Oil-for-food inquiry chief 'hid UN role'

Paul Volcker, the chairman of the internal United Nations investigation into the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal, is facing embarrassing criticism for failing to declare alleged conflicts of interest when he was appointed.

Mr Volcker, the former head of the US Federal Reserve, was a director of two powerful pro-UN pressure groups when Kofi Annan, the organisation's secretary-general, hand-picked him to lead the three-man commission last April.

He will shortly present the commission's findings on how Saddam Hussein was allowed to skim off almost $2 billion from the scheme, administered by the UN, and pay off foreign allies - allegedly including senior UN officials - with money meant for the purchase of food and medicines.

Neither Mr Volcker nor Mr Annan mentioned his role on the boards of the UN Association of the United States and the Business Council for the UN, although the banker's affiliations with a string of other organisations are listed in his biography on the UN website.

The ties have come to light after an investigation by Nile Gardiner, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation think-tank in Washington, and raise questions about Mr Volcker's objectivity.

The UN Association has won praise from Mr Annan for its efforts to promote the UN in America.

The Business Council for the UN, the association's partner organisation, received financial support of $100,000 (£52,000) in 2002 and 2003 from BNP Paribas - the French bank that held the escrow account for the oil-for-food programme - which is itself a subject of Mr Volcker's investigation.

"Mr Volcker's previous positions with these groups raise serious questions about his objectivity and neutrality with regard to this investigation," Mr Gardiner told The Telegraph. "Without any doubt, Kofi Annan would have been fully aware of Mr Volcker's close ties.

"As the UN is facing a major crisis of public confidence, it is imperative that any investigation of UN corruption and mismanagement is independent, open, transparent and effective. The Volcker commission fails on every count."

Last night a spokesman for Mr Volcker's office said his role with the UN Association had never been included in his standard "bio".

"His limited participation in the UN Association-USA, is entirely consistent with his willingness - indeed his desire - to find the facts behind current allegations about the UN," the spokesman said.

Everyone knew there was a conflict of interest but no one in the Bush administration would do anything about it. IF they weren't all a bunch of globalists, it might be different. The taxpayers will be ripped of again by the corrupt UN.

Oil-for-food probe chief has conflict of interest?
Paul Volcker was paid adviser to company connected to firm benefiting from program

Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve who is heading up a U.N. investigation of the oil-for-food scandal, is an adviser to a company linked to a French oil firm that benefited from the United Nations program.

According to Fox News, Volcker has been a paid adviser and is now an unpaid adviser to a firm linked to Total, which did nearly $2 billion of business under the oil-for-food program.

Since 1987, Volcker has been an adviser to and close friend of billionaire Paul Desmarais of the Canadian company Power Corporation. Fox says the company confirms Volcker is a member of its international advisory council. Power, along with a Belgian firm, shares control of a company called GBL. GBL is the largest single shareholder of Total.

In addition, until 2001 Desmarais was a director for Total.

Fox reported Power has close ties to BNP Paribas, the bank that handled all oil-for-food transactions. BNP owns a large stake in Total, and an executive sits on Power's international advisory council alongside Volcker.

The news about Volcker's connections has at least one member of Congress concerned.

"These revelations are troubling and it is absolutely imperative that Chairman Volcker come forward in the very near future and provide facts and explanations that will ally the concerns that arise out of what appears to be a conflict of interest," Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., a member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, told Fox News.

Fox says Volcker refused to answer specific questions about his involvement with Power Corporation, but did issue a statement.

The statement said, in part: "Apart from the occasional advisory council meetings devoted to discussion of international economic development seven to 15 years ago, Mr. Volcker has had no stock holding or business relationship with Power Corporation."

Volcker heads a three-member U.N.-appointed investigative committee that also includes South African Justice Richard Goldstone and Mark Pieth, a Swiss law professor. The former Fed chief told the New York Times the committee's interim report, which is to be released at the end of this month, will not produce a "smoking gun" to implicate U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

According to a Heritage Foundation report, Volcker is also a director of the United Nations Association of the United States of America, a pro-U.N. advocacy group that "supports the work of the United Nations."

"UNA-USA has played a lead role in defending the U.N.'s response to the oil-for-food scandal and the embattled leadership of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan," states the report.

In the oil-for-food scam, then-President Saddam Hussein was able to generate an estimated $1.7 billion in revenue through the U.N. program from 1997 to 2003. The former Iraqi dictator also raked in more than $8 billion from illicit oil deals with Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Egypt, according to U.S. congressional investigators.

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