COA's Heidi Mendoza appointed head of UN's internal oversight office

Published October 6, 2015 9:46am

(Updated 10:08 a.m.) United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday announced that he is appointing Commission on Audit (COA) acting chief Heidi Mendoza as head of UN's internal oversight office.

The UN said in a statement that Ban informed the General Assembly of his intention to appoint Mendoza as the new Under-Secretary-General for the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) for a five-year non-renewable term.

The UN said that the appointment of Mendoza came after consultations with head of the Regional Groups.

She will replace Canadian Carman L. Lapointe.

Mendoza was named acting COA chief last February, replacing Grace Pulido-Tan.

Mendoza was known for exposing the corruption in the military, particularly those allegedly involving former military comptroller Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia.

Prior to working with COA, Mendoza had also worked with the Asian Development Bank and was also a member of the board of advisers of the Ateneo de Manila University School of Government.

Currently, she is also the external auditor for the Food and Agriculture Organization, World Health Organization and International Labor Organization.

The OIOS is the internal oversight body of the United Nations.

The OIOS said it was established "to assist the Secretary-General in fulfilling his oversight responsibilities in respect of the resources and staff of the Organization through internal audit, monitoring, inspection, evaluation and investigation services."

The OIOS said its main functions are to:

conduct comprehensive internal audits;
monitor and evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the implementation of programmes and mandates;
conduct inspections of programmes and organizational units;
investigates reports of mismanagement and misconduct;
monitors the implementation of recommendations emanating from audits, evaluations, inspections and investigations.

—ALG, GMA News

Tags: unitednations, heidimendoza