3 February 2005 – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today received an interim report from the independent panel he appointed last year to probe alleged mismanagement and misconduct in the multi-billion dollar Oil-for-Food programme which the world body administered to bring food and medicines to sanctions-bound Iraq.
Former United States Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, chairman of the three-member Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC), presented the voluminous document on the largest UN-run relief effort ever to Mr. Annan in the Secretary-General's 38th floor office at UN Headquarters in New York.
Mr. Volcker was expected to give a news conference on his findings later today, to be followed by reaction from senior UN officials to the report, which fills more than 200 pages.
Mr. Annan's spokesman said the Secretary-General has already made clear he would fix anything that needed to be fixed and would lift the immunity of any officials against whom there were criminal charges.
"He will study the report's findings very carefully," Fred Eckhard said in response to a question at the daily briefing. "If there are things that can be fixed in the way the United Nations does business, he will fix those things.
"If there are individuals against whom there are criminal accusations he would waive the immunity of those people and he would cooperate with the prosecution as they seek to defend themselves before whatever judicial authorities have jurisdiction and decide to prosecute," he added.
Yesterday Mr. Annan told reporters the UN was already taking action to improve the organization's procedures. "We will study [the report] and implement its recommendations," he said. "We ourselves are taking measures to strengthen some of our management practices and we will be making some announcements and taking some concrete action very soon."
The Oil-for-Food programme, begun in 1996, used Iraqi oil revenues to purchase and manage $46 billion worth of humanitarian assistance, supplies and projects while the country was under strict sanctions over its 1990 invasion and occupation of Kuwait and attempts to produce weapons of mass destruction.
It served as the sole source of sustenance for 60 per cent of Iraq's estimated 27 million people but became obsolete after resolution 1483 of May 2003 lifted the sanctions following the US-led invasion of the country.
When it finally wound down in November 2003, Mr. Annan hailed it as "unprecedented" and "one of the largest, most complex and most unusual tasks" ever entrusted to the Secretariat - "the only humanitarian programme ever to have been funded entirely from resources belonging to the nation it was designed to help."
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