Posted on 05/17/2004 1:46:44 AM PDT by crazycat
An investigation into the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the United Nations is being hampered by the US-led administration in Iraq, according to congressmen and officials in Baghdad.
Serious reservations have been raised over the appointment of auditors Ernst & Young to investigate the disappearance of billions of pounds under the UN oil-for-food programme
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Serious reservations have been raised over the appointment of auditors Ernst & Young to investigate the disappearance of billions of pounds under the UN oil-for-food programme.
Much of the money is alleged to have been handed to Saddam Hussein's friends in the West.
Some 270 people and organisations were named in documents submitted to Congress including the MP George Galloway, the former French interior minister Charles Pasqua, the Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and Benon Sevan, the UN official in charge of the programme.
Many of those named, including Mr Galloway, have denied any wrongdoing.
Concern centres on the motive for the appointment of Ernst & Young, a renowned firm of auditors, by Paul Bremer, the coalition's chief administrator in Iraq.
Ernst & Young's inquiry will duplicate work begun three months ago by the equally reputable accountancy firm of KPMG on behalf of Iraq's governing council (IGC).
"We have serious reservations about the way the investigation [into corruption] is being handled and are awaiting the answer to a range of questions we have put to the Bush administration," Christopher Shays, a Republican Congressman from Connecticut said.
In a letter to President Bush this month, Mr Shays expressed deep concern over the "apparent conflict between the coalition provisional authority (CPA) and the Iraqi governing council over the exercise of audit authority".
"The actual review of the records has been delayed for weeks. Some believe important documents are at risk of being altered or destroyed."
KPMG was appointed in February by the IGC to investigate suspected corruption in the UN-administered oil-for-food programme under Saddam. At least £6 billion is alleged to have gone into the pockets of individuals and companies.
In late March, however, Mr Bremer intervened, saying he would not release funds to pay KPMG, which had already made substantial progress in locating documents in Iraq, unless the contract was put out to tender. The IGC duly put out the contract and, on April 18, at a meeting attended by members of the coalition authority, KPMG's submission was deemed best. KPMG was appointed to lead the inquiry with a promise of £3 million to fund it.
Meanwhile, the CPA announced on April 9 that it would appoint its own auditors to investigate the allegations. Ernst & Young was formally appointed last Thursday to lead the CPA investigation.
"The CPA decided that after prior tender, the firm of Ernst & Young were the best qualified to pursue the necessary investigation," a CPA spokesman said.
Adam Bates, of KPMG, echoed congressional reservations about the CPA's intervention, "long after we had made substantial progress of our own". Should KPMG not receive the £3 million promised, its inquiry will stall.
US congressmen have become concerned and angry over the way Mr Bremer is running the CPA and Mr Shay's office demanded an explanation of his actions.
"Some of the problems may be the result of personal conflict between Mr Bremer and Ahmed Chalabi [one of the nine rotating presidents on the IGC]," said a congressional source.
"We know Bremer was unhappy about the leaking of a list of 270 people who received payments under the oil-for-food programme."
Claude Hankes-Drielsma, a management consultant for the IGC, accused Mr Bremer of "putting the brakes" on the running investigation "after it became headline news".
"Our concern is that with the CPA's auditors ordering the collection of all relevant documents in one place, we will lose not only time but vital links in the chain. The Iraqis kept meticulous records."
Mr Hankes-Drielsma claimed the IGC, with the help of KPMG, had already located "hundreds of millions" of pounds that came out of illicit oil-for-food profits in Middle East bank accounts.
ping
Mark Rich of Clinton pardon fame has already surfaced. How many more is the US uneasy about?
As murky and troubling as BNL or BCCI.
...RATs!
Well if you keep announcing investigations about to take place over documents not yet seized and under control of the auditors, by the time anyone actually begins to look at the documents, the important evidence has disappeared.
But which Congress critters are saying this? Could they have been on Saddamn's Christmas bonus list? Sounds to me like maybe some of the suspects want to get an idea of how much is known.
Doesn't he do one to the Iraqi people now and then?(Let that sink in.)
This whole thing stinks.
GW and the GOP have a golden oportunity here, to shut up nearly all their critics, they had better use it, or they will deserve their problems.
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040512-0746.html
Kim.
Q Yeah, Dan, I was wondering if you could tell us how the investigation by the Governing Council is proceeding into the oil-for- food. And also, is there any threat to the funding of this investigation by Ambassador Bremer?
MR. SENOR: No, not at all. The investigation into the oil-for-food program fraud case has been shifted by the coalition from the Governing Council to the Board of Supreme Audit. The basis for that shift is that the Board of Supreme Audit -- the Iraqi Board of Supreme Audit is a more politically independent and objective body. But we are still overseeing the funding of that program and investigation, and intend to fund it.
As for who will conduct the actual audit, what firm conducts the actual audit, I've been told that the tender for that has closed on April 20th. And the Board of Supreme Audit is doing a technical review right now of the submitted proposals, and will have an announcement to make shortly. But the process is moving forward.
And I'd also add, Kim, that Ambassador Bremer, from the moment this broke and there was -- the U.N. announced that it was conducting an investigation, the U.S. Congress announced that it was conducting its investigation, Ambassador Bremer issued a directive to all the ministers and the directors-general of all the ministries advising them to collect all documents pertaining to the oil-for-food program and setting them aside so they could be collected and put in a safe location so that they could be used to assist all the investigations that are ongoing, including the one conducted by the Board of Supreme Audit.
Well, I've got news for them. It's all gonna leak out sooner or later. Frankly I'm less concerned with reputations than the future of Iraq. The people who had anything to do with aiding and abetting Saddamn cannot be allowed to get their mitts on Iraq, whether it's to cover their a$$es or pay their bills.
Duh. I love it when a plan comes together.
I thought KPMG is doing the audit?
The problem I see is political for the President, Bremer is 'his guy'. If anyone is going to pull his plug, it has to be GWB himself. I think he's hoping that he can ride it out until July, we'll see.
This speaks volumes. I was certainly not unhappy with the release nor, I would guess, was any other Freeper.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: In Government (and that includes the Bush Administration) Friends don't let Friends get accused of bribery. That is an international brotherhood. I do not trust the Bush Administration any more than I would a Clinton Administration to get to the bottom of the U.N. Oil for Bribery scandal because they would see it as interfering with "diplomatic relations".
Sad but true.
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