[28/July/2010]

New York, July 28 (Saba) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday welcomed the General Assembly's approval of Carman Lapointe-Young of Canada as the new head of the United Nations internal watchdog office, according to Qatar News Agency (QNA).

Ms. Lapointe has served since February 2009 as the director of the Office of Audit and Oversight at the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Prior to that, she was the Auditor General of the World Bank Group, and has held a number of oversight positions in the private sector in Canada.

She possesses "the breadth and depth of experience and expertise required for this demanding position," Ban s spokesperson, Martin Nesirky, told reporters at UN Headquarters.

Ms. Lapointe succeeds Inga-Britt Ahlenius of Sweden as Under-Secretary-General for the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), which was set up in 1994 as an operationally independent office that reports to the Secretary-General and the Assembly on protecting the Organization s assets, and conducts audits of UN operations worldwide.

Saba