A/RES/55/258 6. Reaffirms that the Secretary-General may consider external candidates for posts at the P-4 level, with due regard to geographical distribution, while giving fullest regard in filling those posts to candidates with the requisite qualifications and experience already in the service of the United Nations; 7. Requests the Secretary-General to have the Office of Human Resources Management maintain and supervise the recruitment process to ensure that the principle of equitable geographical distribution and the goal of gender balance are respected, in accordance with General Assembly resolutions 42/220 A of 21 December 1987, 51/226 and 53/221, including through the appropriate screening of candidates from such a viewpoint; 8. Emphasizes the need to increase the number of staff recruited from unrepresented and under-represented Member States, requests the Secretary-General to make further efforts to reduce the level of under-representation of Member States and the number of unrepresented Member States, and also requests the Secretary-General to develop a programme and set specific targets as soon as possible for achieving equitable geographical representation for all unrepresented and under-represented Member States, bearing in mind the need to increase the number of staff recruited from Member States below the mid-point of their desirable ranges and to report to the General Assembly thereon at its fifty-seventh session; 9. Requests the Secretary-General, while filling vacant posts in the language services of the Secretariat, to ensure the highest performance of translation and interpretation in all six official languages; 10. Reaffirms that the national competitive examination programme is a useful tool for selecting the best-qualified candidates from inadequately represented Member States, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to hold the examinations for posts subject to geographical distribution at the P-2 and, if necessary, P-3 levels; 11. Requests the Secretary-General to continue to offer probationary appointments to all staff members who have passed a competitive recruitment examination and to consider such staff members for conversion to permanent appointment after successful completion of the probationary service; 12. Regrets that despite section V, paragraph 19, of its resolution 53/221 and according to paragraph 52 of the report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services of the Secretariat on the follow-up audit of the recruitment process in the Office of Human Resources Management,5 some programme managers are still reluctant to recruit candidates selected through national competitive examinations, leaving many P-2 posts vacant, and requests the Secretary-General to take concrete measures to fill those posts expeditiously from the existing roster of successful candidates; 13. Urges the Secretary-General to strictly comply with the principle that appointment to P-2 posts and to posts requiring special language competence for conference services be made exclusively through competitive examinations, and requests, in this context, that he include in his future reports the information justifying noncompliance with that principle; 14. Reaffirms the policy that appointments at the P-3 level shall normally be made through competitive examinations; 15. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that candidates selected through national competitive examinations are placed in a timely fashion and that special efforts 5 See A/55/397. 3