Oil-for-food report rattles reputations 

By Jim Heintz 
October 30, 2005 
Chicago Sun-Times
Original Source: http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-oil30.html

MOSCOW -- A scathing report on corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq drew widespread denials, terse dismissals and protestations of innocence Friday. But there were also pledges to investigate from some of the 2,200 companies cited and countries with citizens named. 
Russian officials angrily alleged that documents accusing companies and officials were fake, and the head of the nation's electricity monopoly called for the report's writers to be punished. In a rare partial admission, Sweden's Volvo AB acknowledged making payments through an agent to Iraqi authorities but said it did not consider that bribery. 
The United Nations report, issued Thursday, rattled reputations around the world with charges of kickbacks in lucrative contracts in the 1996-2003 program, under which Iraq was allowed to sell oil provided the proceeds went to buying humanitarian goods. 
Saddam Hussein, who could choose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of humanitarian goods, corrupted the program by awarding contracts to -- and getting kickbacks from -- favored buyers, the report said. Countries such as Russia that opposed sanctions got preferential treatment from Saddam's regime, the report said. 
Among those implicated was former Kremlin chief of staff Alexander Voloshin. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in remarks reported by domestic news agencies, said some documents cited by the commission used forged signatures. 
In Sweden, Volvo AB, whose Brussels-based construction division was among the companies named in the report, acknowledged the company made payments through an agent to Iraqi authorities. 
''We did business with an authority in Iraq. The same authority tells our agent that you have to pay a fee to do any business at all,'' chief executive Leif Johansson was quoted as telling the Swedish news agency TT. ''No one linked that to bribes.'' 
Volvo AB no longer owns carmaker Volvo, which was sold in 1999 to the Ford Motor Co. 
AP