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Annan takes blame for some of oil, food program fraud

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 September 2005, 10:12 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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