UN purges Iraq documents with $15-bn in question

Mineweb ^ | April 28, 2003 | Tim Wood

[Cicero]

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>UN purges Iraq documents with $15-bn in question

By: Tim Wood

Posted: 2003/04/28 Mon 11:00 EDT  | © Mineweb 1997-2003

NEW YORK -- Increasing attention has been focused on the United Nations administered oil-for-food programme that was intended to provide the people of Iraq with medicine and food, but deprive its power elite of any spoils until it complied with disarmament requirements. The reverse has occurred.

Several writers, notably Claudia Rosett and William Safire in the NY Times, have already documented the lack of transparency, secret audits and penchant for non-humanitarian spending that characterizes the programme. Now, as scrutiny mounts, every effort is being made to ensure the truth is never revealed.

Well placed sources tell Mineweb that sensitive records and correspondence related to the oil-for-food programme have been purged from the computer system at UN headquarters in New York. For detail of the sums involved, see the table at the end of this article.

Mineweb’s sources dismiss assurances by oil-for-food programme director, Benon Sevan, that current audits are sufficient. “These audits are sometimes used to cover-up real problems in programmes such as the UN’s Chief Resident Auditor in the Congo who was removed and his audit blocked when it alleged possible fraud involving communications equipment procured for that mission,” the source said.

The shenanigans in the Congo, instead of being dealt with in the customary manner of an audit, were turned around so that the auditor was threatened with a recall over his reports exposing the fraudulent nature of the Peace Keeping Mission’s air services contract in the Congo. This issue only came to light when the ACABQ jumped into the fray and issued its report A/56/845 to the General Assembly. Our source adds: “The UN’s legislative bodies would never have come to know about the apparent fraud and Benon Sevan hints at this modus operandi when he notes that audit reports are secret to members of the Security Council.”

Although documents are being purged in the case of Iraq, it is still possible to get a reliable guesstimate on how much has been raised under the UN programme to date and it is mind-boggling.

Incredibly, the programme pumped a lot more oil than it needed in order to cover its admitted “humanitarian” disbursements. Since 1996, the UN has seen fit to expend $27 billion on “relief” in Iraq (untold amounts went directly to Saddam Hussein and his inner circle), while it raised at least $70 billion through oil sales between 1998 and 2003.

The UN itself pocketed up to $1.6 billion thanks to the 2.2% in commission it claimed from each barrel of oil sold.

Given the mismatch between disbursements and revenues, the UN was evidently unable to resist the temptation to treat Iraq as a cash dispensing machine.

Consequently, as much as $15 billion in unspent programme proceeds may be sloshing about – provided it has not already been pilfered. As it is, Kurdish recipients of UN aid say that up to half of what was earmarked for them has been embezzled.

There is every reason to fear that the slush fund money will be stolen along with any interest it has earned. The UN has incredibly lax internal and external auditing procedures. Its Board of External Auditors must know about potential fraud in the Congo but has not taken the steps to formally report it to the General Assembly. Worse still, its Office of Internal Oversight Services appears to play the lead role in assuring that damaging audit reports do not reach the General Assembly. Finally, requests to the Secretary-General to have these improper practices investigated have apparently gone unheeded.

The UN has such a pristine record that you would be hard pressed to find more than a handful of punishments for fraud – despite a deal flow worth tens of billions a year. This is unprecedented in the commercial world, impossible in the bureaucratic one; especially when there is no audit department to speak of.

Can there be any doubt that the best energy business in the world over the past five years is a tax-payer funded one resident on the East side of Manhattan?

[george wythe]

Several writers, notably Claudia Rosett and William Safire in the NY Times, have already documented the lack of transparency, secret audits and penchant for non-humanitarian spending that characterizes the programme. Now, as scrutiny mounts, every effort is being made to ensure the truth is never revealed.

Well placed sources tell Mineweb that sensitive records and correspondence related to the oil-for-food programme have been purged from the computer system at UN headquarters in New York. For detail of the sums involved, see the table at the end of this article

Unron all over again.

[prairiebreeze]

Only if it hasn't been burned, bombed or looted.

Prairie

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I hope that all the UN officials that were complicit in this scam are caught red handed and deported. It is my further wish that the UN, by association gets its collective tit caught in the wringer and is disbanded or shipped wholesale to Sweden. They'd love 'em over there.

[Cicero]

Claudia Rosett wrote the recent NY Times article, which was pretty damning, and one last fall for the Wall Street Journal, which was also damning. I posted the latter here a few weeks ago, although it seems to have been removed recently. It's title, I think, was "Kofi Annandersen."

[vollmond]

It's all our fault, of course. The UN had to skim money to make up for the US shortfall in funding. We were illegally holding payments back, and there's the additional amount we should have been paying based on our impact on the environment and consumption of resources. It adds up to just about the amount missing from the program.

[Cicero]

I know you're kidding. But in point of fact, the amount of money ripped off from the UN Oil for Food Program dwarfs the entire UN budget. It makes our arrears look like pocket change.

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

I sent this to O'Reilly. Who knows if he'll ever see it, though:

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The UN has probably ripped off more than forty billion dollars

What a find!

The UN needs to be abolished!

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[Calpublican]

Would love to see the look on Ted Turner's face when he learns about this, assuming he has the sense to be appalled and to feel ripped off. Couldn't happen to a better guy.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Indexing!

[Cicero]

I should say that that's my estimate. I've also heard the figure $20 billion, although these numbers seem to indicate more. In any case, it's a huge amount, the exact figures unknown since the UN refuses to talk about any of the details. They say the Security Council knows. Well, maybe they do, and maybe they don't. I think Chirac knows, and maybe the others have some good guesses.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I added "IRAQcornucopia" to your keywords also!

[xJones]

We've got to make sure that the gradually arising new Iraqi government knows how badly Iraqis have been had and roughly how much money is missing. A newly recognized, democratically-elected Iraqi government could raise hell in the U.N., demanding their money and a lifting of all sanctions immediately.

[Cicero]

I agree. This is far too serious and far too much money is involved to let sleeping dogs lie.

There was a thread posted just a while ago on what to do about the huge debts that Saddam ran up, many of them illegal or wrongful. Probably many of these debts are owed to the same people who are implicit in ripping off this oil money, which properly belongs to the Iraqi people.

Even the Oil for Food money that was spent in Iraq was largely ripped off. Much of it was used to buy illegal arms from France, Russia, Germany et al., so it was effectively misappropriated too, and went right back out of the country into the pockets of the usual suspects. Kofi Annan has admitted that Saddam decided where the money was sent, and he merely signed off on it.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Ping !

[farmfriend]

OK, it's not property rights but it is just another prime example of why we need to get rid of the UN, not just get out but get rid of it.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[evad]

..who pocketed the funds..

We know who..it's just a matter of discovering the paper trail.

The oil for food program is the most corrupt case of fraud and embezzlement going today. Look at lafrance', la Kofi and laKraut.

[Shermy]

Interesting.

American-Iraqis should be protesting at the UN in New York. Iraqis should be protesting in Iraq in front of the Palestine hotel. The press understands video.

Demand full accounting, past and present.

Full transparency.

Reveal where the money is now.

[backhoe]

I just picked up this link, and I think it's important enough to send as a standalone... this is too damn big to be ignored by our laughingly-misnamed watchdog press...