Mauricio Wanderley, Director of External Control at the Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) on the UN Board of Auditors, and Tiago Dutra, Deputy Director of External Audits in the Office of the Assistant Secretary-General for Internal Oversight of International Organizations, met with Abubacarr Tambadou, Registrar of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT). This meeting, held on October 29 in New York, was part of a series of dialogues initiated with United Nations (UN) agencies currently audited by the TCU.

Mauricio Wanderley emphasized TCU’s experience in auditing institutions with jurisdictional functions, noting that the TCU itself shares similar characteristics. One of the challenges discussed was the intersection between administrative and budgetary matters with jurisdictional operations. The IRMCT has one of the lowest rates of implementing recommendations from the UN Board of Auditors; therefore, a proposal was made to Registrar Tambadou to establish a dialogue channel to enhance the impact of recommendations and support the Mechanism’s improvements. 

Abubacarr Tambadou highlighted that one of the Mechanism’s primary challenges is securing funding for its mandate in a context where downsizing is expected. He also expressed a commitment to implementing pending recommendations and ensuring full access to information and data necessary for conducting audits.

The IRMCT is an institution overseen by the UN Security Council, established to assume certain functions of the former Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, which were responsible for prosecuting crimes against humanity. Its duties include tracking fugitives from Rwanda, ensuring sentence enforcement, managing related archives, and protecting victims and witnesses.  

Also attending the meeting were the former Director of External Control of the UN Board of Auditors representing Chile, Valentina Monasterio, and the IRMCT’s Director of Administration, David Falces. The audit team is currently conducting fieldwork at the Mechanism’s facility in The Hague (Netherlands) and will later proceed to Arusha (Tanzania). Key audit issues relate to the Mechanism’s financial status and the impact of the institution’s downsizing on its strategic and operational planning. GB