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3 more oil-for-food reports to be issued
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-30 14:55
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday
that the committee probing claims of wrongdoing in the oil-for-food program will
issue up to three more reports and is asking for more money, officials said.
Annan told the council he wanted to comply with a request from the
Independent Inquiry Committee for documents relating to the work of the council
and its subsidiary organs, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
Some council members expressed concern about the accuracy of the notes,
sloppy translations and the inclusion of personal opinions, a council diplomat
said on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.
The $64 billion oil-for-food program was intended to help ordinary Iraqis
suffering under U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of
Kuwait, but it has become the target of several corruption investigations since
the Iraqi leader was ousted.
The committee, headed by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, says a
report set for August will be the final, comprehensive document.
"We expect the August report to be the comprehensive statement from the
committee on the oil-for-food investiation," said Mike Holtzman, the committee
spokesman. "Prior or subsequent reports would be to tie up loose ends."
In an earlier report, Volcker's committee said Annan didn't properly
investigate possible conflicts of interest in awarding a contract to a company
that employed his son, Kojo Annan. The report cleared him of trying to influence
the contract or violating U.N. rules.
Annan said Volcker's team wants minutes and notes taken by U.N. Secretariat
officials at all meetings of the Security Council committee that monitored
sanctions against Iraq and was responsible for overseeing the oil-for-food
program, council diplomats said.
"We were at the meeting and shared our assessment that all documents should
be turned over to the Volcker committee as soon as possible," said Richard
Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.
The council members said they would have an answer for the secretary-general
next Tuesday, said the diplomat who noted members' concerns about the documents.
The committee has said it is still investigating Kojo and Kojo Annan, as well
as Benon Sevan, the former U.N. oil-for-food chief who was accused of a conflict
of interest and came under suspicion for some $160,000 in "unexplained wealth."
An official with knowledge of the meeting, who also requested anonymity
because the meeting was private, said Annan told the council that there would be
three more reports — one in July, the final report in August and a third this
fall that might simply be a list of companies and individuals that violated the
oil-for-food program's rules.
Volcker's investigation is funded from oil-for-food program revenue and
Dujarric's statement said the committee's budget was also discussed. Another
council diplomat who attended the meeting said the committee wants $3 million to
$3.5 million more to finish its work. Officials estimated the core investigation
would cost a total of $30 million.
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