Kofi: Oil-for-Food a Success 

With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff
Sunday, Jan. 2, 2005
Newsmax
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/1/2/134443.shtml

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan contended on Sunday that the Oil-for-Food program was a significant success – even though investigators now say the scandal-plagued U.N. operation will go down in history as the biggest financial scam of all time.

It was a unique scheme, Annan told ABC's This Week. Yes, there may have been some corruption. There may have been some mismanagement. But the program achieved its results. Though Saddam Hussein is reported to have siphoned off at least $23 billion in relief money that was supposed to go to the people of Iraq while U.N. sanctions were in place, Annan called the operation he oversaw effective. 
The sanctions were effective. Iraq was disarmed. Iraq is well-fed, the U.N. chief claimed. In fact, the distribution system was so effective that today we use the distribution cards as the basis for voter registration for the elections. 
Annan said allegations of some wrongdoing are being looked into, but quickly reiterated, We should not forget that [Oil-for-Food] achieved its results. 
The top diplomat insisted there was no reason to worry that the U.N. would similarly mismanage the billions of dollars in tsunami relief aid that's currently being funneled through the world body. 
We've run many operations without these kinds of accusations, he told This Week. And I think we're going to be able to run this one in the same effective manner.