Audit costs

(iii) Audit costs

(a) Audit costs

Total audit costs

The total audit costs for the biennium 1998 1999 amounted to 924,300, of which 527,100 was for internal audits and 397,200 for external audits.

External audit costs.

The reduction in the estimated costs of external audit reflects a reduced provision by the Board of Auditors ( 27,000).

Total administrative, investment and audit costs

(c) Audit costs, which cover both internal and external audit costs in both the administrative and investment areas.

Audit services (total costs)

Provision is made for the estimated cost of external audit for the budgeted period.

Under the cost sharing arrangements, it is estimated that approximately one half of external audit costs are expended on the audit of administrative operations and one half on investment operations.

The provision under audit costs reflected a reduction in the costs of both external and internal audit, reflecting the resource levels recommended by the Board of Auditors and the Office of Internal Oversight Services.

Based on the biannual estimated cost for external audit.

(iii) Internal audit travel, 16,000 (two auditors for 21 days each at 8,000 each)

Audit of travel claims

The audit work is then divided among the three members of the Board and, at the end of each year, the auditors submit a summary of their fees.

Provision of 69,700 is made to cover the cost of external audit

In order to determine the breakdown of the audit costs, based on the experience with external audits, it had been determined that 50 per cent of the audit work related to the investment area. Therefore, 50 per cent of the full cost of investment audits would be borne by the Fund, and one third of the remaining 50 per cent of audit costs would be borne by the United Nations.

Table I.1 Total cost of external audits (United States dollars)

The United States delegation wondered whether the lower estimated cost of external audits by the Board of Auditors reflected reduced audit coverage or better audit efficiency.

Provision is made for two audits during the period.

Provision is made for the cost of external audit services ( 94,700).

The estimate covers the cost of external audit for the Force ( 53,400).

Higher requirements for external audit services.

Provision is made for the cost of external audit services.

The provision under this heading covers one audit.

Provision is made for the cost of external audit services.

(g) An increase of 149,800 for audit costs, owing to the proposed changes in the UN UNJSPF cost sharing arrangements, comprising 141,000 under external audit and 8,800 under internal audit (see paras. 161 and 166, table).

utilization of a third courtroom

In the first quarter of 2006, member States are expected to volunteer to be audited and it is anticipated that there could be 20 to 30 audits during the 2006 2007 biennium.

Administrative audit costs chargeable to the United Nations regular budget are estimated at 102,400 those relating to the administrative audit of the Fund are budgeted at 204,800 and those to cover the audit of investment operations are also estimated at 204,800 and budgeted under the investment costs of the Fund.

Provision is made in the amount of 58,000 for external audit services.

However, should there be a special audit undertaken by only one Board member, the Board may decide to allocate those fees to that member.

The additional resources under this heading are attributable to increased requirements for freight forwarding, customs clearance services and the higher cost of inland transportation, as well as the increased cost of the external audit of UNFICYP, as estimated by the Board of Auditors.

A key issue remains the fact that OIOS has had to rely on its auditee for the funding of the audit.

An amount of 24,100 is also included for external audit under line item 10 (a) audit services.

This estimate covers the cost of external audit services.

Without independent funding, OIOS had to rely on the auditee, the Commission itself, to provide its audit resources.

This estimate covers the cost of external audit service for the Force.

An amount of 66,700 is also included for external audit under line item 10 (a), audit services.

The amount of 1,657,900 covers the estimated requirements for external audit ( 462,400) as requested by the Board of Auditors, and for internal audit ( 1,195,500) as requested by the Office of Internal Oversight Services.

The Office proposes to include those audits in the comprehensive management audit and to utilize the foreseen resources in the support account budget towards the resource requirements for the comprehensive management audit of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

For 2004 the cost of audit services was approximately US 2.1 million.

Travel to Base by internal auditors