Mr. Chairman,

1. I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China on agenda item 130: Review of the efficiency of the administrative and financial functioning of the United Nations, on accountability.

2. The Group would first like to thank the Under-Secretary-General for Management, Ms Angela Kane, for introducing the Secretary-General's report, A/64/640 entitled "Towards an accountability system in the United Nations Secretariat", the Chairman of the ACABQ, Ms Susan McLurg, for introducing the Advisory Committee's report, A/64/683, and the Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, Ms Inga-Britt Ahlenius, for introducing the OIOS report A/64/587 on the "Review of the practice of the Secretariat regarding the sharing of information contained in reports of consultants on management-related issues".

Mr. Chairman,

3. The Group of 77 and China would like to underline its firm belief in the need to strengthen accountability here at the United Nations. This is an issue that affects all Member States as the manner in which this organisation is run ultimately reflects and impacts on all of us.

4. In this connection, we would like to express our continued concern over the late issuance of the Secretary-General's report, leading to Member States only receiving the ACABQ's report barely two days before the introduction of this item. This is hardly ideal and is surprising given that the Secretary-General was well aware of when this item would be taken up.

5. The Group of 77 and China has considered the Secretary-General's report, which was expected, inter alia, to respond to the requests of the General Assembly, as reflected in its resolution A/RES/63/276, and to present a comprehensive accountability system in the United Nations Secretariat. However, the report falls short of expectations, given that it did not respond to the specific issues spelled out in the above mentioned resolution, nor present an adequate comprehensive accountability system for the United Nations.

6. The Group of 77 and China has concerns and comments towards different aspects of the report, including the way in which the report was prepared, the perspective of the Secretariat towards the definition of accountability, as well as other issues considered and proposals presented in the report.

7 For instance, the report does not make room for the fundamental and basic linkage between the guiding role of the intergovernmental bodies and their relevant resolutions and decisions, and the commitment of the Organization and the staff to deliver on those mandates. Instead the report makes that commitment dependant only on availability of resources. That is more obvious in the case of Section K of the report, where much of the blame for the failures of the Oil-for-Food scandal was assigned to the lack of resources for audits and oversight reviews, but the more fundamental issue of personal responsibility of staff members in the United Nations was completely ignored.

Mr. Chairman,

8. The above notwithstanding, the Group of 77 and China remains strongly committed to seeing the implementation of a comprehensive accountability system in the United Nations, and will engage actively in the informal consultations that will follow. We will present our views, with the aim of reaching a comprehensive accountability system in the Secretariat of the United Nations.

        Thank you.