Artificial Intelligence Strengthens Oversight of the UN Pension Fund

The AuditaONU Project has concluded its audit of the accuracy of benefit calculations carried out by the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF) for 2025. The Fund provides retirement benefits to thousands of UN system staff and manages annual payments exceeding USD3.5 billion.

The audit team adopted an approach that moved beyond the traditional sampling model. Rather than reviewing only a subset of cases, auditors implemented a full-coverage methodology, independently recalculating all 11,356 new benefit records certified through October 2025. In total, the audit covered USD603.5 million, including regular, early, and deferred pensions, as well as withdrawals upon separation from service.

The main challenge was translating an extremely complex regulatory framework into executable calculation logic, said Dennys Nadson, an auditor at the Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) and one of the developers of the tool. Artificial intelligence helped organize the rules and structure the algorithm, making it possible to build a robust solution within a timeframe that would otherwise have been difficult to achieve.

This methodology enabled a systematic assessment of whether the Fund's calculations complied with its governing rules. Over the course of the audit, more than 100 regulatory provisions and scenarios affecting benefit calculations were identified, including eligibility criteria, contribution periods, average remuneration, and benefit adjustment coefficients. The independent recalculation model led to the identification of two calculation errors, which were formally recorded as audit findings.

The development of the in-house audit tool took two months and followed a structured process:

• Regulatory mapping: A detailed review of UNJSPF rules, translating eligibility criteria, contribution periods, and benefit formulas into logical parameters.

• AI-assisted modeling: Artificial intelligence was used as a strategic support tool to organize complex rules and convert them into an automated calculation model, enabling the structuring of sophisticated formulas and faster large-scale data processing.

• Technical validation: While automation accelerated the process, all analyses and conclusions were subject to rigorous technical validation by auditors.

The approach allowed TCU to independently compare recalculated amounts with those originally determined by the Fund, explained Marcelo Pacote, Director of the Data Unit at the Department for Auditing United Nations Operations and supervisor of the audit. By combining auditors technical expertise with the use of artificial intelligence, we were able to translate complex regulatory rules into calculation logic and conduct a comprehensive analysis of variables that, under traditional methods, would have required months of work.

Through this pioneering initiative, the TCU not only contributes to safeguarding the Fund's financial integrity but also sets a new benchmark for international audit practices. The strategic use of artificial intelligence has the potential to strengthen confidence in the UNJSPF's payment system, ensuring that beneficiaries rights are fully protected.

The audit was supervised by Marcelo Pacote (SecexONU) and led by Wesley Vaz, head of the Department of Government Audit for Federal Governance, Innovation and Digital Transformation. The team also included Dennys Nadson Yuzuki Batista and Marcus Vinícius Borela de Castro, both from SecexONU, and Raony Luna Ribeiro Ferreira Lima, from the Audit Department for IT at SecexEstado.