I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This is an stinky onion that needs to continue to be peeled. There are some alleged Canadian implications, including alleged connections to well-known Liberal Party people, as well as implications connecting every one of the countries in the U.N. Security Council that were against going to war in Iraq. There are even connections to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s son.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations vowed to discipline two officials implicated in a report that detailed conflicts of interest and flawed management in the U.N. oil-for-food program, while the man leading the investigation warned that more revelations were forthcoming.
The interim report, released Thursday, zeroed in on the chief of the oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan, saying Saddam Hussein’s regime awarded oil allocations in his name to a trading company between 1998 and 2001.
It said Sevan had “seriously undermined the integrity of the United Nations” and suggested he may have received kickbacks, possibly using an aunt to mask his trail.
Sevan has denied he ever received any money.
Based on the report, Secretary-General Kofi Annan will discipline Sevan and another U.N. official, Joseph Stephanides, who may have “tainted” bidding for an oil-for-food contract, said Mark Malloch Brown, Annan’s chief of staff.
The $60 billion oil-for-food program, which ran from December 1996 to November 2003, allowed sanctions-bound Iraq to sell oil to buy humanitarian supplies. But it allegedly became a way for Saddam to curry favor and push to end sanctions — by awarding former government officials, activists, U.N. officials and journalists vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold at a profit.
Allegations that the United Nations itself was enmeshed in corrupt practices in the program led Annan to appoint former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to investigate. Several U.S. congressional teams are also looking into it. […]
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