Testifying yesterday in front of a House subcommittee, a former UN monitor for the Oil-For-Food program testified that he saw numerous acts of corruption while working on it, and that as much as 25% of the funds intended on helping Iraqi citizens never reached them as a result. When he tried to call attention to the corruption, the UN rewarded him by firing him from his job:

A former United Nations monitor of the organization's oil-for-food program in Iraq told a congressional committee Thursday that the program had "gaping holes" and that large amounts of aid never reached the Iraqi people.

Rehan Mullick testified that by his estimate more than 20 percent of the shipments to Iraq, worth $1 billion a year, were not distributed properly, with many goods pilfered by the Iraqi military.

"A fourth or fifth of the supplies were not distributed," he said. ...

Mullick told the subcommittee that he repeatedly alerted U.N. officials of problems he observed but was rebuffed.

"Each suggestion resulted in my supervisors reducing my job responsibilities," Mullick said. "This continued to occur until my only job was to run the slide projector at staff meetings."

Mullick said he eventually submitted a 10-page report to U.N. headquarters in 2002 reporting that 22 percent of supplies imported under the program never reached Iraq's 27 million people.

"I heard nothing," Mullick said. "Finally I was contacted and told my contract was not being renewed."

The problem with OFF was never that upper UN management didn't know what happened to the funding. The problem was that they knew all too well where the money went: into their own pockets, and Saddam's as well. The last person they needed was one who kept pointing it out to them, apparently. This is how the UN handles aid money and management of humanitarian programs, which is the reason we should avoid using the UN to do this kind of work in the future.

The media appears aghast at the nomination of John Bolton as the new US ambassador to the UN, but the testimony of Dr. Mullick shows that a skeptic is precisely what this organization needs. The UN will not recover from its ethical and intellectual slide by having nothing but cheerleaders at Turtle Bay. UN executive management needs more accountability and a hell of a lot more skepticism from the entire membership. Since it's doubtful most of the rest of the globe will provide it, it is our duty to do so.

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A former UN monitor of the Oil-for-Food program testified to a House subcommittee that he reported numerous acts of corruption (as much as 25% of the funds were diverted) and was fired as a result. Captain Ed has more details. [Read More]

Tracked on March 18, 2005 7:30 PM

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