 NEW YORK (AP) - Internal audits conducted by the United Nations of its oil-for-food program revealed lapses in U.N. oversight that allowed contractors to overcharge by hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to copies obtained by The Associated Press. Two of the audits examined irregularities including overcharging by two companies who were hired to monitor oil sales and the import of humanitarian goods under the program. Another detailed financial mismanagement by a U.N. agency administering humanitarian aid under the program. An independent panel led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who was appointed in April by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to investigate corruption at the oil-for-food program, was set to release 400 pages of the audits on Monday. But the panel distributed the documents to congressional investigators two days early. A congressional aide provided the AP with copies of three of the 56 audits, including one that found that the United Nations was billed over several years for 31 days of work in June, which only has 30 days.
The series of audits, which were carried out from 1996 to 2003 by the U.N watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, have been a source of contention between the United Nations and members of Congress examining allegations of corruption in the program. The United Nations had refused to release them while Volcker's panel conducts its investigation, although the world body passed a resolution in December making OIOS reports available to member states who request them. Though the audits illustrate negligent U.N. management of contracts, a U.N. spokesman said that they also show that the United Nations was monitoring itself during the course of the oil-for-food program. ``These audits do show that this was a program that was highly audited with a great level of oversight by the U.N.,'' spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Saturday.
| They just never did anything about it. |
In an interview with The New York Times published Friday, Volcker downplayed the importance of the audits. ``There's no flaming red flags in this stuff,'' he said.
| "compared to the usual UN spending," he added. |
But investigators from two congressional panels also looking into corruption at the program disagreed. ``What these reports show is a real lack of U.N. oversight and coordination of the Oil-for-Food program,'' a spokesman for the House International Relations Committee said on condition of anonymity. |