From FOXNews
The man who ran the U.N. Oil-for-Food program “seriously undermined” the integrity of the United Nations, a U.N.-authorized investigation of the troubled program found in a report released Thursday.
The report found that Benon Sevan broke the rules by allegedly trying to obtain oil vouchers from Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. Sevan has been accused of receiving about $1 million worth of lucrative oil vouchers but he has denied any wrongdoing.
The finding represents the first time a high-level U.N. official has been implicated by the investigative panel headed by Paul Volcker, a former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.
To read the full report, click here (pdf).
Volcker personally delivered a copy of the 200-page report to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday morning, but refused to talk to reporters at U.N. headquarters.
In a opinion piece on the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, Volcker said that the committee found that “the procurement process was tainted, failing to follow the established rules of the organization designed to assure fairness and accountability.”
Volcker also said the evidence against Sevan is “conclusive.”
Sevan “placed himself in an irreconcilable conflict of interest, in violation both of specific United Nations rules and of the broad responsibility of an international civil servant to adhere to highest standards of trust and integrity,” Volcker said.
[…] The Oil-for-Food program, launched in December 1996 to help ordinary Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein’s (search) 1990 invasion of Kuwait, quickly became a lifeline for 90 percent of the population.
Under the program, Saddam’s regime could sell oil, provided the proceeds went primarily to buy humanitarian goods and pay reparations to victims of the 1991 Gulf War. Saddam’s government decided on the goods it wanted, who should provide them, and who could buy Iraqi oil  but the Security Council committee overseeing sanctions monitored the contracts.
Annan told reporters Wednesday the United Nations is already taking measures to strengthen some management practices and will implement Volcker’s recommendations.
He added that he has already asked the General Assembly to review the mandate of the U.N. watchdog office, which was created 10 years ago, “to see how we can strengthen it and give it appropriate authority to do its work.”
And so it continues, the bureaucracy proceeding apace, with yet another layer of reviewers tapped to review the reviewers, until the time comes when they themselves are scrutinized by reviewers reviewing the reviewer of the reviewers.
And in the meantime, much fancy cheese is eaten, and much fine wine consumed.
Just as God intended it.
I love how it’s some dudes fault. Like no one else in the UN new that anything remotely like this could be happening. “No it’s true. We’re all a bunch of naive idiots, that’s how we got this far in politics and leadership – we’re oblivious. I never new that Sevan guy was up to this. Shame on him. Shame shame shame.” As they all go scurrying back to their offices to ensure they can’t be connected to it all. Right. Whatever you say guys. They must’ve been taking a page out of Enron’s book.
Password: sleazy pocket-lining sonsofbitches
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Oh, it’s okay, they watch over each other and submit their reports in tandem. What?!
:-D
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. They need to dump the entire UN building in the East River.
Preferably with Kofi and pals still inside.
“But who will review the reviewers reviewing the reviewer of the reviewers?”
“I dunno. Coast Guard?”
Volker’s too slow! Bring back Hans Blix!
When the purges, if any, do finally come to the UN, don’t be surprised if they seem much like CBS’ Rathergate scandal conclusion. Investigators that couldn’t; blame that wasn’t; layoffs that did’t; and changes that aren’t.
All sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Wait ‘til you see this.
The UN sounds more and more like the mafia all the time.
There’s an interesting book called Emergency Sex, written by three UN field workers. They don’t address UNSCAM because they weren’t involved, but they expose a lot of other shabbiness in the organization. A brief excerpt:
More excerpts here.
Volcker is dirty too.
The fundamental problem with the U.N. is that it has no accountability for its actions.