January 2, 2004

UN Oil for Food program

Excellent commentary by Roger L. Simon regarding the accountability of the UN in their administering of the Oil for Food program. bq. As one who has blogged several times (as recently as a few days ago ) about the mysteriously evanescent United Nations oil-for-food money for Iraq, I was intrigued by today's Agence France Presse report posted on Aljazeera--UN hands Iraqi funds to occupying forces. According to the AFP, the Security Council transferred $2.6 billion from this United Nations account to the US-led coalition managed Fund for the Development of Iraq "in the closing hours of 2003." bq. Sacré bleu, Holmes! Something's afoot here. Of course, it's impossible to determine what it is from AFP (not known for its investigative reporting). And nothing turned up about this decision... at least from my search... on the New York Times site. But allow me to raise at least one eyebrow. Why did this happen in the waning moments of 2003? This was the fourth and "largest" transfer from the UN to the US-controlled fund. Is it possible that certain members of the Security Council have suddenly become more "cooperative" with the money? Does somebody know something? The AFP article concludes: bq. "In the ensuing seven years, according to UN figures, the programme has generated oil revenues totaling $65 billion. Of that, $46 billion has been allocated to the food programme, with the rest going to compensate victims of the invasion of Kuwait and financing the costs of administration and arms inspections." bq. So $19 billion falls in the categories of Kuwaiti compensation and (various) administrative costs. How much for each? And to whom was this cash distributed and how did it get there? What were the "fees" involved? It's time for the United Nations to fess up in detail. Until their books are transparent, we American taxpayers have more than a little right to protest (and to withhold our money). Interesting stuff. The entire program is completely proprietary with zero open accounting. As we know from the coalition invasion last year, there were warehouses of food and medical supplies all over Iraq specifically for Baath party member use, not for use by the citizens of Iraq as mandated by the Oil for Food program. Another sterling example of why the U.N. is no longer relevant and needs to be overhauled or disbanded. Posted by DaveH at January 2, 2004 12:07 PM