UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council and Secretary-General Kofi Annan will both face sharp criticism for allowing corruption and waste to overwhelm the Iraq oil-for-food program, according to a probe of the $64 billion operation.
The Independent Inquiry Committee's definitive report, to be released Wednesday, will fault U.N. management for allowing Saddam Hussein to manipulate the program.
The committee, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, calls for widespread reform to take on such tasks in the future. It questions whether the United Nations is even capable of running such massive operations.
"Neither the Security Council nor the Secretariat leadership was clearly in command," the preface to the report said. "When things went awry — and they surely did — when troublesome conflicts arose between political objectives and administrative effectiveness, decisions were delayed, bungled or simply shunned."
The preface called for four central reforms, including the creation of a chief operating officer at the United Nations. The U.N. General Assembly should demand that the changes go into force no later than a year from now, the preface said. |