high-priority issues and ensure systematic coverage of UN system activities; (7) JIU failed to develop an evaluation plan to determine activities' relevance, effectiveness, and impact; (8) JIU should develop a systematic procedure for following up on the status of report recommendations; and (9) although State has supported JIU, it has not proposed measures to establish a multi-year work program, develop comprehensive standards, or establish a recommendation follow-up system.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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