A/RES/59/288 their procurement practices, inter alia, by participating in the United Nations Global Marketplace with a view to creating one common United Nations global procurement web site; Notes the activities of the Inter-Agency Procurement Working Group 6. of the Common Services Procurement Working Group on enhancing transparency and increasing the harmonization of procurement practices, requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with the executive heads of United Nations funds and programmes, to continue work in this regard; and the and the Requests the Secretary-General to continue to simplify and streamline the 7. vendor registration process and to share responsibilities among the various United Nations organizations; Notes the efforts made by the Secretary-General to increase procurement 8. opportunities for developing countries and countries with economies in transition, and requests the Secretary-General: (a) To continue to simplify the vendor registration process, taking into account access to the Internet; (b) To take further steps to sensitize the business community to procurement opportunities within the United Nations system, inter alia: (i) The holding of additional business seminars; (ii) Inviting the Inter-Agency Procurement Working Group to hold more meetings in developing countries; (iii) Including the issue of “Diversity of sources of procurement” as an agenda item at the annual meetings of the Inter-Agency Procurement Working Group; 9. Notes also the recent introduction of the principle of best value for money in relation to procurement, and requests the Secretary-General, when applying this principle, to continue safeguarding the financial interests of the Organization, consider best practices and ensure that adequate records are kept; 10. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly an overview and general analysis of the functioning of the principle of best value for money, within the framework of his regular reporting on procurement reform; 11. Also requests the Secretary-General to implement measures to reduce the time line associated with invoice payment; 12. Further requests the Secretary-General to issue ethical guidelines without delay for those involved in the procurement process, requests that those guidelines be shared with Member States through the procurement web site, and reiterates its request to the Secretary-General for the early adoption of a code of conduct for vendors and a declaration of ethical responsibilities for all staff involved in the procurement process; 13. Encourages the Inter-Agency Procurement Working Group to continue its efforts to produce comprehensive and generally applicable statistics encompassing the procurement activities of all United Nations entities; 14. Welcomes the training programmes for United Nations procurement staff that the Procurement Service has initiated, including in the field, and requests the SecretaryGeneral to support these programmes and to evaluate and monitor their impact; 15. Notes the promotion by the Procurement Service of the voluntary principles of the corporate social responsibility initiative, the Global Compact, 2

Select target paragraph3