Part One: Political and security questions
64 tions from other oios audits and evaluations of special political missions. Of the 15 recommendations made in the previous oios audit, six had been implemented, seven were in progress and two had been closed without implementation, as they had been overtaken by the establishment of the Department of Field Support (dfs). The audit found that the revision of dpko’s mandate to reflect its responsibilities for directing the substantive operations of special political missions was nearing completion. The development of a support strategy and service-level agreement between dpa and dfs for providing administrative support to special political missions was still in progress; hence, the Organization was exposed to the risk of unclear responsibilities. The development of policies and standard processes and guidelines as a tool for equipping the dpa desk officers to backstop special political missions was also still in progress, and dpa needed to develop standard operating procedures for the start-up planning for such missions to facilitate the deployment of new missions. The oios recommendations about improving the quality of the budgets of special political missions had been implemented; however, the control of dpa over the preparation of the budgets of such missions could be improved. The audit found that dpa did not have a proper performance management system to measure and monitor how effectively the regional divisions and their staff were managing special political missions, the responsibilities of regional divisions and their staff had not been clearly defined, and the development of accountability mechanisms for heads of dpa-led special political missions had not been finalized. From 1999 to 2009, the budgets of special political missions increased almost tenfold, from $47.5 million to $461.2 million—a threefold increase without the budgets for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (unama) and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (unami)—but there was no corresponding increase in the overall budget of dpa. Oios also found that the budget of dpa did not distinguish the requirements for managing special political missions from those for other Department activities. As regards large special political missions such as unami, when the Department is, exceptionally, assigned the lead role, it should propose to the General Assembly an appropriate mechanism to use mission posts at Headquarters to ensure that it had stable and adequate capacity for providing backstopping services. Dpa had made some progress in implementing the oios recommendations, the report concluded, but more needed to be done to ensure effective and efficient backstopping of special political missions.
Roster of 2009 political missions and offices On 1 January 2009, 12 UN political missions and offices were in operation: 6 in Africa, 4 in Asia and the Pacific and 2 in the Middle East. On 21 December, the Security Council welcomed the establishment of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic (binuca) on 1 January 2010 for a period of one year, to succeed the United Nations Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic (bonuca). On 26 June 2009, the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office in Guinea-Bissau (unogbis) until 31 December, and requested that the SecretaryGeneral establish a United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (uniogbis) to succeed unogbis for an initial 12-month period, beginning on 1 January 2010. Thus, 12 missions and offices were in operation at the end of the year. Also in Africa, the Council, on 16 January, welcomed the Secretary-General’s proposal [YUN 2008, p. 285] to establish within the United Nations Political Office for Somalia (unpos) a dedicated capacity that would include expertise in police and military training, planning for future disarmament, demobilization and reintegration activities and security sector reform activities, as well as rule of law and correction components. The Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (unipsil) until 30 September 2010, and the United Nations Integrated Office in Burundi (binub) until 31 December 2010. With regard to Asia and the Pacific, the Council renewed the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (unmin) to 23 January 2010, unama until 23 March 2010 and unami until 31 December 2010. In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the United Nations Command continued to implement the maintenance of the 1953 Armistice Agreement [YUN 1953, p. 136]. (For the financing of UN political and peacebuilding missions, see part five, Chapter II.) UNPOS United Nations Political Office for Somalia Established: 15 April 1995. Mandate: To monitor the situation in Somalia and keep the Security Council informed, particularly about developments affecting the humanitarian and security situations, repatriation of refugees and impacts on neighbouring countries. Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral: Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah (Mauritania). Strength: 43 international civilian staff, 15 local civilian staff.