Agreement had been reached between MINUSTAH and UNDP Haiti on the integration of law programmes and the modalities were being worked out.

3. Status of ongoing audits requested by the General Assembly

It was the Committee s understanding that an audit of the Trust Fund would be carried out by the Board of Auditors in the normal course of the Board s overall audit of all trust funds, and that no separate audit would be undertaken for this Fund.

The current accounting system and procedures are under central review by United Nations Headquarters.

The cumulative time required for the completion of trials that are presently in progress is 837 trial days.

The present report provides a brief account of the Centre apos s ongoing and planned evaluation activities within the framework of this programme.

26. The Administration assured the Board that it is presently reviewing the accounting procedures and financial reporting of contributions in kind.

The cumulative time required for the completion of trials that are presently in progress is 1,046 trial days.

The Board will keep this matter under review in its future audits.

UNICEF is participating in the ongoing inter agency review of the medical insurance plan.

The regularity audit will be taken forward through a pre final audit in the last quarter of 2005 and a final audit after the closure of the financial period.

UNICEF is reviewing alternative audit options with the objective of allocating audit resources to strategically important business units.

The Board conducted not only financial statement audits but also operational and compliance audits.

Following a review of the requirements and the preliminary assessment of the scope of work for the execution of the comprehensive management audit of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the Office of Internal Oversight Services plans to include the audits of the supply chain management and construction engineering projects within the requested comprehensive management audit.

UNDP has already completed this process and it is underway for UNICEF.

The Board will keep this matter under review in its future audits.

64. The Board will keep this matter under review in its future audits.

A review is expected in 2005.

As indicated to the Advisory Committee by the Audit Operations Committee of the Board of Auditors, the Board intends to review this issue in the course of the next audit of peacekeeping operations.

In paragraph 79, the Board recommended that the audit report database for nationally executed expenditure be comprehensively updated and maintained so that the financial impact of the modified audit opinions can be quantified.

Recommendations considered under implementation as validated by the Board

The Office of Internal Oversight Services also plans to postpone to the fiscal period 2006 07 three field mission audits to be carried out by resident auditors, as the individuals will be actively involved in the completion of the comprehensive management audit at United Nations Headquarters.

During the Board's audit, both the Office of Internal Oversight Services and the Joint Inspection Unit were in the process of performing reviews and inspections at the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

One of these trials (Muvunyi) is in progress.

The Department of Management noted that some delays might be attributable to internal changes to the scope of work and that the capital master plan office was conducting a detailed schedule audit of the project to ascertain the validity of the contractor's various claims.

The Director explained that audit guidelines were developed in cooperation with headquarters divisions to ensure that auditors performed the correct and relevant tests based on existing procedures.

76. The Board will review the position in its future audits.

The plan applies a risk assessment formula to the entire universe of United Nations entities to be audited by OIOS, and also ensures that all parts of the Organization are normally audited on a cycle of no more than four years, with high risk operations being audited more frequently.

61. At the time of the Board s audit, UNFPA had not carried out regular space use reviews or occupancy audits.

To ensure compliance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, an internal quality assessment of the UNHCR Audit Service is being conducted in 2005.

In addition, the Internal Audit Divisions (I and II) are improving communications policies, audit and administrative procedures, human and financial resources management and training.

The Board will review the new procedures for the allocation of general resources in future audits.

There were two audits of the Mission during June 1996 and May June 1997 by a visiting audit team, in addition to the audits conducted by the resident auditor.

(c) Audits to be carried out by resident auditors in the peacekeeping missions.

Internal audit is conducted by a dedicated UNHCR Audit Service, which forms part of Internal Audit Division II that is headquartered at Geneva.

67. The Board takes note of the review in progress.

6. Emphasizes that the Board of Auditors shall be completely independent and solely responsible for the conduct of the audit

26. The Board will continue to monitor this matter in its future audits.

89. During the period under review, the Audit and Management Consulting Division began 118 audit assignments as follows

In addition to audit coverage of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) at Headquarters, audits were conducted at 17 missions in the field during the reporting period.

At the time of the present audit, it was expected to be issued at the end of 2004.

15. The Board will continue to monitor this issue in future audits.

18. The Board will continue to monitor this matter in its future audits.

Pre trial preparations in those cases are under way.

(e) Regularity and extent of audit by an independent body