Madam Chair,

1. I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China on agenda item136: Financial reports & reports of the Board of Auditors;

2. The Group would like to thank Mr. Ge Sheng, Director of External Audit (China) and Chair of the Audit Operations Committee, Mr. Chandru Ramanathan, Assistant Secretary-General and Controller, and Mr. Abdallah Bachar Bong, Chair of the ACABQ, for introducing their respective reports;

3. The Group attaches great importance to the work of the Board of Auditors in discharging external oversight of the Organization, and we express our appreciation for the high quality of the Board's reports and recommendations. We also welcome the submission of the audited financial statements for 2023;

4. The Group commends that the Board of Auditors conducted a survey among 17 entities and submitted a concise summary report with a special section, which enables the General Assembly to consider the budget management across various entities in detail. We believe that efficient financial and budget management is crucial for the United Nations to effectively deliver its mandate in addressing global challenges and achieving the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development;

5. The Group of 77 and China notes that, of 17 audited entities, 12 had concluded the financial year with a surplus, and 5 had recorded a deficit, compared to 8 and 9, respectively, in 2022. We further note with concern that IRMCT had a deficit for the fifth consecutive year and reiterate that more efforts must be made to improve their financial situation;

6. The Board has assessed that, in general, the financial position of all entities remained at least sufficient at the end of 2023, and the liquidity ratios were comfortably high for most entities. But if there are no further improvements, those entities with ratios near or below 1 may face potential solvency issues in the future;

7. The Group is pleased to note that all entities under review have received unqualified audit opinions from the Board of Auditors. We call upon all these entities to address the identified weaknesses while preserving the current accomplishments;

Madam Chair,

8. The Group is concerned over a number of issues raised by the Board in its report, including loss or waste of resources, inactive funds and idle resources, low efficiency in operations, and challenges in meeting the performance targets, among others;

9. The Group notes that, by category, financial and budget management constituted 43.8 percent of the total key findings in 2023, with an increase of 7.7 percent compared to 36.1% in 2022. We emphasize that financial and budget management is of crucial importance to the operation of the United Nations and request the Secretariat to make further efforts to improve the financial and budget management;

10. The Group expresses deep concerns that significant financial losses continuously occurred in the UNOPS during the past few years. Another inappropriate financial derivative hedging transaction with unqualified instruments reported by the Board has caused a net financial loss of $15.23 million. We are looking forward to seeing accountability measures to be taken and internal control to be strengthened to avoid the recurrence of such cases;

11. The Group further expresses its concern over the imbalance of geographical representation of staff in a number of entities and in the resident coordinator system and stresses the need to intensify the efforts to achieve equitable geographical representation among staff, with a special focus on unrepresented or underrepresented Member States;

Madam Chair,

12. Turning to the status of the implementation of the recommendations of the Board, the Group notes that the overall implementation rate was 51.08 percent in 2023, which is lower than that of the year 2022. The Group stresses the need for all entities to undertake prompt actions to ensure that the accepted recommendations of the Board are implemented as a matter of priority and to hold programme managers accountable for the non-implementation. Furthermore, we reiterate our request to the secretariat to provide a full explanation for the delays in the implementation of all outstanding recommendations;

13. Finally, the Group assures you, Madam Chair, that we will constructively engage in the consultations ahead to conclude this agenda item in a successful and timely manner;

I thank you.