Swedish auditor nominated to lead UN internal watchdog office

A senior Swedish inspector and the current Auditor-General of Kosovo was nominated today to head the United Nations internal watchdog office, whose previous chief was cited by an independent committee probing alleged misconduct and mismanagement in the UN Oil-for-Food Programme for Iraq.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed Inga-Britt Ahlenius for approval by the General Assembly as Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services with a five-year non-renewable term.

She would head the Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) and replace Dileep Nair of Singapore, whose term expired today. Last month Mr. Nair was issued a charge letter based on an adverse finding against him in the report of the Volcker panel, which faulted him for paying a special assistant with funds from the Oil-for-Food programme although the person performed virtually no work related to the now defunct multibillion-dollar operation.

The UN also initiated a separate third-party review of allegations made against Mr. Nair by the UN Staff Council in New York to determine whether a full external investigation was warranted.

Before her tenure in Kosovo, Mrs. Ahlenius was Auditor-General of Sweden, named to that post on 1 October 1993. Prior to that appointment, she worked from 1987-1993 for the Ministry of Finance as head of the budget department.

Mrs. Ahlenius was also a member of the Committee of Independent Experts that was called for by the European Parliament with a mandate to examine the way in which the Commission detects and deals with fraud, mismanagement and nepotism. Their report led to the resignation of the Commission.

Meanwhile, Mr. Annan also announced the appointment of Warren Sach as UN Assistant Secretary-General and Controller, taking over for Jean-Pierre Halbwachs.

Mr. Sach had been serving since May 1997 as Director of Programme Planning and Budget, and was Deputy Director prior to that. He previously was Chief of the Salaries and Allowance Division of the International Civil Service Commission for seven years.

His UN career began in Kenya, where served with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) before moving on to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).