| Submit your comments on this article |
| International-UN-NGOs |
| Claudia Rosett: Oil-for-Food Audits Reveal Sevan as Mysterious Manager |
| 2005-01-18 |
| Perhaps Paul Volcker, head of the United Nations-authorized inquiry into the U.N. Oil-for-Food program, was speaking solely of graft when he said recently that the internal audits of Oil-for-Food contained "no flaming red flags." But if he meant anything beyond outright criminality, he was surely wrong. On that score, previously secret U.N. internal audits of the multi-billion dollar program, finally released last week by Volcker's own investigating commission, are packed with bombshells enough to shatter any normal business — let alone a U.N. program supplied with $1.4 billion to cover its administrative costs in monitoring $111 billion worth of deals done under UN sanctions by Saddam Hussein. The problems unveiled go well beyond those in the already much-discussed audits of the Oil-for-Food inspectors hired by the U.N. Secretariat to oversee Saddam's oil exports and relief imports, who according to the United Nations' own auditors too often charged too much and inspected too little. One audit report that has so far received little attention describes at length the spectacular failures of Oil-for-Food's executive director, Benon Sevan, to adequately run even his own office and budget, let alone monitor what the program was doing in Iraq. Sevan is the one U.N. official who has been publicly accused of taking bribes in the form of oil vouchers from the Saddam Hussein regime, though Sevan denies this. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #1 Through hard work, diligence, and a true Journalist's intellect, Claudia rocks and rocks. She has already rocked the UN. She will soon rock the world. Eat 'em alive, Claudia. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-01-18 7:33:40 PM |