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Probe: U.N. unable to run large program
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-08 20:21
An exhaustive investigation of the Iraq oil-for-food
program has made clear that the United Nations simply isn't capable of taking on
massive tasks like the $64 billion operation and will never be unless it adopts
a host of reforms, the probe's chief said.
Chairman of the Independent Inquiry Committee
Paul Volcker discusses the results of the committee's investigation into
the United Nation's oil-for-food program Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2005 in New
York. In a devastating assessment of the U.N. oil-for-food program in
Iraq, investigators strongly criticized Secretary-General Kofi Annan, his
deputy and the Security Council for allowing Saddam Hussein to bilk $10.2
billion from the giant humanitarian operation and oil smuggling
operations. [AP] |
The Independent Inquiry Committee's comprehensive report, released Wednesday,
exposed failures across the U.N. system, from Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to
his deputy to the U.N. Security Council. They allowed corruption to flourish and
stood by as Saddam Hussein bilked about $10.2 billion, it concluded.
In the report, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker's team
recommended several reforms, including establishing an Independent Auditing
Board to fully review U.N. programs and creating and urgently filling the
position of a chief executive officer.
Annan urged world leaders at next week's U.N. summit to use the "golden
opportunity" to adopt the reforms, but many developing nations object because
they think doing so could strip them of coveted power.
"It would be unfortunate for the U.N. in my opinion, if faced by all this
evidence, they don't do enough," Volcker told The Associated Press. "I think
you're forced to the conclusion that if they don't, the world has lost a
potentially important resource when problems of this sort arise. And if they
don't reform, they shouldn't undertake any programs of this sort."
The Volcker committee's five-volume, 1,036-page report reveals just how bad
things had become in the program, and how tainted the U.N. image has become as a
result. Yet it says reform is urgent because there is no other organization like
the United Nations in the world to be able to take on such tasks.
"At stake is the United Nations' ability to respond promptly and effectively
to the responsibilities thrust upon it by the realities of a turbulent, and
often violent, world," the report said.
Oil-for-food was originally designed to provide health care for millions of
Iraqis trying to cope with tough U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam's 1990
invasion of Kuwait.
But Saddam, who could choose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of
humanitarian goods, manipulated the program by awarding contracts to — and
getting kickbacks from — favored buyers, who most often supported his regime or
opposed the sanctions.
The report, which came after a year-long, $34 million investigation, faulted
Annan and his deputy, Canada's Louise Frechette, of tolerating corruption and
doing little to stop Saddam's manipulations. The powerful U.N. Security Council
was accused of doing much the same.
"In the first place the program left too much initiative with Iraq," Volcker
told the Security Council earlier Wednesday. "It was, as one past member of this
council has put it, a compact with the devil, and the devil had means for
manipulating the program to his ends."
The findings led to new criticism from U.S. congressmen leading their own
investigations of oil-for-food in Washington. Senator Norm Coleman, R-Minn.,
reiterated his call for Annan's resignation, while Christopher Shays, R-Conn.,
said the report raised questions about his leadership.
Rep. Henry Hyde (news, bio, voting record), R-Ill., stopped short of calling
for Annan's resignation but offered a withering assessment nonetheless.
"If the U.N. Secretariat and its member states ignore the profound lessons
detailed in this report, the institution itself will be imperiled by the morass
of corruption that increasingly undermines its already tattered legitimacy," he
said in a statement.
Annan told reporters he would not resign.
Volcker's report is the fourth of five. The final one, expected in October,
will study the companies involved in the purchase of Iraqi oil or sale of
humanitarian goods under the program.
In August, officials with the probe said about half the 4,500 companies that
took part in the program in Iraq paid kickbacks or illegal surcharges and are
being given a chance to respond to the accusations.
Volcker told the AP that one striking thing about those companies was just
how many were of Russian origin. Russia was a leading opponent of the sanctions
and Wednesday's report suggests it may have tried to stall on efforts to probe
corruption in the program.
"The Russian thing just jumps out at you," Volcker said. "But there in
particular, they claim that a good many of those are not Russian at all in
substance."
While much of the attention focused on U.N. management, the report also
addressed lingering issues about Annan's son Kojo, who was once employed by a
Swiss company called Cotecna that sought — and eventually won — a contract to do
work under oil-for-food.
The committee said additional evidence supplied by Kojo Annan established
that he assisted Cotecna in its effort to win the contract, contrary to earlier
denials. But the report said it appears Cotecna won the contract because it was
the low bidder. "It is not known whether Kojo Annan's efforts made a
difference," it said.
Kojo Annan said in a statement issued by his London lawyers that he never
attempted to influence the awarding of the contract.
In addition, he used his father's "name and position" in 1998 to buy and
deliver a car at a reduced price, the probe said. It said he asked beforehand
whether he could buy the car in his father's name, but there was no evidence to
show the secretary-general ever agreed.
Kojo Annan called the car discount a youthful "indiscretion" that he regrets.
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