Oil-for-food scandal engulfs secretary-general

Created in 1996 as a means of providing food and medicine to 90 per cent of Iraq’s population of 26 million people, the program quickly became a slush fund, because Saddam was allowed to choose the buyers of Iraqi oil, the sellers of humanitarian goods and was able to channel funds to politicians and UN officials who opposed sanctions against his regime.

As if to underscore the damage to the institution’s credibility, Prime Minister Paul Martin – once a trusted ally of the UN – recently gave a scathing assessment of its internal governance. “The status quo and too-often-empty rhetoric must make way here for a new and pragmatic multilateralism measured by concrete results, not simply by promises,” said Martin, adding: “Make no mistake, the UN needs reform.”

Martin’s words came just a few months after the removal of fellow Canadian Maurice Strong from the UN payroll. Strong, an unpaid adviser to Martin and until recently, the UN’s lead negotiator in efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program, lost his job amid allegations of nepotism and his involvement in the oil-for-food scandal. Strong accepted advice on Korean issues from South Korean businessman Tongsun Park, who was charged by the U.S. attorney’s office in April for allegedly accepting large sums of money from former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s government to illegally plead Iraq’s case in America.

The scandal was investigated by an independent inquiry committee headed by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, who issued a scathing 847-page report to the UN’s Security Council at a meeting attended by Annan himself.

“The inescapable conclusion from the committee’s work is that the United Nations organization needs thorough reform – and it needs it urgently,” declared Volcker, adding: “In essence, the responsibility for the failures must be broadly shared, starting, we believe, with member states and the Security Council itself.”

Volcker criticized the “grievous” management lapses of the Secretariat, outlining Kofi Annan’s failure to provide oversight or leadership.

For his part, Annan took the criticisms in stride, telling reporters: “The findings in today’s report must be deeply embarrassing to us all. None of us – member states, Secretariat, agencies, funds and programs – can be proud of what it has found.”

In spite of these findings, the committee found there was insufficient evidence to show that Annan knew about an oil-for-food contract that was awarded to a Swiss firm that employed his son, Kojo, or that Annan interfered in the contract.

Earlier this year, the committee noted that the program’s chief, UN Undersecretary-General Benon Sevan of Cyprus, received $160,000 (US) from a now-deceased aunt who was not wealthy, but it did not accuse Sevan of accepting bribes.

The Volcker report said that “reform is urgent,” because the “weaknesses in structure and ethics with the (oil-for-food) program may well be symptomatic of a wider malaise throughout the United Nations.”