By: N.Krishna
krishnaj@vsnl.net
June 25, 2004

The United Nations oil-for-food programme in Iraq is being investigated to name more than 200 people, including British and European politicians, senior UN officials and our Indian Congress Party, who collected the bribe from Saddam Hussein. The US General Accounting Office, estimated that Saddam acquired $10.1 billion in illegal revenues from oil which was used to fund many of the kickbacks most of which was earned under oil-for-food programme. UN received fee of well over $1 billion to administer the oil-for-food programme that was set up in 1995. This allowed the Iraqis to sell oil worth more than $US47 billion in return for food and other essential humanitarian supplies.

UN officials have revealed internal documents showing they knew of the problem of oil bribes as early as 2000. The full story came out only after the war, when Iraqi officials revealed that the 10 per cent kickback was applied to almost all supply contracts under the oil-for-food programme from the second half of 2000 The probe is being conducted by the accountants KPMG and the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer on behalf of the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC). The KPMG team previously traced assets seized by the Nazis during the Holocaust. The investigation into the scandal is being overseen by Claude Hankes Drielsma, a former chairman of the management committee of Price Waterhouse who is now advising the IGC.

KPMG is also investigating allegations that bribes were paid to UN staff and that food unfit for human consumption was traded for oil. The team is trawling through documents held in several Iraqi government departments, including the oil ministry in Baghdad. The documentation is said to have been meticulously kept, countersigned and often copied to several departments. Investigators are interviewing the Iraqi civil servants who apparently signed and compiled the documents to verify their authenticity. KPMG, and the IGC, are confident that the documentation is authentic and reliable. They are determined to name the people who were allegedly allocated oil. The investigation will trace what happened to the allocated oil, where and if it was sold, how much money was made and by whom. Freshfields, a leading international law firm, has been employed by the IGC to find ways to recover the bribes and profits improperly made from the oil sales. Documents indicate that Benon Sevan, director of the UN`s humanitarian programme in Iraq, was allocated 14.2m barrels of oil, of which 7.291m were disbursed. It is understood that the oil was sold through a Panama-based company run by distant relatives of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a former UN secretary-general.

Tens of billions of dollars were distributed improperly under the auspices of the aid programme. The publication of the report, will be by May 2004 and will identify publicly everybody who collected the bribe. Iraqi documents scrutinized by the investigators suggest that millions of barrels of oil were given as bribes for supporting Saddam and his regime. Those who are expected to be named in this oil bribe, include the head of the UN`s oil-for-food programme, Patrick Maugein, a French businessman who is said to be close to the president, Charles Pasqua, a former French minister, the Russian Communist party and the Russian Orthodox church, the PLO, an Asian president, many Middle East politicians, and even the Indian Congress party.

For the first time in the history of Independent India a national political party had sold itself to a foreign government so openly and so cheaply. What Sonia Gandhi`s congress party did in return for the 40 lakh barrels of oil bribe from Saddam Hussein? The Indian public has a right to know. With this enquiry Sonia Gandhi will be a wanted criminal. India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should investigate this criminal act that lowered the dignity of our nation and book all those congress politicians involved.

Portions of the List of Recipients of the Saddam Oil Vouchers is given below. All names on the list were transliterated from the Arabic. The oil vouchers holder would normally tender the voucher to any one of the specialized companies operating in the United Arab Emirates for a commission which ranged from $0.05 to $0.30 per barrel, based on the market price.

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N.Krishna

References:

Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 164 - The Saddam Oil Vouchers Affair
February 20, 2004 - By Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli
MEMRI - The Middle East Media Research Institute

'Massive scam' in Iraqi oil program
The Australian - 29 Mar 04