Annan takes blame for some of oil, food program fraud

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan accepted responsibility on Wednesday for mismanagement of
the oil-for-food program in Iraq in an address to the Security
Council on the investigation of the program.

“The report is critical of me personally, and I accept its
criticism,” he said after Paul Volcker, the head of a yearlong
probe, told the 15-nation council its members too shared the
blame for failing to supervise the $64 billion program.

The findings are “deeply embarrassing to us all,” Annan
said. The inquiry committee has ripped away the curtain and
shone a harsh light into the most unsightly corners of the
organizations.”

The report by the Independent Inquiry Committee, headed by
Volcker, a former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, does not
accuse Annan personally of wrongdoing but found that the
“cumulative management performance” of the secretary-general
fell short of the standard that the United Nations organization
should strive to maintain.”

Volcker told the council that the program, which allowed
Saddam Hussein to sell oil to buy food and choose his own
customers, “was a compact with the devil and the devil had
means for manipulating the program to his ends.”

He recommended the creation of a new chief operating
officer with mandate for administration as well as a strong and
independent oversight board, reforms still in dispute among
U.N. members.