United Nations: Progress of Procurement Reforms Page: 4 of 38
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B-281996
Results in Brief
The U.N. Board of Auditors, the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services,
and the High Level Group of Experts have pointed out numerous problems
in the operations of the U.N. Secretariat's procurement system. These
problems involved issues concerning all elements of an effective
procurement system, such as lack of competition, with over 50 percent of
contracts not competed in the past, and accountability, with confusion over
responsibility and authority leading to inconsistent application of rules.
Many of these findings refer to the period prior to 1996, but some findings
have been more recent. To correct these and other problems, the
Secretariat established a High Level Expert Group on Procurement. In
1995, the Secretariat adopted the Expert Group's recommendations as the
framework for procurement reform and since then has made considerable
progress in implementing the recommendations and taken other action to
improve its procurement system. For example, evidence developed by
U.N. audit and inspection organizations indicates that the Secretariat has
strengthened accountability by designating clear lines of authority,
improved competitive practices by increasing the percentage of contracts
that are awarded through competitive bid, and strengthened the fairness of
the process by publishing common specifications for goods procured by
the U.N. system.
While the Secretariat has made progress in reforming its procurement
system, action in several areas is incomplete, and the overall systemic
objectives sought by the High Level Expert Group have not yet been
achieved. For example, the Secretariat has not established formal
procedures to address and adjudicate vendors' grievances, including
appointment of an independent ombudsman to help ensure fairness and
openness when issues about U.N. procurement procedures are raised.
Also, while the Secretariat now competes most contracts, competition is
still not completely open because sufficient time is sometimes not given for
vendors to prepare bid proposals. Other steps recommended to help
ensure transparency and accountability, such as developing a procurement
manual for all to use, are partially completed. Also, the Expert Group's
overarching objective was to create a continuously improving procurement
system. However, achieving this objective will be difficult until the
Secretariat has developed performance measures to indicate whether it is
reaching its targets on (1) timeliness in processing requisitions, (2) on-time
delivery of goods and services, and (3) quality and cost of contract
performance.GAO/NSIAD-99-71 United Nations
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United States. General Accounting Office. United Nations: Progress of Procurement Reforms, report, April 15, 1999; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc292724/m1/4/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.