Iraq Oil-For-Food Audit Finds No Widespread Abuse

Iraq Oil-For-Food Audit Finds No Widespread Abuse
IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 3 (IPS) - After spending months combing through thousands of documents and questioning scores of officials, the investigators of alleged irregularities in the U.N.-led Oil-for-Food programme in Iraq acknowledge that they have so far failed to find a smoking gun.

However, in an interim report released Thursday, they accused the world body of failing to abide by the rules to assure fairness, transparency and accountability.

”The findings do not make for pleasant reading,” wrote Paul Volker, chairman of the Independent Inquiry Committee, in the Wall Street Journal a day before releasing an interim report on the conduct of the Oil-for-Food programme at a heavily attended news conference held outside the premises of the U.N. headquarters.

However, he added that the U.N. administration of the programme appeared to be ”free of systematic or widespread abuse”.