The School of Law held a panel discussion Friday afternoon featuring members of the Independent Inquiry Committee that investigated the United Nations' oil-for-food scandal.
During the discussion, the three panel members-all of whom held prominent positions in the committee-said the oil-for-food scandal revealed corruption among the highest officials at the United Nations and the need for structural change at the organization.
The panel consisted of Paul Volcker, former chair of the Federal Reserve and head of the committee; Mark Califano, Law '88 and the committee's chief legal counsel; and Jeffrey Meyer, the committee's senior counsel. The event was sponsored by Duke's Center for International Comparative Law.
The oil-for-food program was a humanitarian effort by the United Nations to alleviate the suffering of Iraq caused by pre-Gulf War sanctions. The sanctions particularly affected oil, Iraq's primary export.
"Over time, there was increasing concern and evidence that whatever restraint that [sanctions were] placing on the Iraqi government and Saddam Hussein, there was a considerable risk to the general population of Iraq-that nutritional standards were declining, medical standards were impaired," Volcker said. "It was approaching crisis."
Allegations of corruption involving the program arose, however, and in April 2004, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan launched an investigation.
Volcker explained that although the program had promise, and did improve nutrition in Iraq, top officials abused the situation for financial gain.
"The operation was a success, but the patient died," he said. "The U.N. has not died, but it has exposed grievous weakness in the administrative capacity and the political capacity."
Volcker said those weaknesses were corruption within the U.N. Security Council and its failure to enforce either the sanctions or the program.
He added that the U.N. Secretariat was also saddled with outright corruption and a lack of disciplinary power. Finally, he blamed the nine different U.N. agencies involved in the process for their lack of cooperation.
The investigation's findings also found errors in the core of the program itself.
"[Iraq] chose from the outset to favor its friends with the award of contracts," Meyer said. "Most particularly, those countries on the Security Council."
Iraq also "blacklisted" those who wanted to enforce the sanctions. After these allegations gained media attention, members of the Security Council who benefited from the corruption-most notably Russia, France and China-caused a stalemate with those attempting to address the issues, Meyer said.
A number of businesses have also been charged with corrupt transactions, including Shell Company and Swiss firm Cotecna.
"There were 4,500 [companies] that in one way or another were participants," Volcker said.
Hired by the U.N. in 1998 to monitor the oil-for-food transactions, Cotecna was involved in bribes and smuggling, Meyer said. Tied to Kofi Annan's son, Kojo Annan, the company made $6 million in profit in its first year and Kojo Annan benefited similarly. No evidence was found to connect Kofi Annan to the scandal, Meyer added.
Nevertheless, Volcker said the investigation revealed a strong need for structural change at the U.N.
"It's a very protected system, which is going to have to change, too, because it's part of the culture of the place," he said.
Califano and Meyer also mentioned their book, "Good Intentions Corrupted: The Oil-for-Food Scandal and the Threat to the U.N.," which condensed more than 2,500 pages of papers from the investigation.
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