Newly released UN audits of the oil-for-food program leave unanswered questions about whether deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein used the program to illegally raise billions of dollars, congressional leaders said.
Lawmakers had repeatedly demanded that the UN turn over more than 50 internal audits on the program, suspecting they would provide evidence that the former Iraqi president manipulated the humanitarian program with the help of corrupt or inept UN overseers.
But the audits released Sunday night didn't tackle the corruption issues at the heart of the matter. While finding repeated examples of overpayments to contractors and the mismanagement of purchases, the audits do not address the broader issues of oversight by UN headquarters and of the program's contracting and banking procedures.
"These audits do not answer even a fraction of the questions we have been asking or will be continuing to ask as our investigation moves ahead," said Senator Norm Coleman, chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's investigations subcommittee, one of several panels looking at the program.
Representative Chris Shays, the chairman of the House Government Reform Committee's national security subcommittee, said Monday that the audits raise the question, "How was the UN internal watchdog effectively neutered?"
The UN ran the oil-for-food program from 1996 to last year while Iraq was under sanctions. It allowed Saddam to export oil under UN oversight and use the proceeds to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods.
The program is credited with preventing starvation in Iraq. But several US investigations have found that Saddam used the program to make a fortune through kickbacks and other illicit payments. A CIA report cited evidence that Saddam used it to bribe leading international figures, including oil-for-food administrator Benon Sevan.
Sevan has denied wrongdoing.
The allegations prompted UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to name a three-man committee, headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, to investigate the program. With that investigation continuing, the UN declined to give the audits to congressional panels, saying disclosure of the reports could undermine the inquiry.
With Volcker's panel nearing completion of an interim report and congressional pressure continuing, it released the audits Sunday on its Web site.
In an accompanying report, Volcker said the audits had been performed well, but the limited scope appears to have "deprived the UN of a potentially powerful agent in helping to ensure accountability."
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in