Interview of the Month with FAO Inspector General: Mika Tapio

Thank you for granting us this interview. You are the Inspector General of FAO. What does this role entail?  

In 1950 FAO created an internal audit unit, which eventually became the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in the late 1990s.  Today, the work of OIG is mandated by the OIG Charter, approved by the Finance Committee in 2020. According to the Charter, the mission of OIG is to provide oversight of FAO's programmes and operations. This includes two distinct oversight functions: 

• Internal audit, which helps the Organization ensure its risk management and internal control processes are sound and that way support the achievement of its goals and, 
• Investigations, i.e., fact-finding inquiries into allegations of misconduct, which help the Organization ensure its working environment is just and honest. 

In addition to the above, the OIG Charter also mandates the Office to provide advisory and related client-service activities. 

OIG is part of the third line in the so-called Three Lines Model. This is a principles-based model to help clarify risk management and control roles and responsibilities across the Organization. The three lines are as follows: 

1. First Line (Managers/Budget Holders): 
   • use the corporate processes to deliver FAO outputs; 
   • manage transactional and micro-level risks; and 
   • implement internal controls. 
2. Second Line (Business Process Owners): 
   • develop corporate policies and processes and related training;  
   • develop and apply tools to monitor policies and processes;   
   • collect “intelligence” on macro level performance and risks; and 
   • provide risk management support.
3. Third Line (OIG, Office of Evaluation, External Auditor): 
   • Provide independent oversight, assurance and accountability information

The Inspector General is the head of OIG and oversees the work of the audit and investigation units. He/she is appointed for a non-renewable term of 7 years which is one way of safeguarding the objectivity and operational independence of this function. The Inspector General reports to the Director-General and also takes advice from the FAO Oversight Advisory Committee (OAC) in discharging his/her duties and responsibilities. 


The Director-General has from day one given special attention to ensuring ethical practices, respect and transparency in all aspects of FAO’s work, in order to ensure an Organization that is free of harassment and misconduct. How is your Office contributing to this? 

It is indeed true that the Director-General has been actively advocating a healthy and transparent work culture that encourages participation in upholding the values of the Organization. The Director-General has also been very supportive of OIG’s work.  

Apart from investigations into harassment, sexual misconduct, fraud and other types of wrongdoing, my Office has been providing transparent information about the number of incoming complaints and cases under investigation as well as trends in types of cases investigated. This has been done through briefings to FAO management, OIG quarterly newsletters, OIG activity reports, etc. The OIG Annual Report, submitted to the Finance Committee, includes a summary of the findings of individual cases investigated and the disciplinary or administrative action taken by the Organization following those investigations. All this information is part of the Organization’s commitment to transparency and serves both as a deterrent against wrongdoing and as a testimony that FAO’s investigative and disciplinary processes are working effectively and in the Organization’s best interests. 

Furthermore, OIG is a member of FAO’s Integrity Network, which also includes the Ethics Office, the Ombuds, the Human Resources Office, the Legal Office, the Staff Counsellor and the Office of Emergency and Resilience. The aim of this group is to promote ethics, integrity and protection from sexual exploitation and abuse in the Organization. This collaboration has involved organizing joint webinars and briefings, discussing the results of the FAO Employee Survey and identifying appropriate follow-up actions to the Survey, and providing collective inputs to corporate policies and guidance on integrity management and staff conduct. 

Finally, through our audit work we also contribute to improving ethical conduct and staff integrity. Our audits of decentralized offices cover, as a standard procedure, aspects of ethical awareness of FAO staff, and currently we are conducting corporate audits on ethics management and complaints reporting mechanisms. 


How is your Office working with the Ethics Office and that of the FAO Ombuds? What are the different responsibilities and complementarities of your functions?  

Let me first clarify the important differences in the mandates and objectives of these three functions: 

The Ombudsman provides a safe and confidential space in which to raise any work-related concern informally. The Ombudsman can help you find the right way to resolve disputes. These can include conflicts with a co-worker, peer, or supervisor; concerns about administrative decisions affecting your employment; and advice on available mechanisms to address harassment, sexual harassment, or other misconduct. 

The Ethics Office provides formal advice and guidance on professional ethics standards and dilemmas, such as: maintaining independence and impartiality; employment related conflicts of interest; acceptance of gifts, honours or awards; outside activities; political activities; post-employment restrictions; use of FAO resources; etc. The Ethics Office also receives and conducts initial assessments of retaliation complaints under the FAO Whistleblower Protection Policy and refers prima facie cases of retaliation to OIG for investigation. 

Furthermore OIG, as already explained above, investigates acts of misconduct by FAO personnel and sanctionable actions by third parties, such as FAO implementing partners and vendors. 

As you can see, all three offices work in the same space of trying to ensure a healthy and honest workplace, where all personnel act with integrity and respect for others. At the same time, there are important differences.  

OIG collaborates actively with both the Ombuds and the Ethics Office, and both bilaterally on individual issues and trilaterally. With the Ethics Office, there is frequent collaboration on matters related, inter alia, to whistle-blower protection and matters of conflicts of interest. Ethics Office and OIG are also joint owners of the FAO Hotline, a reporting tool hosted by an independent service provider on behalf of FAO, where anyone can report allegations of retaliation to the Ethics Office or any other types of misconduct to OIG. 

Finally, I have recently undertaken a joint mission with the Ombuds and the Senior Ethics Officer to Budapest to visit the Regional Office and the Shared Service Center there. In a few weeks we have our next joint mission to the Regional Office in Bangkok and the FAO Representation in Pakistan.  


Are there any key priorities of your Office in this year 2023 that you would like to share with our readers? 

We issued in 2021 a new four-year Strategy for OIG to set the framework for how OIG will provide its core mandated services, i.e., investigation, audit and advisory services, in an efficient and effective manner and for the maximum benefit of the Organization. The Strategy defined the key objective and sub-objectives of the Office for the period 2021-2025 and presented the foundations for their achievement. The Strategy also established four key priorities for strengthening the Office’s agility, effectiveness and impact, namely:  

1. Enhancing OIG’s communication and outreach in and across the Organisation; 
2. Promoting audit-investigation collaboration and other knowledge sharing and learning within OIG;  
3. Innovating OIG’s work methodologies and procedures through data analytics, digital tools and artificial intelligence; and 
4. Helping FAO strengthen its whole-of-organization approach to risk and control oversight and integrity management.

The last-mentioned one, which we call the Joined-up/owned-up approach to risk management, internal control and integrity management, will be our main theme from July this year for the next 12 months. This is essentially about helping the Organization successfully implement the Three Lines Model, discussed above. It involves assisting and advising FAO in clarifying the roles and responsibilities of management and internal oversight functions (including OIG), respectively, as regards risk management and internal control; building capacity in these matters; and supporting the development of relevant monitoring tools. Strengthening management accountability for implementing OIG’s audit recommendations and management awareness and skills in maintaining a healthy, respectful and open office culture free of harassment are also important aspects of these initiatives.