Internal Oversight Office

The Internal Oversight Office (IOO) has been established in line with Financial Regulation 13.7-13.10, which requires that the Secretary General establish an office to provide for an independent verification of financial, administrative and operational activities of WMO, including programme evaluation, monitoring mechanisms and consulting services.

IOO is also responsible for investigating all allegations or presumptions of fraud, waste, mismanagement or misconduct and for conducting inspections of services and organizational units.

The mission of IOO is – To deliver an independent assessment of financial, regulatory, and operational risks and control effectiveness to the organization’s management and the governance. IOO provides control expertise to minimize risks, improve process quality, and enhance operational effectiveness in furtherance of WMO business goals. The Internal Oversight Office is governed by the Charter of the Internal Oversight Office.

The Annual Report of the Internal Oversight Office is presented to the Executive Council in line with the WMO Financial Regulations.

Oversight reports of the Internal Oversight Office are disclosed in accordance with the Policy for Disclosure of Oversight Reports approved by the Executive Council.

Internal auditing’s mission is to provide an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization's operations. It helps WMO accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes.

Internal Audits are performed in accordance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing and the Code of Ethics of the Institute of Internal Auditors. This includes periodic quality assessments as well as ongoing quality assurance and improvement initiatives.

Internal Oversight Office has the mandate to investigate all reports of alleged wrongdoing involving WMO staff members and allegations of fraud and corruption against WMO whether committed by WMO staff members or other persons, parties or entities. Internal Oversight Office is the sole office mandated to conduct such investigations at WMO.

Investigation work is undertaken in accordance with Uniform Guidelines for Investigations of the Conference of International Investigators, the relevant WMO rules and regulations, the Principles and Guidelines for Investigations adopted by the Conference of International Investigators, and the professional standards of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE).

Internal Oversight Office is responsible for independent evaluation function in WMO.  Evaluation is an assessment, as systematic and impartial as possible, of an activity, project, programme, strategy, policy, topic, theme, sector, operational area, institutional performance, etc. It focuses on expected and achieved accomplishments, examining the results chain, processes, contextual factors and causality in order to understand achievements or the lack thereof.

Evaluations in WMO aim at determining the relevance, impact, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the interventions and contributions of the WMO programmes and activities. An evaluation should provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable and useful, enabling the timely incorporation of findings, recommendations and lessons into the decision-making processes of WMO. The evaluations are conducted according to the WMO Evaluation Policy which are in conformance with UNEG norms and UNEG standards.

The Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) is the only independent external oversight body of the United Nations system mandated to conduct evaluations, inspections and investigations system-wide.

Internal Oversight Office provides support to the Joint Inspection Unit as its WMO focal point.

All the reports and notes of Joint Inspection Unit are available on their public website: www.unjiu.org.

Follow-up reports on the implementation of the JIU recommendations:

As part of the WMO commitment to the highest standards of ethics, integrity, accountability and transparency and as a further contribution to the United Nations System reform process, WMO has established an ethics function to ensure that all staff members observe and perform their functions consistently with the highest standards of integrity as required by the WMO Code of Ethics and to foster a culture of ethics.

The function is responsible for:

• Providing guidance to the management of WMO to ensure that the Organization's rules, policies, procedures and practices reinforce and promote the standards of integrity called for under the WMO Code of Ethics and the Standards of Conduct for the International Civil Service;
• Providing confidential advice and guidance to staff of WMO on ethical issues;
• Serving as a focal point for raising staff awareness within WMO on ethical standards and expected behaviour, as well as human resources development policies in close cooperation with the Human Resources Division and the Resource Management Department;
• Undertaking responsibility for the protection of staff of WMO against retaliation;
• Contributing to the development of standards, training and education material on ethics issues, in coordination with relevant units in WMO, in order to ensure that there is a uniform and consistent approach to ethics related issues.