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Statement by Mr. Hiroshi Onuma
First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations

 

On agenda item 131: Review of efficiency: Accountability

First-Resumed Part of the Sixty-Ninth Session
United Nations General Assembly
6 March 2015

 

Thank you Mr. Chairman,

 

            At the outset, my delegation would like to thank Mr. Yukio Takasu, Under-Secretary-General for Management and Mr. Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), for introducing their respective reports on this agenda item. In the following statement, I wish to share my delegation’s views on these reports.

 

Mr. Chairman,

 

            My delegation attaches great importance to strengthening accountability in the United Nations Secretariat. Japan deems that the key to ensuring accountability is a sincere effort on the part of the Secretariat to achieve results by administering itself appropriately under the existing framework provided by the UN Charter, the resolutions of this and other legislative bodies of the Organization, and the relevant rules and regulations. In this sense, it is important for the Organization to continue to effectively embed a ‘culture of accountability’  within the working habits of the Secretariat, wherein staff understand that they are held accountable for the quality and timely delivery of their work, and managers understand that they are held accountable for effectively managing their staff towards that end. 

 

Mr. Chairman,

 

            Regarding the concrete measures taken and planned by the Secretary-General to strengthen accountability in response to General Assembly Resolution 68/264, I would like to make some brief comments on some of key points in this statement.

 

            First, with regard to enterprise risk management, Japan welcomes the progress made by the Secretary-General with respect to conducting a risk assessment exercise, establishing a risk register and identifying the twenty-three risks, as well as the designation of a corporate risk owner for each of six critical risks identified. On this point, we expect that these risks will be managed adequately by implementing their respective mitigation strategies. Japan encourages the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to implement and embed enterprise risk management throughout the United Nations in order to address new challenges as they arise.

 

            Second, with regard to results-based management, Japan recognizes the updates on actions taken by the Secretary-General in the areas of training courses, self-evaluation activities, joint assessment of institutional performance and assessments of the performance of individual senior managers. In this sense, Japan expects that all necessary actions are to be taken with a view to implementing results-based management within the timeframe of the next two consecutive biennia, 2014-2015 and 2016-2017.

 

           Third, Japan supports the Secretary-General’s continuous efforts to strengthen the senior managers’ compacts in order to ensure that they are a meaningful and powerful instrument of accountability. In this regard, Japan is pleased to see that an indicator related to completing end-of-cycle performance appraisal was included in the senior managers’ compact in 2014. Japan further requests the Secretary-General to include a new standard managerial indicator related to the timely issuance of official documentation in the senior manager's compacts pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 69/250. This is one of several important measures needed to ameliorate the problem of the late issuance of documents which we have long been experiencing, especially during the Main Part of the Sixty-Ninth Session, and have not yet resolved.

 

            Finally, with regard to strengthening accountability among the field missions, Japan is interested to know in more detail the Secretariat’s new policy on accountability for conduct and discipline among field missions. 

 

Mr. Chairman,

 

            My delegation supports the general views of the report of the ACABQ, and wishes to deepen the points of discussion which were raised by that report during the informal consultations on this agenda item.

 

            Japan is ready to engage constructively in discussions on all aspects of this agenda item during the informal consultations with a view toward achieving further feasible and practical improvements in accountability at the United Nations, and I hope we will reach a positive conclusion by consensus.

 

I thank you, Mr. Chairman.