Annan Expects Blame Over Iraqi Oil Program

September 5, 2005
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq-un-probe.html

LONDON (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday he expected to face blame over the Iraqi oil-for-food program when investigators deliver a report this week, and wished the United Nations had never agreed to run it.
Annan told BBC World Service radio he believed chief investigator Paul Volcker would also criticize others involved in the corruption-tainted $64 billion program.
``I suspect that there will be lots of criticism myself as chief admin officer, probably something on the 661 committee, the Security Council, the government of Iraq,'' he said.
``When it comes to Iraq, on this issue no one is entirely covered in glory.''
The now defunct program was designed to ship humanitarian supplies into Iraq while allowing Baghdad to sell limited oil under U.N. economic sanctions.
It was run by the United Nations and overseen by a panel of Security Council member representatives, called the 661 committee after a resolution governing the sanctions.
Volcker, a former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman hired to investigate the program, is due to issue a report of more than 1,000 pages on Wednesday on the investigation's findings.
Among those expected to face criticism are Annan's son Kojo, accused of using his father's name for personal profit while working for a Swiss firm that won a lucrative contract to inspect goods.
Annan is expected to be cleared of improperly interfering in the contract on his son's behalf, although sources close to the investigation say he will be rebuked for failing to supervise the program properly.
Annan said he wished the U.N. had had nothing to do with the program.
``We have a whole range of activities, oil-for-food was an extra program we were asked to undertake. Honestly I wish we were never given that program, and I wish the U.N. would never be asked to take that kind of a program again,'' he said.
The oil-for-food program was designed to lessen the humanitarian impact on Iraqis of U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. It gave U.N. officials the power to oversee billions of dollars in trade every year.
The program ran from 1996 until U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003 and toppled President Saddam Hussein.