Good Intentions Corrupted

The Oil for Food Scandal and the Threat to the UN

Contributors

By Paul A Volcker

By Mark Califano

By JEFFREY MEYER

On Sale
Aug 29, 2006
Page Count
320 pages
Publisher
PublicAffairs
ISBN-13
9781586484729

Despite its good intentions, mismanagement and corruption plagued the UN’s Oil-for-Food Program:
More than 2,200 companies paid 1.8 billion in illegal surcharges and kickbacks to the Iraqi regime

The UN Security Council stood by as the Iraqi regime outright smuggled about 8.4 billion of oil during the Program years in violation of UN sanctions

The Iraqi regime steered oil contracts for political advantage by giving rights to buy oil to dozens of global political figures sympathetic to Iraq’s goal to loosen or overturn the UN sanctions

The Iraqi regime provided Benon Sevan, the UN’s chief administrator of the Program, with rights to buy more than 7 million barrels of oil UN-related humanitarian agencies collected tens of millions of dollars for costs they never incurred, and some built factories in Iraq that weren’t needed or that never worked at all.

Even UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was tainted by it But the whole story has never been told in one place.

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Paul A Volcker

About the Author

Paul A. Volcker worked in the United States Federal Government for almost thirty years, culminating in two terms as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1979-1987. Earlier he served as Undersecretary of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs and president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Since leaving the Federal Reserve Mr. Volcker continued his public service: as chairman of the Volcker Alliance; as head of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board; chair of the investigation of the UN’s Oil-for-Food program; and head of the committee formed by Swiss and Jewish organizations to investigate deposit accounts and other assets in Swiss banks of victims of Nazi persecution and to arrange for their disposition.

Educated at Princeton, Harvard, and the London School of Economics, Mr. Volcker was a recipient of honorary doctorates from each of his “alma maters,” as well as a number of other American and foreign universities.

Christine Harper has been a financial reporter and editor for more than two decades. She is the editor of Bloomberg Markets and previously was executive editor responsible for overseeing Bloomberg News‘s global coverage of financial companies.

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