UN chief awaits fraud report

[emad]

Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor
Thursday February 3, 2005
The Guardian

The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, is braced today for the publication of an interim report on the alleged mismanagement of the $64bn oil-for-food programme for Iraq.

An inquiry, set up by Mr Annan and headed by the former US federal reserve chairman Paul Volcker, is investigating claims of fraud and corruption by UN officials.

Mark Malloch Brown, Mr Annan's new chief of staff, said this week that he expected Mr Volker to land "some very heavy blows".

Another UN official admitted that the organisation was preparing itself for "a bad day" and said the initial expectation had been that Mr Volcker's interim report would be confined to flaws in the management system, but the UN now expected him to go further and "name names".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1404368,00.html