2009 Annual Statistical Report on United Nations Procurement

About the report
Background
The first annual statistical report on procurement by UN agencies in respect of operational activities, prepared by the
Inter-Agency Procurement Services Office (IAPSO) of the United Nations Development Programme, was submitted to the
39th session of the General Assembly (Doc. A/39/417) in 1984. By resolution 39/220 the General Assembly established the
need for recurrent reporting of such information on operational activities and encouraged organizations of the UN system to
co-operate in this important exercise. Since 2008 the report has been compiled by UNOPS.
Methodology
<strong>Statistical</strong> data on procurement of goods and services and the personnel components for operational activities are requested
from UN organizations. To facilitate collection and compilation of the large amount of data, UNOPS provides pro forma tables
available from the UNGM website, together with instructions for completing the reporting requirements.
The <strong>2009</strong> report compiles information supplied by 36 UN organizations in total (of which 33 provided procurement data and
only nine personnel data). UNOPS relies entirely on the co-operation of the reporting entities. In general, response rates were
satisfactory and data quality has improved with the use of better reporting tools. Three UN entities did not provide data for
<strong>2009</strong>.
Data are reported on goods, based on country of supply and on services, depending on the location of contractor’s head office.
Procurement orders and contracts for services are reported by contract amount and rather than expenditures incurred. Most UN
agencies are unable to report data based on country of origin of goods, or on actual expenditures, at the present time.
16 | <strong>2009</strong> <strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Statistical</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on United Nations Procurement