Oil for food probe hampered

2004-05-17 09:00

London - The US-led administration in Iraq and its chief administrator Paul Bremer are hampering a probe into alleged corruption concerning the UN oil for food programme which existed under the regime of ousted leader Saddam Hussein, the Daily Telegraph reported here on Monday.

"An investigation into the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the UN is being hampered by the US-led administration in Iraq" the paper reported, citing US Congressmen and officials in Baghdad.

"We have serious reservations about the way the investigation is being handled" Christopher Shays, a Republican member of Congress, was quoted as saying.

"The actual review of the records has been delayed for weeks. Some believe important documents are at risk of being altered or destroyed", he said in a letter to US President George W Bush this month.

Claude Hankes-Drielsma, consultant for the transitional Iraqi governing council accused Bremer of "putting the brakes" on the enquiry "after it became headline news".

Bremer and the US-led administration in Iraq have been criticised for appointing global consultants Ernst and Young last week to investigate the workings of the Saddam-era oil for food programme. Accounting firm KPMG were handed the same task by the Iraqi transitional government three months ago.

The programme, which ran from December 1996 until November 2003, supervised oil sales by Saddam Hussein's regime to pay for humanitarian supplies to offset international sanctions.

But a Baghdad newspaper in January published the names of more than 200 people it said had appeared on an Iraqi oil ministry list as having received payoffs from the regime.

Last month UN Secretary General Kofi was officially engaged to shed light on the accusations.

- AFP