26 Compendium: High Level Review of United Nations Sanctions At one level, the perception that committees have abdicated their responsibility for monitoring compliance to expert groups is unfair, at least in light of current practice. As previously described, committees routinely hold informal consultations with the focus State of expert reports, or engage relevant States in correspondence at the recommendation of expert groups, as well as take action on other recommendations related to implementation and compliance. But it is fair to say that committees tend to be reactive in their approach, for example to expert group reports that were commissioned by the Security Council in the resolution establishing the expert group’s mandate. They rarely direct expert groups to produce specific reports; and more rarely still do they engage the focus State at the beginning of the reporting cycle on the committee’s expectations for implementation. A possible model for a more proactive approach by committees is suggested by the occasional practice of the Council to task either the Secretariat or the relevant expert group to conduct an assessment of the capacity needs of the focus State and its immediate neighbours. In resolution 2142 (2014), the Council asked the Secretary-General to provide options and recommendations on technical assistance to the Federal Government of Somalia in complying with its reporting requirements under the sanctions resolution as well as to improve its capacities in the safe and transparent management of arms. More recently, the President of the Council, at the request of the Chair of the Council’s Liberia sanctions committee, similarly asked the Secretary-General to conduct an assessment mission on Liberia’s progress towards meeting the conditions set out in resolution 1521 (2003) for the termination of sanctions, and to provide recommendations on assistance to the Government of Liberia to improve its capacities to undertake the proper management of arms and ammunition and facilitate the effective monitoring and management of the border regions between Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire (see Security Council document S/2014/504 of 17 July 2014). 16. To bring the respective roles of committees and expert groups into a more effective alignment, sanctions committees should take a more proactive approach to managing relationships with the focus and key stakeholder States. This could include formalising the committee’s expectations in terms of cooperation, information-sharing and implementation requirements. On the basis of this “action plan,” the committee’s role as the forum to discuss implementation and compliance would be clear, and the expert group’s mandate to investigate better understood. The committee could coordinate with the focus State on the question of exemptions to the sanctions measures and on appropriate technical assistance.