UNSCAM Update
Two stories for you today. This one from the New York Post:It looks like the investigation into the U.N. Oil for Food program — one of the biggest corruption scams in his tory — is being hindered by Paul Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority.And this one from UNSCAM super reporter Claudia Rosett of the Wall Street Journal:
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But chief adminstrator Bremer has now hired another accounting firm, Ernst & Young, to conduct an investigation, and is refusing to release funds needed to pay KPMG's fees.
This means that Ernst & Young will be duplicating work begun three months ago by KPMG, which is not only equally reputable but has already made progress in locating critical documents in Iraq.
Members of the governing council suspect that Bremer's motive is to protect the U.N. from adverse publicity in the run-up to the June 30 "handover of sovereignty."
Of course, it's no secret that powerful elements in the State Department have actively opposed efforts to investigate the U.N. Oil for Food scandal.
In the scandal over the U.N. Oil-for-Food program in Iraq, Kofi Annan's main line of defense has been that he didn't know. Perhaps he should take a closer look at internal U.N. Oil-for-Food audit reports, more than 50 in all, produced by his own Office of Internal Oversight Services--the same reports he's declined to share with the Security Council, or release to Congress.
One of these reports has now leaked. It concerns the U.N. Secretariat's mishandling of the hiring of inspectors to authenticate the contents of relief shipments into sanctions-bound Iraq.
Reflecting the findings of a U.N. internal audit conducted during the sixth year of the seven-year Oil-for-Food program, the report focuses on one contractor hired directly by the U.N. Secretariat: Swiss-based Cotecna Inspection SA. This is the same company that, while bidding against several rivals for its initial Oil-for-Food contract in 1998, had Mr. Annan's son, Kojo, on its payroll as a consultant. Both Mr. Annan and Cotecna's CEO, Robert Massey, have insisted that the contract was strictly in accordance with U.N. rules.
Although this report doesn't mention Kojo, it does go on for 20 pages about inadequacies and violations in the U.N.'s handling of the Cotecna contract. The report explains that "the Contract had been amended prior to its commencement, which was inappropriate" and recounts that within four days of Cotecna signing its initial lowball contract for $4.87 million, both Oil-for-Food and the U.N. Procurement Division had authorized "additional costs" totaling $356,000 worth of equipment.
Matt's Chat
I'm not surprised Bremer would be dragging his feet at this point, there is an awful lot of pressure to get the UN into Iraq (for some reason - personally, I think the UN was criminally negligent in their handling of Iraq previously and their track record in this sort of operation isn't very good either) and we all know that the State Department lifers love the United Nations.Was Kofi's son key to his company getting the contract? Did Kofi and/or his son profit from the deal? Why does Kofi get to decide what we get to see? Shouldn't Kofi recuse himself from such decisions due to the appearance of impropriety? Is Kofi himself guilty of something? The questions keep mounting and the left keep pushing for an important role for the UN in everything that we do.
