Mr. Chairman,

         I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China on agenda item 132, entitled Joint Inspection Unit.

2. The Group would like to express its appreciation to the Chairperson of the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU), Mrs. Deborah Wynnes, for her introduction of the Report of the Unit contained in document A/62/34.

3. The Group of 77 and China highly values the work of the Joint Inspection Unit, as the sole independent, external oversight body of the United Nations system.  Over the years the Unit has presented valuable reports on UN agencies and the systemic issues that are relevant to the entire UN system.

4. We are pleased to note the Unit's commitment to bring about necessary internal reforms  in response to the relevant General Assembly resolutions. The Group of 77 and China in particular appreciates the improvements in its working methods, tools and procedures such as harmonized report format that would make them more reader friendly and their presentation in line with the General Assembly guidelines.

5. The Annual Report for 2006 refers to the Unit's reports on many critical areas. We are confident that the concerned entities would find these reports very useful.  The Group of 77 and China would stress full implementation of the recommendations by  concerned agencies and entities.  

6. The Group of 77 and China appreciates the action taken by the Unit to strengthen its follow up system to its recommendations, by monitoring the status of their acceptance and implementation and identification of action required by the participating organizations. The matrix system developed by the Unit would hopefully improve the implementation of the recommendation.  

7. The acceptance of 72% of the JIU recommendations by nine agencies, an implementation rate of 30% of the Unit's recommendation by single agencies in 2006 and 59% of the earlier recommendations indicate the usefulness and relevance of Unit's work. The implementation rate of 22% of the Unit's system wide or multi agencies recommendation is also very encouraging. We would urge all participating organizations to provide the information on the status of the implementation of the recommendations as requested by the  JIU.  

8. The management assessment of the participating organizations by the Unit would be a useful  internal tool for the respective organizations in the preparation of their annual programme of work. The table on the impact of the recommendations as given in paragraph 43 of the report is a useful indicator of the actual impact of the Unit's work in 8 different areas. The implementation of the Unit's recommendations on the internal justice system; results based management; and the management of the UN lassez passé are concrete examples of their quality.  We hope that the data on impact of the JIU recommendation would be improved further to help drawing meaningful conclusions.   

9. The Group of 77 and China is happy to note the efficiency gains and expected savings likely to be accrued as a result of the Unit's recommendation on strengthening of collaboration between the UN Office for Project Services procurement service and Inter Agency Procurement Services Office to the amount of $ 1.6 million per biennium.   We hope that the savings from the travel expenditure of the goodwill Ambassadors as recommended by the Unit would also be implemented by the Secretary-General in due course.

10. The Group is pleased to note the ongoing cooperation and coordination between, the JIU, OIOS and the Board of Auditors.    We would like to stress further strengthening of this cooperation.  This is essential to avoid overlap and duplication as well as effective and efficient use of  resources of the Organization.  The idea of a dialogue between all oversight bodies in the UN system is useful.   

11. The Group notes with appreciation the availability of the Unit documents in six languages on its websites.  We look forward to the establishment of electronic documentation and information centre by the JIU that would significantly facilitate information gathering.   

 12. The Group of 77 and China notes with concern that none of the Research Assistants are directly assigned to the Inspectors which seriously constrain their output.    We take note of the new organizational structure introduced in 2006.  The Unit's request for increasing its professional research capacity is well placed.  The Unit's request for upgrading 2 general service posts to research officer posts deserves our favourable consideration in the budget negotiations.   

Mr. Chairman,

13. The Group of 77 and China wishes to reaffirm its support for the Joint Inspection Unit and its mandate and urges a continuous improvement of its working methods and programme of work. .

I thank you, Mr. Chairman.