In October 2025 the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU), the UN’s independent external oversight body, published a report titled “Review of Donor-Led Assessments of United Nations System Organizations and Other Oversight-related Requests from Donors in the Context of Funding Agreements and the United Nations Single Audit Principle.” This report provided a comprehensive examination of how external, donor-initiated oversight activities are affecting the functioning and efficacy of the UN system.
The report contains several formal and informal recommendations. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Inspector General (OIG), operating as a distinct and independent law enforcement agency separate from USAID, agrees with many of the report’s concerns about UN operations; we differ, however, on key elements, including:
1. Donor-led investigations of UN-related misconduct. The JIU report characterizes the increase in donor-led requests and investigations into UN activities as contrary to the UN’s autonomy and independence. We believe such member state-driven investigations are fully consistent with preserving the UN’s autonomy and are vital to strengthening transparency and reinforcing responsible member state oversight over their voluntary contributions to UN agencies.
2. Independence of UN internal oversight bodies. The independence, and thus capacity to conduct meaningful oversight, of UN internal oversight bodies is constrained by the way they are funded and to whom they report.
3. Scope and application of UN single audit principle. It is critical that the single audit principle not be used as a shield against donor audit requests tied to specific grants. There are opportunities to work with the UN on developing procedures for other internal audit-type information requests that balance UN capacity with member state need for timely and accurate information tied to the latter’s contributions.
4. Scope and application of privileges and immunities. The UN has repeatedly declined to cooperate with USAID OIG information requests because doing so would affect the UN agency’s “privileges and immunities,” actively hindering our ability to conduct investigations into credible allegations of misconduct. We continue to believe that the UN’s assertion of privileges and immunities is often premature and utilized as a broad shield to avoid sharing pertinent information at the early stages of our investigations.