MANAGEMENT GMO 8: The efficient management of human and financial resources The many new developments that were brought to UN Human Rights over the last four years affected the management of human and financial resources. These developments included the UN Secretariat-wide reform of the staff selection system, including mandatory mobility; the implementation of international public sector accounting standards (IPSAS); and the roll-out of the UN Secretariat’s new enterprise resource planning system (Umoja). Overall, the delivery of human resources management services was more centralized within the UN Secretariat, resulting in fewer recruitments under the authority of the Office. At the same time, managing the impact of the changed recruitment process required improved communication with staff and managers. Following the successful introduction of IPSAS and Umoja, the management of the Office’s financial resources was enhanced with fully justified and complete budget proposals that were submitted by established deadlines. The flexibility of Umoja also led to fewer re-deployments of funds within approved cost plans. Unspent obligations are now automatically liquidated at the yearend if their retention cannot be justified. 76 UN HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2017 In 2017, a total of 97 per cent of the outputs planned for this GMO were fully or substantially achieved. This contributed to the overall increased efficiency of UN Human Rights in managing its resources. Nonetheless, significant challenges emerged as outlined below. uu uu uu The financial reporting module of Umoja is not yet fully operational. As a consequence, the extraction of financial records to produce the numerous donor financial reports demanded of the Office has been extremely labour intensive. In addition, the tendency of the donor community to earmark funds with separate financial reporting requirements has nearly doubled the volume of reports that UN Human Rights has had to prepare in recent years. Regarding recruitment processes, the introduction of Umoja generated a number of new processes which required adjustments to the workflows for the selection and onboarding of recruited staff. The Office’s proprietary system for financial management in the field (MAYA system) has been rolled-out to the Honduras country office. Until Umoja is fully implemented in the field, the MAYA system will be maintained to ensure that field offices have an effective tool to manage their financial implementation.