Text 16042, 75 rader
Skriven 2005-10-27 00:45:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Oil for Food
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http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/27/D8DG535G3.html

U.N.: 2,000 Firm Gave Iraq Illicit Funds
Oct 27 12:03 AM US/Eastern
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By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press Writer


UNITED NATIONS


More than 2,000 companies made about $1.8 billion in illicit payments to Saddam
Hussein's government through extensive manipulation of the U.N. oil-for-food
program in Iraq, according to key findings of a U.N.-backed investigation.

The report _ to be released in full Thursday by the committee probing claims of
wrongdoing in the $64 billion program _ indicates that about half the 4,500
companies doing business with Iraq paid illegal surcharges on oil purchases or
kickbacks on contracts to supply humanitarian goods.

The investigators reported that companies and individuals from 66 countries
paid illegal kickbacks through a variety of devices while those paying illegal
oil surcharges came from, or were registered in, 40 countries. The names will
be included in Thursday's report but were not in the key findings that were
obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

Thursday's final report of the investigation led by former U.S. Federal Reserve
chairman Paul Volcker strongly criticizes the U.N. Secretariat and Security
Council for failing to monitor the program and allowing the emergence of front
companies and international trading concerns prepared to make illegal payments.


According to the findings, the Banque Nationale de Paris S.A., known as BNP,
which held the U.N. oil-for-food escrow account, had a dual role and did not
disclose fully to the United Nations the firsthand knowledge it acquired about
the financial relationships that fostered the payment of illegal surcharges.

The oil-for-food program was one of the world's largest humanitarian aid
operations, running from 1996-2003.

Under the program, Iraq was allowed to sell limited and then unlimited
quantities of oil provided most of the money went to buy humanitarian goods. It
was launched to help ordinary Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after
Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait and became a lifeline for 90 percent of the
country's population of 26 million.

But Saddam, who could choose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of
humanitarian goods, corrupted the program by awarding contracts to _ and
getting kickbacks from _ favored buyers, mostly parties who supported his
regime or opposed the sanctions. He allegedly gave former government officials,
journalists and U.N. officials vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold
at a profit.

Volcker's previous report, released in September, said lax U.N. oversight
allowed Saddam's regime to pocket $1.8 billion in kickbacks in the awarding of
contracts during the program's operation from 1997- 2003.

The smuggling of Iraqi oil outside the program in violation of U.N. sanctions
poured much more money _ $11 billion _ into Saddam's coffers during the same
period, according to a finding in the new report.

The report to be released Thursday chronicles in detail Saddam's manipulation
of the program and examines in detail 23 companies that paid kickbacks on
humanitarian contracts including Iraqi front companies, major food providers,
major trading companies, and major industrial and manufacturing companies.

According to the findings, the program was just under three years old when the
Iraqi regime began openly demanding illicit payments from its customers. The
report said that while U.N. officials and the Security Council were informed,
little action was taken.

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