Fox guarding the hen house

By Don W. Plezia
1/20/2009
Hernando Today
Original Source: http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2010/jan/20/ha-fox-guarding-the-hen-house/
Why is the United Nations being mentioned as an overseer for the collection of donations for the relief of Haiti? And why has Bill Clinton been named as an overseer of the Haitian donations?
The Oil-for-Food Programme, established by the U.N. in 1995 (under U.N. Security Council Resolution 986) and terminated in late 2003, was established with the stated intent to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine and other humanitarian needs for ordinary Iraqi citizens without allowing Iraq to rebuild its military.
The program was introduced by U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration in 1995, as a response to arguments that ordinary Iraqi citizens were inordinately affected by the international economic sanctions aimed at the demilitarization of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, imposed in the wake of the first Gulf War.
The Oil-for-Food Programme was started to relieve the extended suffering of civilians as the result of the comprehensive sanctions on Iraq from the U.N., following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.
In addition to criticism of the basic approach, the program suffered from widespread corruption and abuse. Throughout its existence, the program was dogged by accusations that some of its profits were unlawfully diverted to the government of Iraq and to U.N. officials. These accusations were made in many countries, including the U.S. and Norway.
It is estimated as much as $10 billion to $21.3 billion went unaccounted for and/or was directed to Saddam Hussein and his government in the form of kickbacks and oil smuggling. Record keeping of illegal behavior is hard to come by and rare at best. To date, only one of 54 internal U.N. audits of the Oil-for-Food Programme have been made public. The U.N. has refused all requests for its audits.
On Jan. 6, 2006, South Korean businessman Tongsun Park was arrested by the FBI in Houston after he was indicted for illegally accepting millions of dollars from Iraq in the U.N. food program. The criminal charges against him were unsealed in a U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
On Jan. 16, 2007, Benon Sevan was indicted by a Manhattan federal prosecutor for taking about $160,000 in bribes. Michael J. Garcia, the U.S. attorney from the Southern District of New York, issued a warrant through Interpol for the arrest of Sevan at his home in Cyprus, as well as a warrant for Efraim Fred Nadler, a New York businessman who was indicted on charges of channeling the illegal payments to Sevan. Nadler's whereabouts are unknown.
In October 2005 it was reported he had fled the U.S. and returned to his native Cyprus. The extradition treaty between the U.S. and Cyprus does not require Cyprus to send Sevan to the U.S.
A U.N. committee found insufficient evidence to indict Kofi Annan on any illegal actions, but did find fault with Sevan, the Cypriot national who had worked for the U.N. for about 40 years. Appointed to his oil-for-food role by Kofi Annan, Sevan repeatedly asked Iraqis for allocations of oil to the African Middle East Petroleum Company. Sevan's behavior was ethically improper.
Sevan for his part, has repeatedly denied the charges and argues that he is being made a scapegoat. The Volcker committee's report was also highly critical of the U.N. management structure and the Security Council oversight and strongly recommended a new position of chief operating officer to handle the fiscal and administrative responsibilities, which currently fall to the Secretary General's office.
The head of the committee, former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, said the priority would be to deal with allegations of corruption within the U.N. itself. The report listed the companies, both Western and Middle Eastern, who illegally benefited from the program.
In view of the information above I wonder why anyone is recommending the U.N. to handle the Haitian contributions. Much less let Bill Clinton lead the effort.